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Aegle marmelos
Also called Bel fruit, Bael fruit of India, Golden Apple, Bengal Quince, Bael, Bael Tree, Elephant Apple
Indian bael (Aegle marmelos) is a deciduous tree or small shrub from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, prized for its aromatic, hard-shelled fruit and regarded as sacred by Hindus and Buddhists. It is best grown in a warm, frost-free climate in full sun, and is a slow-growing tree that is not usually kept as a houseplant.
Aegle marmelos, commonly known as bael (a.k.a. bel, beli, or bhel), also Bengal quince, golden apple, Japanese bitter orange, stone apple or wood apple, is a species of tree native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is present in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal as a naturalized species. The tree is considered to be sacred by Hindus and Buddhists. Bael is the only member of the monotypic genus Aegle.
Aegeline is a known constituent of the bael leaf and consumed as a dietary supplement with the intent to produce weight loss. In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Defense Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, and Hawaii state and local health officials identified an outbreak of 97 persons with acute non-viral hepatitis that first emerged in Hawaii. Seventy-two of these persons had reported using the dietary supplement OxyElite Pro, containing aegeline, which was manufactured by the Dallas-based company USPlabs. FDA had previously taken action against an earlier formulation of OxyElite Pro because it contained dimethylamylamine, a stimulant that FDA had determined to be an adulterant when included in dietary supplements, and could cause high blood pressure and lead to heart attacks, seizures, psychiatric disorders, and death. USPlabs subsequently reformulated this product without informing the FDA or submitting the required safety data for a new dietary ingredient.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aegle marmelos by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
