More on the Baobab Tree and Fruit

The baobab tree is an unusual tree found in Africa.  Perhaps the next big touted superfood, which is why it has peaked my interest.  From a healthy food perspective, baobab is a mainstay in the local African's diet, and has interesting medicinal purposes that people use it for in that part of the world (discussed further in this post).


Over generations, many names have been given to this mystical, HUGE tree.  In the desert, people can even stay inside the tree for shelter, at the base of the tree.  Adansonias trees can reach heights of 5 to 30 meters (16 to 98 ft) and have trunk diameters of 7 to 11 meters (23 to 36 ft).  20+ feet diameter for a trunk?!  The typical common name for this tree is baobab.  However, it also possesses other names including boab, boaboa, bottle tree, tree of life, upside-down tree, and monkey bread tree.  The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist and explorer who described A. digitata.

In terms of medicinal purposes, the ancient Egyptians used it for treating fevers, dysentery and bloody wounds. For generations in Africa, Baobab is often given as a calming agent for those with a fever, but is also used to combat diarrhea, dysentery, small pox, and measles.  My friend who is from Togo says that her mom uses it as part of the post pregnancy recovery diet.  The baobab, like many other cultural traditional medicines, have been 'tested' by humans for 1000s of years.  No current day 'clincial' study can match that kind of dataset!

When talking about baobab fruit's nutrition, it seriously beats out most fruits that we eat in the US.  Baobab has 5x more potassium than bananas.  3x more antioxidants than blueberries.  Baobab is high in antioxidants, which slows oxidative damage and helps decrease inflammation.  It also has 2.5x more calcium than milk.  Baobab is super high in dietary fiber, especially pectins.  Half of the fruit is fiber. 

Source: Wikipedia, baobab.com