Page 103 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 10

WHOLENESS
Remedies

BAOBAB - The Bead-Like

Seeds, The Bleak Side & The

Bountiful Benefits

Alexis Juma

In the 80s, as a little girl living and Fast forward, many years into oxidants — more than blueberries,
growing up in the Eastern side of adulthood, l commercialize my goji berries, pomegranate, and acai.
the city of Nairobi, Kenya, l inter- love for plant-based oils, intensify Of course, I am floored by this new
acted on countless occasions with my research on different oils and mind-blowing information on my
mabuyu candy (raw baobab seeds boom! Mabuyu not only has an favorite snack and l want to know
coated in some coastal syrup - wa- oil… who knew?!... but as far as nu- more about the Ubuyu tree and its
ter, sugar, salt, chili powder, food trition goes, baobab fruit apparently oil!
coloring, ground cardamom) from packs a big punch when it comes to
the Ubuyu tree (baobab tree). The essential nutrients: Vitamin C (7-10 Well, it turns out that the scientific
mabuyu candy was super-addictive times more than oranges), dietary name for the baobab tree is Adan-
that to date, in my adulthood, l have fiber (30 times more than lettuce) sonia digitata . The baobab tree is
a spot in the city that l still visit for that research has shown to be a native African tree which grows
my monthly stash of mabuyu candy; prebiotic in nature , magnesium (5 in the southern countries of Africa,
an addiction l have unintentionally times more than avocados), potas- such as Kenya, Malawi and Mada-
but successfully passed on to my sium (6 times more than bananas) gascar. It has an extremely thick, of-
offspring….old habits die hard, l and calcium (2 times more than ten bulging, trunk and the tree may
guess! cow’s milk). It is also rich in anti- grow to 80 feet (24 meters) tall with

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