Chinmay Prasun Biswas
Though not main, fruit is an important component of our food menu. Local fruits like mango, berry, jackfruit, guava, pineapple, palm, date, wood apple, custard apple etc. are available throughout the year depending on the season. But there are wild fruits which are found mainly in rural areas. Beauty of many wild flowers attract the notice of people in rural Bengal but very few people look at the wild fruits. Yet, these wild fruits are silently sowing the seeds of life in the greenery Bangladesh for ages.
Many of the wild fruits like চাপালিশ (wild jackfruit), চুকাই (টক ফল), শিয়াকুল, লুকলুকি (পায়লাগোটা), বেতফল, করমচা,ডুমুর (fig), তেঁতুল (tamarind) কদবেল and some others are also known as wild fruits which are usually found in hilly areas or fallow lands in rural environments. Many of these wild fruits are edible but normally those are not preferred as regular food items. Rural children are fond of these wild fruits. Some of these were used as medicine but along with the advent of medical science these wild fruits are no more used for medicinal purpose. Due to necessity of gradually increasing human habitation fallow land is decreasing rapidly. As a result, the number of wild plants is decreasing alarmingly which has placed wild fruits on the verge of extinction.
In Bengali there is a proverb মাকাল ফল., used to mean good on the surface but actually very bad inside. This fruit, as described in books, looks very beautiful but the inside is ugly. Yet, it has many medicinal properties. It is beneficial to problems like constipation, indigestion, asthma and respiratory problems. Its roots also help to reduce headache. But now it is very difficult to find it out. This fruit was found in the border areas of Jhenaidah but now it has gone extinct.
There was a time when a beautiful small fruit named কুঁচ (blood berry) was found in many rural houses. Slightly smaller than a pea this fruit has a unique characteristic that size and shape of every fruit are the same. Gold is (also was) always a costly metal. Even a very smaller unit is not cheap. So, accurate weight is necessary to ascertain the cost. But forty or fifty years ago there was no digital scale to weigh small units such as anna, rati (আনা, রতি) etc. of gold and silver exactly. Till today these small units are used by goldsmiths so that purchasers can understand the weight. For this reason most goldsmiths used কুঁচ to weigh small units of gold and silver. It was believed that each kunch weighed one rati.
Though necessary for weight this fruit is extremely poisonous. One seed is sufficient to kill a person but it rarely happened because the shell of কুঁচ is so hard that human digestive system cannot break it. If anybody swallows it by mistake there is no possibility of death. But if broken and enters the stomach the result is disastrous. It has literary value also. In Bengali there is a term কুঁচবরণ কন্যা মেঘবরণ চুল which is used to highlight the beauty of a girl. In a popular song poet Kazi Nazrul Islam has written - কুঁচবরণ কন্যা রে তার মেঘ-বরণ কেশ। Poet Bande Ali Mia has a literary work named কুঁচবরণ কন্যা। A film কুঁচবরণ কন্যা starred by Razzaque and Suchanda was made in 1968.
Another common wild fruit, found in rural areas, is বৈচি. It is a long-living tree. Colour of বৈচি is green at the beginning, reddish when matured but jet-black when ripe. It is very tasteful and full of herbal qualities. The ripe fruit is very popular with children and birds. It helps to increase blood as it is rich in iron, is beneficial to cold and cough, prevents diarrhea and helps to strengthen bones. Its vitamins A and C help to keep body strong. It has been mentioned in Pather Panchali of Bibhutibhushan Banerjee and Srikanta part one by Sharatchandra Chaterjee. In a film রাজলক্ষ্মী ও শ্রীকান্ত based on Srikanta part one, starred by Uttamkumar and Suchitra Sen, there is a very melodious song
আহা শিবঠাকুরের গলায় দোলে বৈচি ফুলের মালিকা
ওর গলায় দড়ি কে পরাল, বলনা গৌরী বালিকা
This tree is full of large thorns which help it to survive in hostile environments but thorns cannot prevent human greed to destroy it. Earlier, thorn bushes were used to fence crop fields but now various alternatives have been developed. Thorn bushes are considered disturbing. To get relief from the pain of thorns this tree has been felled indiscreetly. Some trees are still surviving in rural areas.
There is no extensive research on this fruit but hopefully a team led by Professor Dr. Mahbub Rabbani of Patuakhali University of Science and Technology has conducted a 5-year research on this fruit. They have developed a new variety of this fruit. Named as PSTU Baichi-1 it has been registered by the National Seed Board and is suitable for cultivation all over the country. According to Dr. Rabbani, boichi is a very nutritious fruit. It contains high quality vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. This fruit is very rarely affected by diseases. Aim of this research was to revive this endangered and neglected thorny fruit. To save it from extinction, about 200 seedlings have been produced and preserved in the university laboratory. Efforts to identify the DNA-level characteristics of the plant are also under way.
Fig may be termed as a semi-wild fruit. It grows everywhere both in rural and urban areas. In Bengali there is a proverb - ডুমুরের ফুল meaning something rarely visible. This proverb is very much reasonable because nobody has probably seen fig flower. Fig is tasteful and full of medicinal qualities. According to physicians, it protects cardiovascular health, keeps blood sugar under control, increases immunity and strengthens bones. Its fibre keeps stomach full for a long time and reduces the tendency of unnecessary eating. Fig tree has no traditional timber value. Probably for this reason people do not feel interest to plant fig. It grows naturally. It is time to plant and protect these wild fruits from extinction for its food and medicinal value and above all, to maintain natural balance.
-The writer is a former Commissioner of Taxes
