Tamarind tree
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Tamarind tree ( Tamarindus indica ) |
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| Tamarindus | ||||||||||||
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| Tamarindus indica | ||||||||||||
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The tamarind tree ( Tamarindus indica ), also called Indian date or sour date , is the only species of the plant genus Tamarindus in the subfamily of the carob family (Caesalpinioideae) within the legume family (Fabaceae or Leguminosae). It is widespread in Africa and adjacent areas and is grown in many areas.
Demarcation
In other regions of the world there are other trees that contain the term tamarind in their common names or species names. These include the Samttamarinden or tamarind plums ( Dialium guineense , Dialum indum , Dialium holtzii , Dialium orientale , aubrevillei Dialium and Dialium cochinchinense u. A.) Or the Wild Tamarind ( lysiloma latisiliquum ) and the Spanish tamarind ( Vangueria madagascariensis ) and the Manila tamarind ( Pithecellobium dulce ) , also the mountain acacia Brachystegia tamarindoides .
description
Vegetative characteristics
The tamarind tree grows as an evergreen , slow-growing tree with a dense crown that reaches heights of 30 meters. The trunk diameter can be up to 2 meters. The rough bark is gray to gray-black and flat-cracked. The bark of young twigs is hairy. With age it has smooth, brown-black branches.
The short-stalked, paired pinnate leaves are 5 to 12 (rarely up to 16) cm in length and contain 20 to 40 leaflets . These mostly hairless, egg-shaped or elongated to elliptical and entire-margined leaflets with rounded or blunt tips sit almost with the rounded base on the rachis . They are 12 to 30 mm long and 4 to 11 mm wide and are folded up at night ("sleeping position"), but do not respond to touch. The narrow, egg-shaped stipules on the leaf base fall off early.
Generative characteristics
The axillary or terminal, racemose inflorescences are 1 to 15 (rarely up to 22) cm long. The fragrant flowers are hermaphroditic with a double flower envelope. The flower buds are red. The flower cup (hypanthium) is 3 to 5 mm long. The inflorescence consists of four recurved white to light yellow sepals and three white or orange-yellow petals , with reddish venation, two are reduced and minimal, bristle-shaped. There are only three fertile stamens and four to five shorter staminodes with stamens that have grown together in their lower halves . The above constant, and slightly hairy elongated ovary with many ovules is stalked, with long bogigem stylus with capitate scar . The flowers have two bracts and a bract which fall off early.
The straight to curved, often almost cylindrical, swollen, fleshy, light brown, woody-leathery and rounded to the seeds somewhat constricted legumes have a length of 3 to 15 cm and a diameter of 2 to 4 cm on. They don't open up . Inside there is a dark brown-reddish, juicy, syrupy and sweet to sour pulp, which is rich in tartaric acid , in which the seeds are located. The fruits contain two to ten seeds. The coconut-brown, rhomboid or elongated to rounded and somewhat flattened seeds are about 11 to 17 × 10 to 12 mm in size.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 24, 26 or 28.
Origin and Distribution
The original home of the tamarind tree is in East Africa . Already in prehistoric times it came to India , from where it was spread as a useful plant in all drier areas of the tropics and subtropics , u. a. South and East Asia , Mediterranean , South America.
use
In tropical regions, the tamarind tree is cultivated as an ornamental and useful plant (edible fruits). The extremely hard wood is used in carpentry , but due to its slow growth it is seldom grown for timber production alone .
The tamarind pods can be eaten raw or used as a condiment for a wide variety of dishes, such as sauces. In Asian and South American regions, especially Colombia, the fruit is used to make sweets, for example the Mexican pulparindo , tamarind ice cream and juice in Peru. The pulper is included in the Worcestershire sauce .
The presence of tannins and other coloring agents in the seed coat make the seeds unsuitable for consumption, but they become edible after soaking and boiling in water and peeled. Tamarind kernel powder is an important sizing material in the textile, paper and jute industries .
Young leaves and flowers can be eaten raw or as a vegetable. For example, in the Indian city of Hyderabad, cooked mutton with tamarind leaves ( Urdu : Chugur kā Sālan , Telugu : Chinta Chiguru Mamsam ) is a popular seasonal specialty.
See also
literature
- RK Brummitt, AC Chikuni, JM Lock & RM Polhill: Leguminosae in the Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 3, 2007: Tamarindus indica - online .
- Brief description in the Flora of Pakistan .
- LK Lim: Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants. Volume 2: Fruits , Springer, 2012, ISBN 978-94-007-1763-3 , pp. 879–901.
Web links
- Gernot Katzer: Tamarindus indica - online .
- Tamarindus indica . In: U. Brunken, M. Schmidt, S. Dressler, T. Janssen, A. Thiombiano, G. Zizka: West African plants - A Photo Guide. Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main 2008.
- Tamarindus indica at Useful Tropical Plants, accessed October 21, 2018.
Individual evidence
- ^ JH Ross: Flora of Southern Africa. Vol. 16, Pt. 2, Bot. Res. Inst., 1977, p. 37 ff, online at biodiversitylibrary.org, accessed on October 21, 2018.
- ↑ Shiu-ying Hu: Food Plants of China. The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 2005. ISBN 962-201-860-2 .
- ^ Tamarindus indica at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ^ E. De Caluwé, K. Halamová, P. Van Damme: Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.): A Review of Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry and Pharmacology. In: ACS Symposium Series. 23 (1), 2010, doi : 10.1021 / bk-2009-1021.ch005 .
- ↑ Bilkees I. Latif: The essential Andhra Cookbook, New Delhi u. a .: Penguin, 1999, pp. 84-85.