Why Is The Chinese Date Good?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Many today strive to have unusual plants in the garden. Ziziphus or Unabi refers to one of them. Growing it in the garden is a rare success! Why is he so good?

Ready for both drought and frost

The homeland of this plant is China, where it was introduced into the culture four thousand years ago. It is also called the Chinese date, anab, dzhida, jujuba, djilon. You can meet wild unabi on the dry, sun-open slopes of mountains in Japan, Asia, the Himalayas, and the Caucasus.

It is considered an ideal tree for areas with arid climates. But at the same time, the unabi withstands frosts well down to -35 degrees. The plant belongs to the buckthorn family and has up to 50 species of shrubs and deciduous trees.

This bush or tree reaches a height of 5 meters and lives up to 300 years. The plant looks attractive at any time, but especially during the growing season. But when processing young shoots, you need to be careful - they have thorns. Ziziphus leaves are oval, ovate, almost sessile, have up to 5 veins and serrated edges. The crown itself is pyramidal or broadly spreading.

Drowned in flower

Flowering continues until May with bisexual, cross-pollinated small greenish flowers, which are often collected in a bunch of three to five or stick out singly. Up to 300 thousand of such flowers are formed on a plant, making the flowering tree a fascinating sight.

Unabi begins to bear fruit after 3-4 years with reddish-brown or yellow fruits that taste like dates (up to 4 cm in diameter). The fruits are drupes, but they are quite varied in shape. They ripen in September-October, making the tree look like a Christmas tree. In China, the fruits, along with the shoots, are shaken off using bamboo poles. The light green pulp contains up to 40% carbohydrates, more than 5% proteins, mineral salts and many other useful components.

Save from birds

Unabi is quite unpretentious, and the success of its cultivation depends on the place chosen for it. He feels most comfortable in a warm, wind-protected area. Lack of light negatively affects its yield. At the same time, the unabi is not afraid of heat and drought, and he is especially tough for pests. Only birds can threaten the harvest.

Plants are propagated mainly by seeds or grafts. Freshly harvested seeds are sown to a permanent place before winter. In the case of spring sowing, stratification is required at positive low temperatures in a humid environment.

Unabi, when grown in humus-poor soils, exhibits maximum medicinal properties, like ginseng, tea, coffee, Eleutherococcus. However, these properties are lost if it grows on black soil. The healing power of ziziphus also depends on the severity of winter during its rest period.

Versatile and useful

The reddish wood of the plant is used in the turning business and lends itself well to polishing. The bark is used in leather dressing. But most of all in Asia, the fruits of ziziphus are highly valued for their medicinal properties. Unabi is used for food in fresh, dried, dried, canned form. For ointments, decoctions and medicinal infusions, leaves are also taken. The seeds are used as raw materials for tinctures. The bark and roots are used for decoctions.

The Chinese are very fond of smoked and salted unabi fruits. They are stuffed with buns, boiled with rice, used in confectionery. And in Central Asia, powdered ziziphus fruits are used to bake bread so that it can be stored longer.

Better than any first aid kit

The plant is rich in organic acids, thiamine, carotene, tocopherol, riboflavin, tannins, vitamin R. The presence of rutin promotes a gentle expansion of the walls of blood vessels and their strengthening, helping with hypertension. For treatment, you need to eat 20-30 fruits every day for a month. Unabi fruits are also used for liver diseases, as a diuretic and antihypertensive agent.

Decoctions from fruits have anti-sclerotic, hypnotic, analgesic, restorative properties. For the prevention of baldness and for the treatment of hair loss, a decoction from the roots is used. The leaves can serve as a mild anesthetic. And a decoction of them is used in the treatment of pulmonary diseases, their external use helps with skin problems. When chewing the leaves, you can feel the sweetness of sugar, the sour taste of lemon and the bitterness of quinine for 5 minutes.

A decoction of branches, bark and leaves is used for gastritis and tuberculosis due to bacteriostatic and antibacterial action. Ziziphus is also used in the production of dietary supplements. You should limit the use of plant fruits with hypotension. It is believed that unabi is also effective for sexual dysfunction in men.