Why was chinaberry called the beade tree?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
August 26, 2002
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In the third book of The Herbal or the Historie of Plants (1633 ed.), John Gerard describes the beade tree which was known to herbalists as Zizypha candida. Gerard was not content with the herbalists' name: "But deciding all controversies, this is the tree which Avicen (Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) calleth Azederach, which is very great, charged with many large arms...set full of great leaves consisting of sundry small leaves...." It is obvious from the illustration the tree is the chinaberry (Melia azedarach Linnaeus).
Gerard credits ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037) as the authority on its medicinal uses. "The floures of Zizyphus or Azadareth open the obstructions of the braine (nasal congestion). The distilled water thereof killeth nits and lice, preserveth the haire of the head from falling...being mixed with white wine and the head bathed with it."
In Medical Botany (1977), Lewis and Elvin-Lewis report a violent toxic resin in chinaberry wood and the "fruit powder [used as] an insecticide against flies." Gerard warned against ingestion, "The fruit is very hurtfull to the chest, and a troublesome enemie to the stomacke, it is dangerous, and peradventure deadly....the leaves and wood bringeth death even unto beasts...."
Gerard reported the beade tree "is found in the cloisters of many monasteries in Italy...that it groweth in many places in Venice and Narbon...to be planted and cherished in the goodliest orchards of the low Countries." Besides killing lice and deterring insects, "the six cornered stone within [the fruit] which being drawne on a string, serveth to make Beades of, for want of other things."
The chinaberry is considered both a nuisance and toxic exotic species. The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Florida have an excellent page about the chinaberry. To view the page, click on the link:
http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/melaze.html
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.
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