Names: Ximenia aegyptiaca.
English: Desert Date; Egyptian Balsam; Soap berry tree or bush; Thron tree; Egyptian myrobalan; Egyptian balsam; Zachum oil tree.
Arabic: Lalob; Hidjihi; Inteishit; Heglig; Hijlij.
Jieng: Thou; Thau.
Hausa: Aduwa.
Tamasheq: Taboraq.
Swahili: Mduguyu; Mchunju.
Amharic: Bedena.
Region: tropical Africa, drier areas except the far south, extending to Arabia.
Habitat: variety of habitats; best in low-lying, level alluvial sites with deep sandy loam; uninterrupted access to water; valley floors, riverbanks, foot of rocky slopes; arid and sub-arid tropics and subtropics; elevations up to 2,300 metres; dislikes humid climates; deep sands, sandy clay loams, sandy loams or clays; intolerant of shade after; withstands grass fire.
Culture: potential weed.
Content: steroidal sapogenins, diosgenin, yamogenin; saponins; seed contains up to 50% oil.
Use: multipurpose; edible fruit, dried or fresh, astringent taste, for drinks, sweetmeats, alcoholic liquor, soup ingredient; young leaves and tender shoots, boiled, pounded, fried or mixed with fat as a vegetable; flowers for food. ingredient of ‘dawa dawa’ flavouring; stems for a greenish-yellow to orange-red resin is sucked and chewed, for gluing sticking feathers onto arrow shafts, spearheads, repair of handle cracks, arrows; kernels produce an edible oil for cooking, scent and taste are acceptable; thorny tree for shelterbelts, fencing, hedging; seed oil for soap; bark for strong fibre; emulsion as poison for fish, freshwater snails, miracidia and cercaria stages of bilharzia; seeds for rosary beads, necklaces; wood for yokes, wooden spoons, pestles, mortars, handles, stools, combs, firewood for indoor use, high-quality charcoal; famine food; cooking oil; alcoholic beverages; seed cake after oil extraction as animal fodder.
BotanySlow growing, evergreen or semideciduous, multi-branched, spiny, thorny shrub or tree; spherical crown; 10 metres or more tall.
Stem: remarkably fluted bole; 30 cm in diameter; with long, straight, green spines, arranged spirally; wood is pale yellow or yellowish-brown, fine-grained, compact, hard, durable, easily worked; heartwood and sapwood are not clearly differentiated, no tendency towards surface checking or splitting, saws cleanly and easily, planes easily, easy to chisel, glues firmly, takes a clear varnish.
Inflorescence: bunches of a few flowers, sessile or short stalks, pedicel greyish, downy, usually less than 10 mm length.
Flowers: buds ovoid, covered in a short tomentose pubescence; greenish-yellow; hermaphroditic.
Corolla: petals 5, radial symmetry, 8–14 millimetres in diameter.
Fruit: ellipsoid; 4 cm long; green when not ripe, brown or pale brown when fully ripe; brittle coat; brown or brown-green sticky pulp; hard stone seed; food for African elephants; single-seeded; edible but bitter.