Carob tree
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Carob tree ( Ceratonia siliqua ) |
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The carob tree or in Austria Bockshörndlbaum ( Ceratonia siliqua ), also Karubenbaum or Karobbaum called, is a species of the subfamily of caesalpinioideae (Caesalpinioideae) within the family of legumes (Fabaceae). This species occurs in the Mediterranean and Western Asia .
description
Appearance and leaf
The carob tree is an extremely heat and drought-resistant, evergreen tree that reaches heights of growth of 10 to 20 meters. The trunk is strong and the branches are spread, giving it a sweeping, hemispherical crown . The brown to gray bark is relatively smooth to rough and more or less cracked to slightly scaly with age.
The alternately arranged leaves are 10 to 20 centimeters long and divided into petiole and leaf blade. The mostly paired but also unpaired pinnate leaf blades have two to five pairs of mostly opposite leaflets . The leathery, entire-margined and very short-stalked leaflets are 3 to 7 centimeters long, ovate to obovate or elliptical to rounded, with partly indented, blunt to rounded upper end. The upper side of the leaf is glossy dark green and glabrous, the central vein is light green. The underside of the leaf is light green, the leaf margins are often slightly wavy.
Inflorescence and flower
About six years after germination, a specimen will flower for the first time. The flowering period extends from September to November. The inconspicuous flowers usually break out of the trunk, branches and twigs before the young leaves appear individually or in short to long racemose to catkin-shaped inflorescences ( cauliflora ). The carob tree is usually dioecious, separate sexes ( dioecious ), but also monoecious or trio and trimonocial. The inflorescences with green to mostly reddish rhachis contain unisexual male, female or hermaphrodite flowers. There can now be five different inflorescences, only with male flowers, either those with long or short stamens, only with female flowers, only with hermaphrodite flowers or polygamous with male, female and hermaphrodite flowers.
The approximately 6 to 12 millimeters large, short-stalked flowers are usually five-fold with a simple flower envelope . The flower stalks are mostly reddish and the flowers green-yellowish or -reddish, -orange. The five-toothed, somewhat hairy calyx is almost disc-shaped and greenish to reddish with very small teeth, the petals are missing. The flowers each have a conspicuous, pillow-shaped, mostly green to yellowish discus . The male flowers have an unpleasant smell and have five to seven long or short stamens and a rudimentary pistil . The female flowers have an upper, short-stalked and elongated, protruding and somewhat curved, whitish to greenish or slightly reddish ovary and short rudimentary staminodes ; the pistil is 6 to 8.5 millimeters long and has a sessile, rounded and bilobed scar . There are two carpels . The hermaphroditic flowers have five fertile stamens and a pistil as in the female flowers.
Fruit and seeds
The initially greenish and, when ripe, purple-brown, shiny and flattened legume (carob, also called carob) is 10 to 30 centimeters long, 1.5 to 3.5 centimeters wide and about 1 centimeter thick, straight or curved, with a beaded edge and leathery Bowl. It ripens just under a year after fertilization and can stay on the tree for months. Each legume contains 10 to 15 seeds that are separate in a sweet mesocarp .
The extremely hard, shiny and brown, smooth seeds are 8 to 10 millimeters long, 7 to 8 millimeters wide and 3 to 5 millimeters thick.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 24.
ecology
The treetop can shade a radius of 12 to 15 meters in diameter. Like most legumes , the root nodules of the carob tree enter into a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria ( rhizobium ) and thus contribute to the fertility of the soil.
The leathery leaves prevent stored water from evaporating quickly. Since the carob tree sheds many of the older, dry leaves and thereby reduces its evaporation surface, 350 to 550 mm of annual precipitation is sufficient for it .
Occurrence
The carob tree grows on calcareous soils (including sandy, water-permeable loam ) and tolerates a high salt content . The carob tree is very undemanding and grows and produces fruit in marginal locations without irrigation. Therefore it is ideally suited for organic cultivation. It prefers proximity to the coast and can be found up to 25 km inland on sea-side hills. Because it is sensitive to frost, it is rarely found at altitudes above 500 meters.
use
Use of the fruit (carob)
The pulp, the so-called "carob", is initially soft and aromatic-sweet, later becomes hard and has a long shelf life. The word comes from the Arabic "charrūb" ( Arabic خروب). In the past, the synonyms fenugreek and meat bread were also common. The month of September is the main harvest time, when, as in some places with the olive harvest, the branches are struck with sticks so that the ripe fruit bunches fall to the ground with a dark red, almost black color. The premature chopping of the fruits is necessary, as otherwise they would only fall overripe from the tree and would be very susceptible to rot due to the rapid absorption of moisture that often occurred in the meantime. The use of vibration machines is not possible because the trunk and branches are thick and therefore inflexible and prone to breakage. Even with manual knocking off, care must be taken not to damage the new flower roots. The cost of harvesting makes up about a third of the total cost of production.
