The scorching sun bakes East Africa’s savannah to dust during the dry season, herds of foragers survive by trekking north for part of the year, finding the water and grazing they need elsewhere until it’s safe to return. However, only one sort of tree still stands in the middle of the barren lands of East Africa. Renowned as Africa’s tree of life, the baobab tree can provide water, food, shelter and relief from sickness. Contrasting with its massive trunk, its branches are thin and wispy, looking very much like a complicated root system. For this reason, the baobab is often called the upside-down tree. East Africans have found a use for every part of the baobab tree.
Traditional medicine makes extensive use of baobab leaves for the treatment of fever (malaria), as an anti-asthmatic, anti-histamine and to treat hypertension. East Africans often harvest older leaves to nourish livestock. After basking in the sun for 6 months, baobab’s green velvet-like coating transforms into a smooth, brown, coconut-like shell, and forms our nutritious ingredient of baobab. Baobab berries were initially enjoyed by African locals, but after discovering the amount of healthy vitamins and minerals packed into these delicious berries, it is being used in many products such as juices and jams. The baobab tree has six times as much vitamin C as oranges, twice as much calcium as milk, and plenty of B vitamins, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, and antioxidants. The fruit looks like little marshmallows with seeds stuffed into a papaya-shaped coconut and the flavor is described as both tart and sweet.
Due to such high demand of this fruit, the EU passed a law enabling the importation of the baobab acai in 2008, and National Geographic is reporting that the product exports from Africa have skyrocketed over the years after discovering not just the enlightening taste of baobab acai, but its high nutritional value. In Africa, the fruit has been harvested for centuries for its medicinal qualities. Not only is it considered a general cure-all tonic, but it’s also commonly used particularly to treat fevers, malaria, gastric problems, and vitamin C deficiency among other ailments. . Baobab can also help give you radiant, glowing skin as well as preventing wrinkles. Vitamin C provides collagen, a structural protein that is needed for your baby’s normal growth during pregnancy. It plays a vital role in structuring a baby’s body and supporting their developing organs. Vitamin C helps your body fight infections and protects cells from damage, helping to keep you healthy. Another key role that vitamin C plays during pregnancy is its ability to increase the absorption of iron – a vitamin that most pregnant women are deficient in. Iron is needed to help our bodies produce red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body and to the baby.
Baobab is considered to be one if the highest alkaline foods available. Eating highly alkaline foods helps to balance our body’s pH levels. But the most useful and profound significance of the baobab tree isn’t rooted in how tasty or nutritious it is, but rather in how much it’s helping impoverished African communities. It has developed an efficient workable system by which families are able to harvest the fruit and earn an income that can pay for healthcare, education and everyday necessities.