Acacia nilotica

BABBULA
Babbhula consists of dried mature stem bark of Acacia nilotica (Linn.) Willd. ex.Del. sp. indica (Benth.) Brenan, Syn. Acacia arabica Willd. (Fam. Leguminosae) , a moderate sized, spiny, evergreen tree.

SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Bivari, Kinkirita
Assamese : Babala
Bengali : Babla
English : Babula tree, Indian gum arabic tree
Gujrati : Baval, Kaloabaval
Hindi : Babula, Babura, Kikar
Kannada : Sharmeeruka, Kari Jail, Kari gobli, Pulai Jali
Kashmiri : Sak
Malayalam : Velutha Karuvelan
Marathi : Babhul, Babhula
Oriya : Babula, Babala
Punjabi : Kikkar
Tamil : Karuvelan, Karuvel
Telugu : Nallatumma, Thumma
Urdu : —

DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Bark hard, dark brown or black, deeply fissured transversely and longitudinally, inner surface, reddish brown, longitudinally striated and fibrous, breaks with difficulty and exhibits a fibrous fracture, taste, astringent.
b) Microscopic
Transverse section of mature bark shows, 15-25 layered, thin-walled, slightly flattened mostly rectangular, brown coloured cork cells, a few lenticels formed by rupturing of cork cells, secondary cortical cells ovate to elongated, many tanniferous stone cel1s, variable in shape and size present in large groups, secondary phloem consists of sieve tubes, companion cells, fibres, crystal fibres and phloem parenchyma phloem fibres in many groups and thick-walled, phloem tissues filled with reddish or brown contents present, crystal fibres thick-walled, elongated, divided by transverse septa into segments, each contain a prismatic crystal of calcium oxalate, medullary rays uni to-multi- seriate run almost straight, ray cells elongated to polygonal, 20-24 cells high and 2-5 cells wide, crystals of calcium oxalate found scattered amongst the stone cell”cel1s of secondary cortex and phloem parenchyma.