The average yield over decades has been around 75 kg per tree. However, harvests of 100 to 200 or even 250 kg are not uncommon for particularly strong and isolated trees. One worker can harvest 250 to 280 kg of fruit in one day.
The nutritious legume is eaten fresh or dried in rural areas, pressed into juice (caftan), processed into syrup or fermented into alcoholic beverages. The caftan honey is obtained from the carob.
The pulp is also ground into carob powder, which is similar to cocoa powder but not as bitter. In order to obtain high-quality carob, because of the often bitter taste of the ends, only the middle parts of the legumes are roughly chopped, roasted and ground into carob flour.
The sugar content and the special fruity-caramel aroma of the powder are reminiscent of cocoa in taste. In contrast to this, carob powder is very low in fat and free of stimulating substances such as caffeine or theobromine . Well closed, it can be kept for several years. The sweet taste comes from the low molecular weight carbohydrates contained (single and double sugar). It also contains 35 to 45% high molecular weight carbohydrates (starch and fiber), around 5% protein, around 3.5% minerals and around 1% fat.
The high-fiber, low-fat powder contains vitamins A , B , calcium and iron , which makes it suitable as a dietary food and for children. However, this should not be overestimated, as one normally only consumes small amounts (spice).
The sugar pulp of the carob tree is rich in insoluble fiber and phytochemicals. Its consumption can contribute to a short-term lowering of blood fat levels in healthy people and at the same time stimulate fat burning .
Carob powder can replace cocoa powder in all functions. It is just as suitable for marble cakes as it is for mousse, pudding or mixed milk drinks. A nougat- like spread containing approx. 20% carob powder is mainly available in organic markets . Carob is mainly used as animal feed.
Use of the seeds (carubine)
As a food and food additive
It consists of about 30% peel, about 25% seeds and about 45% endosperm . The locust bean gum is white, sometimes light beige, and tasteless. It is a polysaccharide made up largely of galactose (20%) and mannose (80%). This multiple sugar can only be partially digested by the human body and is therefore considered to be dietary fiber . In addition to the polysaccharide, it also contains approx. 6% proteins as well as water-soluble plant pigments ( flavonoids ) and traces of minerals. All in all, the properties largely correspond to those of guar gum , although the viscosity of the solutions is slightly lower at the same concentration. Carob gum can bind between 80 and 100 times its own weight in water (five times as swellable as starch), stabilizes emulsions and prevents crystal formation. It also shows synergies with xanthan , carrageenan and agar .
The kernels provide a technically used thickening agent , carubin or locust bean gum , carob or carub flour . For this purpose, the endosperm is separated and the seeds are ground.
Under the number E 410 it is unrestrictedly approved in the EU (also for organic products ) as a food additive. It is widely used in confectionery, sauces, soups, puddings and ice cream. For dietary purposes, locust bean gum is used as a baking aid in gluten-free bread. Acute nutritional disorders, indigestion, diarrhea , vomiting, colitis and celiac disease are areas of application for diet products made from seed meal. In addition, high cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, and obesity may be treated with locust bean gum.
A substance isolated from the core has been shown to lower both blood sugar and cholesterol levels and has a weight-reducing effect. Locust bean gum has a slight laxative effect in the event of an overdose and its swelling capacity increases the intestinal contents . It slightly hinders protein digestion and can cause allergies in individual cases .
As a unit of weight
Since the seeds of the carob tree have a constant average weight of around 200 milligrams (the weight of the individual seeds varies just as much in the carob tree as in many other tree species!), But above all because they also have very small differences in weight of only 5 percent between individual ones Have seeds estimated with astonishing accuracy (> 70% hit rate), they were used in antiquity as a weighing unit for diamonds . The term carat , which is still used today, is a reminder of this . The carat is a loan word from the French le carat , which has its origin in the Italian carato . This originated from the Arabic Qīrāt from the Greek kerátion ("croissant", since the fruit pod of the carob tree is crooked). The scientific name Ceratonia siliqua for the carob tree is derived from this. The Arabic weight unit of the charrūba is based on the seed of the carob tree.
Use of the wood
The carob tree has dimensionally stable, non-shrinking, hard wood with a rustic, colored pattern. It is resistant to rotting in the air and in the ground and is therefore suitable for the production of fences, parquet and doors. Because of its hardness and breaking strength, it can be used to make tool handles and walking sticks . It is also used to make slow-burning charcoal .
Economical meaning
The world production volume of the carob fruit was 144,961 tons in 2018. The three largest producers were Portugal (29%), Italy (25%) and Morocco (15%), followed by Turkey and Greece . Smaller quantities are produced in Cyprus, Algeria, Spain and Lebanon.
The main customers are the food industry (baby food, ice cream, sauces, cheese, diabetic products , lemonade), the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries ( tabletting aids ) and, more recently, organic and natural product manufacturers.
