Medicinal plant details
Aegle marmelos(L.) Correa
(Bilva)
| Common name | Bilva |
| Habit | Tree |
| Habitat | Plain areas, forests, near roadsides |
| Parts used | Root |
Synonyms
| Sr. No. | Synonyms |
|---|---|
| 1 | Aegle marmelos var. mahurensis Zate |
| 2 | Belou marmelos (L.) A.Lyons |
| 3 | Bilacus marmelos Kuntze |
| 4 | Crateva marmelos L. |
| 5 | Crateva religiosa Ainslie |
| 6 | Feronia pellucida Roth |
Taxonomical information
| Kingdom | Viridiplantae |
| Phylum | Streptophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Sapindales |
| Family | Rutaceae |
| Genus | Aegle |
| Species | Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa |
Vernacular names
| Sanskrit | Sriphala |
| English | Bael root, Bengal quince |
| Hindi | Bel, Bela, Sriphal |
| Kannada | Bilva |
| Marathi | Baela, Bel |
| Malayalam | Koovalam |
| Bengali | Bela, Bilva |
| Tamil | Vilvam |
| Telugu | Maredu |
| Urdu | Bel |
Morphology
Slow growing medium sized tree with 25 to 30 feet tall. Bark: Brownish or grey in colour with shallow furrows. Leaves are trifoliate, sometimes 5-foliate and alternate. Glabrous when it is young. Flowers are greenish white and sweet scented. Fruits are 2-7 inch in diameter, outer shell is stony hard, inside which is waxy mass containing sweet aromatic pulp. Seeds which are small of nearly 1 cm in length, hard, oblong and flat
Distribution
Native it is found in all states of India like Himachal Pradesh, Andra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Globally it is cultivated in Nepal, Myanmar, Ceylon, Vietnam, Tibet, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Laos, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Java, Fiji and Philippine islands
Medicinal uses
Treating chronic diarrhea, dysentery, brain tonic, mental disorders, urogenital disorders, eye diseases, diabetes, fever and heart disorders
References
| 1 | Bhar, K., Mondal, S., and Suresh, P. (2019). An eye-catching review of Aegle marmelos L.(Golden Apple). Pharmacognosy Journal, 11(2). |
| 2 | Vattakaven, T., George, R. M., Balasubramanian, D., Rejou-Mechain, M., Muthusankar, G., Ramesh, B. R., and Prabhakar, R. (2016). India Biodiversity Portal: An integrated, interactive and participatory biodiversity informatics platform. Biodiversity Data Journal, 4, e10279. |