Aegle marmelos

Botanical Name – Aegle marmelos

Common Name – Amritavah, bailvalyam, Bilvah, Bilvalvam, Hridyagandhah, Lakshmiphalah, Satyaphalah, (Sanskrit), Mahaka, Bilva, Bel, Bel-pattar, Bel-patti, Sirphal (Hindi) Bael (Marathi), Bilva (Kannada), Pathre (Malayalam), Bili (Gujrati)

IUCN Status– Near Threatened (2024)

Habit

• Medium deciduous tree
• Slow growing
  
  

Habitat

• Dry and moist deciduous forest
  
  

Distribution – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi

 Specific Properties

• Drought resistant
• It endures poor soils
• Good for land reforestation
  
  

Ecology

• Frugivorous birds and mammals feed on fruit specially Monkeys and Bears.
• Attract a lot of insects like beetles, bugs
• Larval food plant for Lime Swallowtail, Blue Mormon and Common Mormon butterflies
• Bael is an excellent bee-forage
  
  

Uses

• One of the most nutritious fruits of India, its therapeutic and medicinal properties have known since ages. All parts of tree are medicinal having anti-diarrhoeal, anti-microbial, antiviral, radioprotective, anticancer, chemo-preventive, antipyretic, ulcer healing, antigenotoxic, diuretic, antifertility, anti-inflammatory, anti-dysenteric, antidiabetic properties.
• Fruit is edible, has cooling effect, promotes digestion, is antiviral, brain and heart tonic, cures ulcer and is used to make juice, jam, dried powder.
• The pale yellowish wood is strong and hard and used to make pestles for oil mills, tool handles and for small-scale turnery
• The fruit, leaf and root-bark have proven tonic, antibiotic, digestive and anti-inflammatory properties and are used in the treatment of snakebite, dysentery and other diseases of the digestive system, heart, eye, skin and liver
• Fodder
  
  

Propagation

• Seeds