Baobab Composition and Nutritional Value

Several authors have published about baobab food products. Data on macronutrients, micronutrients, amino acids, and fatty acids were collected from literature for pulp, leaves, seeds, and kernels of the baobab tree. 


The results show that baobab pulp is particularly rich in vitamin C; consumption of 40 g covers 84 to more than 100% of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of pregnant women (19-30 years). 


The leaves are particularly rich in calcium (307 to 2640 mg/100 g dw), and they are known to contain good quality proteins with a chemical score of 0.81. 


The whole seeds and the kernels have a relatively high lipid content, 11.6 to 33.3 g/100 g dw and 18.9 to 34.7 g/100 g dw, respectively. 


The pulp and leaves exhibit antioxidant properties with a higher activity in the pulp than in the leaves. 


Reported nutrient contents of different baobab parts show a large variation, which may have arisen from various factors.

250g de pulpe de fruit de Baobab Bio

Baomix “La force du Baobab” PULPE DE FRUIT DE BAOBAB BIOLOGIQUE
– 44% de fibres
– 3 fois plus de calcium que le lait
– des propriétés naturelles antioxydantes
– l’aide à l’assimilation et la biodisponibilité du calcium et du fer
– retrouver et/ou conserver une bonne vitalité

UTILISATION : Pour préparations culinaires ou cocktails, dissoudre deux cuillères à café de poudre dans un verre d’eau, de jus de fruits, de thé glacé, de lait ou yaourt une ou deux fois par jour.

Découvrez aussi le petit déjeuner tonique en ajoutant à votre bol de cacao 2 cuillères à café de Baomix (en poudre).
BAOMIX NE CONTIENT PAS DE CONSERVATEUR OU COLORANT – SANS GLUTEN

COMPOSITION DE BAOMIX BIO : 100% de la pulpe du fruit de l’Adansonia Digitata (Baobab biologique)

UTILISATION : Pour préparations culinaires ou cocktails, dissoudre deux cuillères à café de poudre dans un verre d’eau, de jus de fruits, de thé glacé, de lait ou yaourt une ou deux fois par jour. Découvrez aussi le petit déjeuner tonique en ajoutant à votre bol de cacao 2 cuillères à café de BAOMIX BIO.

La pulpe de pulpe de Baobab Biologique au goût sucré et acidulé contient de la Thiamine (vitamine B1) et de la riboflavine (vitamine B2), essentielle à une bonne régénération des cellules souches de la peau ainsi  que de la niacine (vitamine Pp B3), efficace dans la régulation de nombreuses fonctions métaboliques. La poudre de pulpe est également très riche en minéraux, calcium, fer, potassium, magnésium, manganèse, phosphore, zinc ainsi qu’en acides gras essentiels.

2 cuillères à café de BAOMIX BIOLOGIQUE contiennent 44% de fibres dont 22,4% soluble et 22,6% insoluble. Les fibres solubles naturelles sont équilibrantes et fortifiantes pour la flore intestinale et participent à un bon transit.

Excellent complément alimentaire pour la diététique du sportif, 100 g de BAOMIX contient 7 fois plus de vitamine C que l’orange (300mg) et 3 fois plus de calcium que le lait (295mg).

Les propriétés naturelles antioxydantes BAOMIX BIO jouent un rôle essentiel dans la lutte contre l’excès de radicaux libresresponsables du vieillissement prématuré des cellules: une arme pour combattre stress et fatigues passagères. Les antioxydants contenus par BAOMIX sont les plus efficaces de la classe hydrophile. Ils participent à plusieurs processus métaboliques essentiels : – la production de collagène  – la biosynthèse des hormones (stéroïdes), des tissus conjonctifs et des neurotransmetteurs.

L’acide ascorbique contenu naturellement dans BAOMIX  BIOLOGIQUE augmente l’assimilation et la biodisponibilité du calcium et du fer.

BAOMIX BIO  est particulièrement recommandé à toute personne désirant retrouver et/ou conserver une bonne vitalité : Séniors, enfants en phase de croissance, étudiants, sportifs, … Complément nutritionnel d’un bon équilibre, à ne pas utiliser comme substitut d’un régime alimentaire varié.

Baobab Jam

Stemming from Fruit of the Baobab (or Monkey bread), this extra jam specially come from Senegal offers a quite African flavour. It is to sample at any time of the day, with some bread or yoghurt, or for the realization of desserts. 
We find it look like quince jam !

