Wood Apple is an ancient indian fruit with great medicinal values for health benefits. For those who prefers natural medication for curing diseases, this wood apple proves to be single choice for many diseases. Even if you are looking for something tasty which have some medicinal effect and rejuvenate your health systems with some vitamins, minerals and other healthy nutrients then it is for sure that wood apple would turn to be a jackpot as it would provide you more reason than only the good taste to go crazy for it.

Possibly if you don’t have heard about wood apple don’t have to put much stress to your brain, may be you have heard it with different name bael, bel, elephant apple or monkey fruit or other dialectal name. Bel or bael or wood apple is basically a herb having the botanical name Limonia acidissima.

A brief description about wood apple or bael.

Wood apple are spherical shaped fruit having hard pericarp that must be cracked before eating the aromatic pulp inside, which is a sticky matter. The fruits when gets ripe is used as very refreshing aromatic juice with medicinal value for health benefits. The sticky pulp is acidic in nature with lots of tiny hard seeds. The wood apple tree is spiny with small white or reddish colour flower and aromatic leaves. The bael leaves also bears huge medicinal importance.

Ingredients of wood apple and its leaves.

The inner aromatic pulp of bael (wood apple) is rich in few acidic content like oxalic, malic, citric and concentrated tannic acid still the pulp tastes a special sensation of sweet and acidic with refreshing aroma. In terms of nourishing properties the wood apple or bael is very rich in its contents. Per 100 grams of bael has 64.2% of moisture content along with 7.1% of protein, 3.7% minerals, 5.0% fibre and 18.1% carbohydrate. The bael is also rich in its mineral and vitamin contents which includes thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin along with iron, calcium, phosphorus and carotene. This is not all, the bael leaves is also rich in essential oil.

Health benefits of wood apple or bael

The bel or wood apple is basically a herb with native to India. But due to its immense health benefits and medicinal values, this is cultured to some parts of South Asia like Srilanka, Thailand etc. The tannin presents in wood apple along with several other ingredients contributes to its health and medicinal values. The various health benefits of wood apple are as mentioned below.

• Wood apple is home remedy for digestive problems : Eating wood apple promotes digestion. People suffering from digestive problems. Bael serves as good home remedy for those who are suffering from chronic diarrhea. Regular consumption of wood apple juice helps in the eradication of intestinal worm.
• Ulcers :Those who are suffering from peptic ulcers or piles are also being benefitted by wood apple. Consuming fresh extract of wood apple regularly will help instantaneous pain relief and speed up the process of ulcer healing.
• Dysentery : Wood apple is found to be good home remedy for dysentery problems. 2 teaspoon of dried wood apple powder stirred in a glass of luke warm water and consumed twice daily for 15 continuous days will help you to get the result.
• Constipation problems : A lots of people are mostly reported to suffer from constipation. The bael juice is highly recommended for them as its laxative property helps to get relief from this problem.
• inflammation problem : Those who are suffering from inflammation in urinary track or peptic ulcers can be benefitted by drinking water with bael leaves soaked in and left over night. The bael leaves are rich in tannin contents which helps reducing the inflammation and healing ulcers.
• Blood purifier : Bael juice also serves as blood purifier. Bael juice mixed with warm water, sugar serve as blood purifier.
• Prevents Scurvy : Bael or wood apple is anti-scurvy, a disease condition which is caused due to deficiency of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). As bael is rich in Vitamin C, so it prevents you from Scurvy.
• Kidney health : Consuming 100 gms. of wood apple daily helps to restore kidney to good health. Bael is also found as natural home remedy to get rid of kidney stones. Bael pulp also prevents fatigue and augment energy level due to its ample calorie supply to body.
• Eye care : Wood apple is rich in carotene which is considered as imperative nutrients for maintaining optimum eye health. So, ophthalmologists often recommend patients with various types of eye problems to include bael in their regular diet.
• Respiratory problems : Wood apple helps people to prevent or get rid of repeated colds and cold related respiratory diseases and it also helps in curing or relieving from chronic cough.
• Energy booster : As wood apple is rich in calorie along with several healthy ingredients, it augments our body energy level. 100 gms. of bael pulp contains 140 calories and thus serves as energy booster.
• Curing Snake bite : Ayurveda has revealed the secret of treating snake bite using that every part of wood apple.
• Treating hiccups : Wood apple is also used in treating hiccups with the help of a special kind of preparation in the form of chutney or sharbat using salt and tamarind.
• Biliousness treatment : The bark of wood apple in the form of powder or decoction is used to treat biliousness. The juice from bael leaves is applied to the skin eruption caused due to biliousness.
• Skin problems : Wood apple juice is also used to treat several skin problems.

Precautions : Thus considering the immense medicinal values of wood apple, we should try to give a place to bael in our daily food habit. But due to its medicinal properties and high calorie content, it can also cause problems if consumed in excess. Over consuming bael fruit or wood apple in the form of juice can cause gastric problems and can cause flatulence in abdomen. So, it should be taken within limit.

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