Marula

The marula is a medium to large deciduous tree with a rounded crown, grey mottled bark and compound leaves. Male and female flowers usually grow on separate trees. The fruit is a round yellow drupe about the size of a small plum, with white juicy flesh and a very thick-walled stone. The stone has two or three small holes, often covered by tiny lids, and each cavity contains an oval cream-coloured kernel with a mild, nutty taste. Kernels are sold raw or roasted, and marula oil is cold pressed from them, producing a pale yellow oil with a light nutty smell.

Marula is native to the savanna woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa, from West Africa across to Ethiopia and south to Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, with subspecies in different regions. It has been used and protected by local peoples for millennia, and archaeological evidence from southern Africa suggests that the nuts were eaten many thousands of years ago. The scientific name Sclerocarya refers to the hard fruit stone, and the common name marula comes from words in southern African languages such as Tswana and Sotho.

Marula trees are highly valued across southern Africa, where they are often left standing when land is cleared for farming. The fruit ripens in summer and is eaten fresh, made into jelly and used to brew a fermented drink, sometimes called marula beer. Communities in several regions hold marula celebrations at harvest time. The kernels, which are laborious to extract from the stones, have long been eaten as a snack and added to relishes, and the oil used for cooking and as a skin moisturiser and hair dressing.

Stories that elephants become drunk on fermenting marula fruit are popular, though researchers have disputed the idea, and elephants do browse on the trees. In the late twentieth century, marula became known internationally through the cream liqueur made from the fruit in South Africa. Community co-operatives and cosmetics firms have since developed fair-trade marula oil production, in which rural women collect and crack stones by hand and sell the kernels or oil, creating a modest income from a wild resource.

The kernels are eaten raw or roasted as a snack, ground into relishes and sauces, or pressed for oil. Marula oil is used for cooking in some communities and widely in skin and hair care products, valued for its high oleic acid content and good oxidative stability. The fruit pulp makes juice, jam, liqueurs and traditional beer. The bark, leaves and roots feature in traditional medicines, for example for stomach complaints, and the timber is used for carving bowls and drums. Press cake left after oil extraction can be used as livestock feed.

Marula kernels are rich in fat, mainly monounsaturated, and protein, and the fruit is notably high in vitamin C. Marula oil contains tocopherols and phenolic compounds, and some laboratory studies report antioxidant activity. Traditional medicinal uses of the bark and leaves, including for diabetes and infections, have been studied in animals and in the laboratory, but human trials are lacking and no health claims have been established. Kernels are energy dense, so moderate portions are sensible.