The Sunut Tree
03 December, 2017
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - While performing the Haj in the Moslem Holy City of Mecca, Noor Mazazu was disturbed by an Asian woman battling with a heavy cold that made her unable to continue with her prayer.
Noor quickly reached for her brief case and picked a few sunut tree fruits (garad) she always kept with her. She whispered to her fellow pilgrim to chew the fruits and swallow her saliva. The woman took the gift and readily did what Noor had asked her to do. In no time she felt good and proceeded with her prayer.
The next day and at the sight of Noor the woman rushed towards her, took her in her arms and kissed her in gratitude.
Noor said she always kept garad fruits at home and whenever she went to the local market, she is always keen to buy garad and keep it in her bag for her own use and to help others in need.
The sunut tree is Sudan’s most famous acasia. Known by the Latin name acasia nilotica, the sunut is 25 meters high with a dense spherical crown, stems and branches usually dark to black colored, fissured bark, grey-pinkish slash, exuding a reddish low quality gum.
The sunut tree flourishes on the banks of river and seasonal waterways. It grows heavily in Central Sudan, in particular along the River Nile and its tributaries. It also grows in the Western Sudanese regions of Kordofan and Darfur.
Benefits and Uses:
Sunut trees are used in Sudan for afforestation of inundated areas. The timber meets a host of requirements. It provides strong railway planks and it could be enough to say thousands of Sudan’s railroads are planked with this resilient product. It is also widely used in carpentry to manufacture home doors, windows and furniture. Raw sunut timber is burned by traditional bakeries to prepare bread. Brick factories also burn it as fuel.
Sunut also produces tannin, an excellent leather tanning substance. Twenty percent of sunut bark contains tannin while its seed contains 30 percent of this substance. Sunnut leaves are used as animal fodder.
The fruit (garad), in addition to its remarkable ability to relieve colds, is also heated by diabetics and applied on sugar wounds, thanks to its high antiseptic ability. It is also taken as an antidote to diarrhea and dysentery and is applied on the body in cases of leprosy and is taken in cases of tuberculosis. It is also an antidote for scorpion poison and the tannin substance was found to stop bleeding.
The green sunit fruit (garad) is taken to stop tooth decay and rectal ailments. It is also believed to stop the growth of tumors, in particular eye, ear and testis cancers. It is also used to treat impotence.
Tender pods and shoots are used as vegetable, and used as forage for camels, sheep and goats where it is said to improve milk from these animals. Seeds are a valuable cattle food.
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