Aegle marmelos, commonly known as bael (or bili or bhel), also Bengal quince, golden apple, Japanese bitter orange, stone apple, or wood apple, is a species of tree native to Bangladesh and India. It is present throughout Southeast Asia as a naturalized species. The tree is considered to be sacred by Hindus. Its fruits are used in traditional medicine and as a food throughout its range. The tree is called "bael" (বেল) in Bengali, "belpatthar ka paid" or "बेल पत्र का पेड़"in Hindi "belaache zaad" or "बेलाचे झाड" in Marathi, "ಬಿಲ್ಪತ್ರೆ ಮರ" and the religious tree "ಬಿಲ್ವ" or "ಬಿಲ್ಪತ್ರೆ" in Kannada, "vilvamaram" (வில்வமரம்) in Tamil, "beli" (බෙලි) in Sinhala. The fruits are known as ಬೇಲದ ಹಣ್ಣು (edible variety), ಬಿಲ್ವ (sacred variety) in Kannada, "bela" (ବେଲ) in Odia, and bilva and maredu (మారేడు) in Telugu. Billu (બિલ્લુ ) in Gujarati. It is called Sivadruma by the Hindus and is considered as a sacred herb.
The bael fruit typically has a diameter of between 5 and 12 cm. It is globose or slightly pear-shaped with a thick, hard rind and is not splitting upon ripening. The woody shell is smooth and green, gray until it is fully ripe when it turns yellow. Inside are 8 to 15 or 20 sections filled with aromatic orange pulp, each section with 6 (8) to 10 (15) flattened-oblong seeds each about 1 cm long, bearing woolly hairs and each enclosed in a sac of adhesive, transparent mucilage that solidifies on drying. The exact number of seeds varies in different publications. It takes about 11 months to ripen on the tree and can reach the size of a large grapefruit or pomelo, and some are even larger. The shell is so hard it must be cracked with a hammer or machete. The fibrous yellow pulp is very aromatic. It has been described as tasting of marmalade and smelling of roses. Boning (2006) indicates that the flavor is "sweet, aromatic and pleasant, although tangy and slightly astringent in some varieties. It resembles a marmalade made, in part, with citrus and, in part, with tamarind." Numerous hairy seeds are encapsulated in a slimy mucilage.
Bael is a native of India and is found widely in Asia, in northern, central, eastern and southern parts of India, as well as in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, southern Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.[citation needed] It is widely found in Indian Siva temples.[citation needed] It occurs in dry, open forests on hills and plains.[citation needed] at altitudes from sea level to around 1200m with mean annual rainfall of 570-2,000 mm. It is cultivated throughout India, as well as in Sri Lanka, the northern Malay Peninsula, Java, Timor Leste, the Philippines, and Fiji. It has a reputation in India for being able to grow in places that other trees cannot. It copes with a wide range of soil conditions (pH range 5-10), is tolerant of waterlogging and has an unusually wide temperature tolerance (from -7 °C to 48 °C). It requires a pronounced dry season to give fruit. This tree is a larval foodplant for the following two Indian Swallowtail butterflies, the Lime butterfly Papilio demoleus, and the Common Mormon: Papilio polytes.
The fruits can be eaten either freshly from trees or after being dried. If fresh, the juice is strained and sweetened to make a drink similar to lemonade. It can be made into sharbat (Hindi/Urdu) or Bela pana (Odia: ବେଲ ପଣା), a very popular summer drink in almost every household. The Drink is especially significant on the Odiya New Year (Pana Sankranti) which is in April. Bela Pana made in Odisha has fresh cheese, milk, water, fruit pulp, sugar, crushed black pepper, ice or bæl pana (Bengali: বেল পানা), a drink made of the pulp with water, sugar, and citron juice, mixed, left to stand a few hours, strained, and put on ice. One large bæl fruit may yield five or six liters of sharbat. If the fruit is to be dried, it is usually sliced and sun-dried. The hard leathery slices are then immersed in water. The leaves and small shoots are eaten as salad greens.
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