Prepared with 50g of fruit per 100g of the finished product.
Total sugar content : 60g per 100g.

Baobab Provides Income for Africa

In Africa’s dry forests the baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) towers over the landscape. According to legend, the baobab tree fell from the sky. That’s why today the baobab is often called the upside down tree.

Another legend says when the Baobab was planted by God, it kept walking, so God pulled it out of the earth and re-planted it upside down to stop it moving.

Take one look at their root-like crowns scattered haphazardly on the parched African landscape and it’s easy to see how these legends started.

But it was never this easy for Wermi Sougrinoma and his family in Ouahigouya, a small rural area in northern Burkina Faso. Their baobab trees didn’t fall out of the sky.

Wermi Sougrinoma and his father toiled hard and long to establish a baobab plantation around their homestead, although they should never have needed to. Ouahigouya was once home to lots of baobab trees, but unsustainable harvesting by local communities soon brought about their demise.

Wermi Sougrinoma remembers seeing people actually fighting for the last remaining leaves of the last remaining baobab tree. He seized the opportunity to improve and protect his family’s baobab trees to supply leaves – an important condiment to add to relish.

By carefully planting Boabab seeds the family has managed to grow a healthy stand of 25-year old trees on two hectares. One of the challenges of growing baobab trees is getting the hard seeds to germinate. Fortunately for the people of Ouahigouya, the termites feed on the seed-coat, which allows water uptake and subsequent germination.

Wermi Sougrinoma and his family harvest the young and tender leaves for sale to neighbours and at nearby markets. In one large section of the plantation, the trees are still young enough to allow intercropping with millet or ground-nuts, which are important crops in dry, sandy parts of Africa.

Once the trees mature, they will become a veritable supermarket. The mature baobab produces a tartaric-rich fruit that can be used as a tonic. The leaves and flowers can be combined into a relish or specially prepared for medicinal purposes to treat a plethora of diseases. And the bark can be used to make masks, hats, baskets and other handicrafts.

The Sougrinomas are very mindful of how their baobabs increasing girth and crowns can affect their other farming activities. The trees need to be planted very carefully to prevent too much shade falling on other crops and to have room for the trunk to expand without taking up important cropping land. Such long term planning guarantees the family will reap a rich harvest of marketable leaves for many years to come.

Of course, it is not an easy road. When the Sougrinomas’ trees reached three years of age, the leaves were attacked by worms and the family had to spray an expensive insecticide costing about US $5.50 per small bottle.

The key question from a livelihood perspective is how much the family gets from selling the leaves? Sougrinoma says although the income from selling baobab leaves is lower than from selling millet and peanuts, the income is very handy during the non-crop season and during drought periods.

The family also derives some sense of economic stability from their baobab investment. By investing in tree planting and management, the family has the added advantage of long-term tenure security.

The Government of Burkina Faso, through its land tenure regulations and its large national soil management programme, is encouraging land management practices like those used by the Sougrinoma family to restore degraded lands. By practicing good land management, a family can be guaranteed private ownership and use of the piece of land that has been rehabilitated.

Ouahigouya’s baobab experience shows that even in dry areas, tree planting still remains an option and that rural people are very adaptable and innovative.

The Mythical Baobab

Many cultures claim to remember a time when great and ancient trees cloaked vast areas of the earth. The enchanting original forests and foreboding gigantic trees were of mythical dimensions and proportions.

The African baobab is a living embodiment of timeless affinities with nature common to many peoples throughout the continent. It serves as a metaphoric window into Africa’s real or imagined past, through which we may view practices said to be of great antiquity.

Visitors to Sukur are warned not to approach a certain ancient baobab tree because, villagers say, it turns people into hermaphrodites.

Several myths that use the baobab as a backdrop for teaching moral lessons are told by the Bushmen or Hausa people of Northern Nigeria. One tale involving the baobab which is used to explain a phenomenon of nature as well as teach a moral lesson is the myth “The Tale of the Superman” In this story a husband boasts to his wife that he is the strongest man alive. He learns of another man who claims to be “superman”, and goes to seek him out.

This second “superman” is actually an extremely powerful superhuman who kicks up wind wherever he goes and eats men for dinner. While trying to escape from “superman”, the husband comes across the “Giant-of-the-Forest” sitting under a baobab tree. The giant offers to help the husband, and enters into a terrible fight with “superman”. In their struggle to free themselves from each other’s grasp, they leap to such a height they disappear into the heavens. As a result, their struggle can be heard as thunder.

