earticle

영어

Buchanania lanzan Spreng (common name - Char, Chironji) belonging to family Anacardiaceae. This plant was first described by Francis Hamilton in 1798. It is a non wood tree species found in deciduous forests throughout the greater part of India and generally attaining a height up to 18m and girth 1.5m. In Madhya Pradesh, it is a common associate of teak, sal and mixed forests. It is used for environmental conservation and in ‘agroforestry system’. It is used as a fuel, fodder specially buffaloes alternative host Kusmi lac insect, and its oil for cosmetic items and soaps. Its oil is also used by tribal as edible oil. Seeds / kernel of Buchanania lanzan are nutritional, palatable and used as a substitute of almonds in confectionery. They yield a fatty oil known as Chironji oil and substitute for olive and almond oils in both confectionery and indigenous medicine used for glandular swellings of the neck (CSIR, 1986). Fruits are laxative and used to relieve thirst burning of body and fever. Kernels of fruits are used as ointment in skin diseases (Das and Agrawal, 1991).
Tree of Buchanania lanzan flowers from January to March and fruits ripen in the month of April-June (Troup, 1986). Fruits become red after ripening. The fruit collection take place from April to June. Early harvesting results into low fruit/ seed quality and poor germination potential. In most parts of M. P., fruits of Buchanania lanzan are harvested before ripening. With the result, it fetches low price in the market because of small seed size and low seed quality. In natural forests, its regeneration is vary scanty due to unscientific and pre-mature harvesting of its seeds and site degradation on account of growing biotic pressure. Keeping above in views, there is a need to find out the best harvesting period of Chironji fruit/seed with special reference to seed size, seed weight, biochemistry and germination potential of seed. The present communication deals with morphological, physiological and biochemical study of Buchanania lanzan seed harvested at 7 days interval during its various developing stages from April to May. The fruits were collected from forests of Kundam range in Jabalpur forest division for the present study. The best results in terms of seed size, seed weight, germination percent, oil content etc, were obtained in the fruits harvested in the 2nd week of May.