page_title: Balanites aegyptiaca
section_title: Food
hierarchical_section_title: Balanites aegyptiaca / Cultivation / Food
caption_attribution_description: English: Food, Pit, Perneb
context_page_description: Balanites aegyptiaca also Egyptian Balsam, is a species of tree, classified as a member of either the Zygophyllaceae or the Balanitaceae. This tree is native to much of Africa and parts of the Middle East.
  There are many common names for this plant. In English the fruit has been called desert date, soap berry tree or bush, Thron tree, Egyptian myrobalan, Egyptian balsam or Zachum oil tree; in Arabic it is known as lalob, hidjihi, inteishit, and heglig. In Jieng it is called Thou or thau, in Hausa it is called aduwa, in Tamasheq, the Tuareg language taboraq, in Fulani or Pulaar "Murtooki", in Swahili mchunju and in Amharic bedena.
context_section_description: Balanites aegyptiaca has been cultivated in Egypt for more than 4000 years, and stones placed in tombs as votive offerings have been found as far back as the Twelfth Dynasty. The tree was described in 1592 by Prospero Alpini under the name 'agihalid'. Linnaeus regarded it as a species of Ximenia, but Michel Adanson proposed the new genus of Agialid. The genus Balanites was founded in 1813 by Delile.
  The yellow, single-seeded fruit is edible, but bitter. Many parts of the plant are used as famine foods in Africa; the leaves are eaten raw or cooked, the oily seed is boiled to make it less bitter and eaten mixed with sorghum, and the flowers can be eaten.  The tree is considered valuable in arid regions because it produces fruit even in dry times. The fruit can be fermented for alcoholic beverages.
  The seed cake remaining after the oil is extracted is commonly used as animal fodder in Africa. The seeds of the Balanites aegyptiaca have molluscicide effect on Biomphalaria pfeifferi.
  Where the species coexist, African elephants consume the desert date.
caption: Fruits of Balanites aegyptiaca from Saqqara. Mastaba of Perneb, 5th dynasty of Egypt. MET.
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