The moral of the story is summed up by the wife who says, “Never boast about your achievements again. However strong or clever or rich or powerful you are, there is always somebody more so.”

Legends of the Baobab Tree

The Baobabs are are full of mystery and wonder in Africa, tales have been brought down verbally from generation to generation. We have tried to compile as much as possible regarding this great tree of life.

A very, very long time ago, say some African legends, the first baobab sprouted beside a small lake. As it grew taller and looked about it spied other trees, noting their colorful flowers, straight and handsome trunks, and large leaves. Then one day the wind died away leaving the water smooth as a mirror, and the tree finally got to see itself. The reflected image shocked it to its root hairs. Its own flowers lacked bright color, its leaves were tiny, it was grossly fat, and its bark resembled the wrinkled hide of an old elephant.

In a strongly worded invocation to the creator, the baobab complained about the bad deal it’d been given. This impertinence had no effect: Following a hasty reconsideration, the deity felt fully satisfied. Relishing the fact that some organisms were purposefully less than perfect, the creator demanded to know whether the baobab found the hippopotamus beautiful, or the hyena’s cry pleasant-and then retired in a huff behind the clouds. But back on earth the barrel-chested whiner neither stopped peering at its reflection nor raising its voice in protest. Finally, an exasperated creator returned from the sky, seized the ingrate by the trunk, yanked it from the ground, turned it over, and replanted it upside down. And from that day since, the baobab has been unable to see its reflection or make complaint; for thousands of years it has worked strictly in silence, paying off its ancient transgression by doing good deeds for people. All across the African continent some variation on this story is told to explain why this species is so unusual and yet so helpful.

Legends of the Baobab 2

In Madagascar, the Grandidier’s baobab (Adansonia grandidieri), the most statuesque of the Malagasy species, is believed to be the dwelling place of spirits. Offerings are placed at its base to ensure fertility, a fine harvest, and good fortune.

At Dakfao Niger, there is a baobab sacred to the Imannen Tururag, high up the trunk are incantations, symbols and sacred texts.

Throughout Africa the baobab is venerated or regarded with awe, the absence of regeneration has led some communities to believe that it appeared by magic overnight, others believe the trees possess souls and ancient sprits, they can move during the night but must stay imobil during the day.

Along the Zambezi, the tribes believe that when the world was young the Baobabs were upright and proud. However for some unknown reason, they lorded over the lesser growths. The gods became angry and uprooted the Baobabs , thrusting them back into the ground, root upwards. Evil spirits now haunt the sweet white flowers and anyone who picks one will be killed by a lion.

One gigantic baobab in Zambia is said to be haunted by a ghostly python. Before the white man came, a large python lived in the hollow trunk and was worshipped by the local natives. When they prayed for rain, fine crops and good hunting , the python answered their prayers. The first white hunter shot the python and this event led to disastrous consequences. On still nights the natives claim to hear a continuous hissing sound from the old tree.

In the Kafue National Park in Zambia, one of the largest Baobabs is known as “Kondanamwali” – the tree that eats maidens. This enormous tree fell in love with the four beautiful girls who lived in its shade. When they reached puberty, they sought husbands and made the tree jealous. One night, during a raging thunderstorm, the tree opened its trunk and took the maidens inside. A rest house had been built in the branches of the tree. On stormy nights, it is the crying of the imprisoned maidens that make people inside tremble – not the sounds of the wild animals.

History Of The Baobab Tree

The Latin name for Baobab, Adansonia digitata, is in honour of the French botanist, Michel Adanson, who concluded that out of all the trees he had studied, the Baobab, ‘is probably the most useful tree in all’.

Although the tree is not native to Egypt, the fruit was known in the herb and spice markets of Cairo as early as 2500 BC. It was known as ‘bu hobab’, probably derived from the Arabic words ‘bu hibab’, which means ‘fruit with many seeds’.

The medicinal uses of the Baobab fruit were first officially praised by the Venetian herbalist and physician Prospero Alpini, in 1592, who noted that the ancient Egyptians used it for treating fevers, dysentery and bloody wounds. Known as the “Upside-down tree”, the “Bottle tree” for its ability to hold water, or simply as the “Tree of life”.

The baobab normally lives for about 500 years, but it is believed some are up to 6,000 years old and carries its own mystical identity and history that is traditionally accorded to age in Africa.

