Guggal Plant

Guggal Plant Latest News

A Kutch-based non-profit is planting Khara and Mitha Guggal across five villages to restore native medicinal heritage and biodiversity on community grazing lands.

About Guggal Plant

• It is a spiny shrub or small tree belonging to the Burseraceae family.
• Distribution: It is native to India, Arabia and Pakistan.
• In India, it is found in the arid, rocky tracts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka in India.

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Characteristics of Guggal Plant

• It has an ash-colored bark that comes off in large rough flakes, exposing the under bark that also peels away.
• The tree remains without any foliage for most of the year.
• The plant prefers arid and semi-arid climates and is tolerant of poor soil.
• It grows well in sandy to silt loam soils, which are poor in organic matter and rich in other matters and also considered as drought and salinity resistant plant.
• Guggal seeds do not germinate easily and the saplings take a long time to mature—about 10 years

Uses of Guggul Gum

• Traditional Uses: Gum guggul is used as incense, to make lacquers, varnishes, and ointments, as a fixative in perfumes, and in medicine.
• Modern Uses: Modern therapeutic uses of guggul include nervous diseases, hemiplegia, leprosy, marasmus, musclespasms, neuralgia rtc.
• Guggal-gum extract targets the Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) that regulates cholestrol and checks bile acids produced from cholestrol by the liver.
• The resin from the Guggal tree, known as guggul, is valued in Ayurvedic medicine for treating various ailments.

Source: DTE