The fruits of the carob tree are used in Portugal to produce liqueur with 18% and schnapps with 54% alcohol . Cóctel de Algarrobina is a Peruvian cocktail made from the Algarrobina extract of carob fruits , milk, pisco , egg yolk, sugar and cinnamon.
history
It is believed that the wild form of Ceratonia siliqua originated in Arabia and dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. In Egypt for the first time. This theory is supported by accounts of Thutmose II and Ramses III. who use the wood of the carub tree as a building material. In addition, the textile strips used in the mummification of the dead are said to have been provided with the extract of the fruit of the tree. The Romans brought the tree in the last century BC. To Greece and Italy (see Columella : Tractatus de Arboribus), from where the Arabs continued the spread to the east and south of Spain and along the North African coast. As in Egypt, the charrūba was used as the size of the grain of the carob tree.
The biblical parable of the prodigal son speaks of pods that were used as fodder and in all likelihood means the fruits of this tree.
After Ceratonia siliqua had arrived in the south-east of France and Portugal's Algarve , emigrants began to spread by sea in the 19th century . So it came to Australia in 1850 and to the USA in 1854. Spanish emigrants brought the plant to Mexico , Argentina , Chile and Peru . While the British tried their luck with it in India , the main growing area is still between the 30th and 45th degrees north in the subtropics .
Carob flour has been used as a substitute for cocoa and for the production of alcohol and other sugary products since the 19th century . In the 20th century, industrial processing of the fruit began as a coffee substitute and animal feed .
Surname
There are two legends surrounding the origin of the German name carob: on the one hand, the Order of St. John is said to have been involved in the spread of the carob tree, and on the other, John the Baptist is said to have nourished himself on the fruits and seeds during his stay in the desert . Reference is made to Matthew 3: 4: “John wore a robe made of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist; Locusts and wild honey were his food. ”( Mt 3, 4 EU ), whereby it is assumed that“ wild honey ”is a product made from the fruits of the carob tree. Another interpretation is that a typo led to the term locusts . This is supported by the fact that the Hebrew terms for locusts ( חגבים= hagavim ) and carob trees (חרובים= haruvim ) are very similar.
The other German-language trivial names exist for the carob tree : Johansbrodbaum ( Middle High German ), Judasboom (Middle High German), Sodbrod, Soodbrod and Soodschote.
meaning
Its conservation and planting is desirable for ecological reasons, because carob trees protect the soil, provide fodder and habitat for animals and preserve the character of the landscape and traditional jobs.
In the cities of Arizona and California in the United States, as well as in some areas of Australia, it is used as an ornamental tree and shade provider.
Fruit growers appreciate the deep roots of the carob trees because they protect plantations from storm damage. When reforesting coastal areas that are threatened by erosion or desiccation, the carob tree does a good job thanks to its frugality and even makes a profit.
swell
- Ceratonia siliqua at Tropicos.org. In: Flora of Pakistan . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
- Encyclopedia of Stanford Trees, Shrubs, and Vines at Stanford University (English).
- Information on the species (PDF) on worldagroforestry.org (English).
- Manfred A. Fischer , Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol. 3rd improved edition, Province of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 .
- Ingrid Schönfelder, Peter Schönfelder : The new manual of medicinal plants. Special edition, Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-440-12932-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ceratonia siliqua at Tropicos.org. In: Flora of Pakistan . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
- ^ I. Batlle, J. Tous: Carob tree. Ceratonia siliqua L. Promoting the conservation and use of underutilized and neglected crops. 1997, 17th Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPGRI), Gatersleben / International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy, ISBN 92-9043-328-X , online (PDF; 1.3 MB).
- ↑ W. Blaschek, W. Hansel u. a .: Hager's Handbook of Pharmaceutical Practice. Volume 2: Drugs A – K , 5th edition, Springer, 1998, ISBN 978-3-642-63794-0 , pp. 323-327.
- ↑ Ceratonia siliqua L. , “Morphological description” on haselberg.de.
- ↑ male flowers ( memento from September 13, 2004 in the Internet Archive ), male inflorescence ( memento from February 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Ceratonia siliqua at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
- ↑ Ingredients of carob fruit pulp (carob) lower blood lipid levels in the short term and stimulate fat burning. In: press release. German Institute for Human Nutrition, accessed on October 3, 2014 .
- ↑ myth of the original Karats refuted at Information Service Science, 4th May, 2006.
- ↑ Crops> Carobs. In: Official FAO production statistics for 2018. fao.org, accessed on February 29, 2020 .
- ↑ Michael Zohary: Plants of the Bible. 3rd edition, Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 978-3-7668-0724-3 .
- ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, p. 88 ( archive.org ).
Web links
- Ceratonia siliqua from Useful Temperate Plants, accessed February 27, 2018.
- Why the carob seeds became the carat on Wissenschaft.de.
- Ceratonia siliqua in the useful plants database of the University of Marburg.
- Karubenbaum Song a 28 song titles on double album tree songs of Roland Zoss .
