Aegle marmelos(fruit)

BILVA (FRUIT)
Bilva consists of pulp of entire, unripe or half ripe fruits of Aegle marmelos Carr. (Fam. Rutaceae), a tree, attaining a height of 12 m growing wild and also cultivated throughout the country, rind of fruit is removed and pulp is bruised and dried.

SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : sriphala
Assamese : Bael, Vael
Bengali : Bela, Bilva
English : Bengal Quince, Bael fruit
Gujrati : Bill, Bilum, Bilvaphal
Hindi : Bela, Sriphal, Bel
Kannada : Bilva
Kashmiri : Bel
Malayalam : Koovalam
Marathi : Bel, Baela
Oriya : Bela
Punjabi : Bil
Tamil : Vilvam
Telugu : Maredu
Urdu : Bel

DESCRIPTION

a) Macroscopic
Fruit, sub-globose, 5-18 cm in diameter, externally greenish when young, yellowish-brown when ripe, rind about 1.5 mm-3 mm thick, hard and woody, surface smooth or slightly granular bearing a circular scar at the point of attachment with peduncle, carpels, 10-15, central, each containing several hairy seeds embedded in yellowishbrown, extremely sticky mucilage, seeds oblong, flat, woody, and having white hair, fresh pulp of ripe fruit, brown, of sticky shreads, dried pulp hard and pale to dark red in colour, frequently breaks away from the rind during drying, leaving a thin layer attached to it, odour, faintly aromatic, taste, mucilaginous and slightly astringent.

CONSTITUENTS – Marmalosin, tannins, mucilage, fatty oil and sugar.

PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Katu, Tikta, Kashiya
Guna : Laghu, Ruksha
Virya : Ushna
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Balya, Dipana, Grihi, Picana, Pittakrit, Vitakaphahara

IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Bilvidi Leha, Brihatgangidhara Churna

THERAPEUTIC USES – Pravihiki, Agnimindya, Grahaniroga

DOSE – 3-6 g of the drug in powder form.