Khirni
– fruit with high nutrition value
Khirni fruits are very sweet and liked by people. Khirni is therefore cultivated on a small
scale in gardens] especially near big cities where there exists a good market
for the fruits. In fact khirni fruits
are considered to be a seasonal delicacy and sell at fairly high price in
Indian metros. At maturity the brown scurf on the fruit surface is replaced by
yellowish corky brown colour. The absence of green tissues and lateÛ also
indicates maturity. The fruits are picked by hand or harvested with special
harvester which has a round ring with a net bag fixed on a long pole. Seeds of
khirni contain 25% oil which is considered demulcent and emollient.
Khirni is a
socio & economically important fruit and nut species of tribal population
of tropical deciduous forests of western and central India- Survey and
collection missions were undertaken to study the extent of variability and
socio & economic importance of Khirni germplasm in diversity rich areas of
Rajasthan,Gujarat] Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Bark, fresh fruits and
extracted seeds have high nutritional and medicinal value. Khirni is a small to
medium sized tree evergreen tree, 3 & 4 m high with a spreading crown and
straight massive bole.
It is very
commonly found growing wild in the dry evergreen forests in Central India and
the Deccan Peninsula of India- Khirni bears small 1 & 2 seeded fruits which
turn yellow at maturity. The fruits are
1.1-5 cm and round to ellipsoid in shape.
Khirni has a strong and dense timber that is put to several uses in
villages. Leaves are used as a fodder
for cattle. Khirni tree also yields a gum. The bark contains 10 per cent
tannins and can be used for tanning purposes.
It is also used in fevers and as a general tonic. The bark also retards the fermentation the
fermentation of toddy a wine made from palm sap in Indian villages.
Khirni is
used as a rootstock for sapota in India. One of the best of these fruits is
also one of the least known. This is khirni or rayan golden yellow berries that
come for only a very short time in May just when the real heat of summer
starts. It is often sold] in striking contrast, alongside dark purple jamun and
many people associate it with a similar astringency. It has a touch of it but
this disappears if you let it to ripen almost to the point when rot sets in.
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This is one reason perhaps that the British sometimes called the khirni tree
the Indian medlar since medlars are a European fruit that famously must be
almost rotten to be edible, but Indian medlar is now applied to the bakul,
Mimusops elengi which also has an edible] but uninteresting fruit.
"underutilized fruits" that are hundred times more nutritious than
the popular fruits in terms of their vitamin C, cartenoids and antioxidants.
People prefer to have fruits with good taste since wild fruits have high levels
of the unpleasant tasting tannins and glycosides. Indigenous fruits are neither large nor fleshy and contain lots
of seeds. The fruits are highly perishable and difficult to store in the fresh
form. They have known medicinal and therapeutic properties and are used by the
local people to cure various diseases.