Baobab Shells

Baobab Half Shell

Baobab Fruit Half-Pod Cleaned Interiorly & Exteriorly.

For Gifts or Packaging

The Beautiful Baobab

Death is a low chemical trick played on everybody except baobab trees.
– JJ Furnas

The origin of the name baobab is uncertain. Some have suggested that it comes from “bu hobab,” a name used for the plant in the markets of Cairo. Or perhaps it was derived from “bu hibab,” an Arabic designation for “the fruit with many seeds.” The trees are related to the kapok and the balsa. There are 6 species of baobab trees in Madagascar, 1 in Africa and 2 elsewhere (including Australia and Vietnam).
The baobab trees (called renala by inhabitants of Madagascar) are present almost everywhere on the island, except in the highlands and rain forest. They are most prevalent in the dry savannah of the West.

For centuries, much of what was known about baobabs was based exclusively on the African baobab (A digitata). The first recorded reference was by 14th-century Arab traveller Ibn Batuta who mentions the water-storage capacity of its massive trunk. In 1661 the writer Flacourt praised the giants – speaking about the area of Morondava, he wrote: “It is in this region that exists a tree named Anadzahé, which is monstrously stupendously large. It is hollow inside and 12 feet in diameter, round, ending in an archway like the bottom of a lamp. There are only a few small branches here and there on top. The tree is a wonder to be seen.”

Sometimes called the “upside-down tree” because of their unusual root-like branch formations, baobabs are extremely long-lived. Some specimens are believed to be more than 3,000 years old. (Two trees on an island off Cape Verde were estimated to be over 5,000 years old. Those trees have since disappeared, however, so the claim can no longer be verified.)

Girth measurements themselves are not reliable estimates of a particular tree’s age, as the conditions under which it has grown – and the climatic fluctuations of the centuries – strongly affect them – some years, they can decrease in size. There is no such thing as a “typical” baobab.
Inside its shell, the tree’s fruit contains a number of seeds, embedded in a whitish, powdery pulp. Tangy and exceedingly nutritious, the pulp makes a tasty food or, after soaking in water or milk, a refreshing beverage (with 6 times the vitamin C content of an orange). Fermented, it makes a traditional brew.

The seeds may be eaten raw or roasted. They yield an edible oil which is used for cooking and exported for use in cosmetics. The leaves, similar to spinach, are eaten as a relish, especially in times of drought and are considered medicinal – they reduce fever and diarrhœa. The pollen of the African and Australian baobabs is mixed with water to make glue.

The wood has a moisture content of 40%, making it unusuable as timber (which is lucky for the tree because it keeps it from being harvested) but the fibrous bark can be made into baskets, rugs, fishing nets, hats, ropes and the like. The tree seems impervious to having its bark stripped.

Baobab (called kuka trees in Nigeria) flower for the first time at about 20 years. In mid-summer, dozens of luminous white blossoms – the size of saucers – open at sunset and their strong musky odour attracts fruit bats and hosts of insects. Large bats seek out the generous sweet nectar and collect and distribute pollen as they move from flower to flower.

The life of a flower is short lived and it drops to the ground within hours. The resultant seeds are housed in a hairy pod which resembles a miniature rugby ball (inside of which is a white pulp from which cream of tartar is derived). Once they fall to the ground, the pods are fed upon by baboons, monkeys, antelope and elephants, which serve to disperse the hard seeds within. Humans eat them as well.

Bushbabys, squirrels, rodents, lizards, snakes, tree frogs, spiders, scorpions and insects may live out their entire lives in a single tree. Birds nest in holes in the trunk. The hollow trunks of living trees have served as homes, storage barns, places of refuge or worship, and even as prisons or tombs. One tree near Gravelotte in South Africa’s Northern Province was used as a bar where up to a dozen thirsty gold diggers could quench their thirst.

Certain tribes in the Transvaal wash baby boys in water soaked in the bark of a baobab. Then, like the tree, they will grow up mighty and strong. To this day the baobab remains at the centre of black magic rituals on the islands where they are found. Most waganga will take their subjects to a special tree, where they may tie ornaments to the branches to give a spell its power, hammer nails into the trunk to kill devils, or climb and sit in the branches whilst carrying out various ceremonies.

The wood being soft, it is subject to attacks of fungus which destroy its life, and renders the part affected easily hollowed out. This is done by natives, and within these hollows they suspend the dead bodies of those who are refused the honor of burial. There they become mummies – perfectly dry and well preserved – without any further preparation of embalmment.