Marula oil

Marula tree & marula fruit

he Marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) is native to sub-equatorial Africa and thrives under warm and frost-free weather conditions. It belongs to the sumac family just like the mango tree. With a height of up to 20 metres, it is one of the largest indigenous African plants. Wild growing Marula trees have a mighty crown and can reach a trunk diameter of up to 80 centimetres or more. The fruits are produced exclusively by female plants. They are about the size of a plum and elongated, have a pale yellow, leathery skin which encloses the fibrous, light-coloured flesh. The marula fruit contains four times as much vitamin C as an orange. The juice extracted from the marula fruit pulp can be processed into liqueur and is marketed worldwide as a wild fruit cream liqueur by the South African-based brand Amarula. The hard nut is located in the middle of the fruit. A special stone is used to crack it open by hand. Once the nut is cracked, two or three seeds appear, which are used for oil production.

The synonym "elephant tree" goes back to the pleasurable eating of the fruit by the heavy quadrupeds. In the past, it was believed that already fermented, alcoholic fruits made the animals drunk. In the Kruger National Park you can regularly see staggering elephants. Current researches show, however, that the cause is not the marula fruits, but that the animals also consume poisonous beetle pupae living in the bark of the trees when they nibble the bark, which causes the elephants intoxicated conditions.