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ZIZIPHUS JUJUBA

Jujube, sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name Ziziphus jujuba and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae.

Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), also called Chinese date or Chinese jujube, is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees in the world and is the most important species in the large cosmopolitan family Rhamnaceae in terms of its economic, ecological, and social importance.
Ziziphus jujubas utilization and cultivation history can be traced back to the Neolithic age, 7000 years ago.
Ziziphus jujuba has been spread all over China, with a cultivation area of ~2 million hectares and an annual production of over 8 million tons.
More than 90% of jujube production is concentrated in six provinces, namely, Xinjiang, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan.
At present, Ziziphus jujuba is one of the main cultivated fruit species, the foremost dried fruit in terms of production, and the main income source of ~20 million farmers in China.
Since Ziziphus jujuba was introduced into neighboring countries such as Korea and Japan 2000 years ago, jujube has spread to at least 48 countries, commercial jujube cultivation has developed at different levels in China, South Korea, Iran, Israel, the United States, Italy, Australia, and other countires.
Jujube is becoming increasingly important in arid and semiarid marginal lands because of its outstanding endurance and adaptability to drought as well as barren and salty soil and deserves to be considered a superfruit for the future due to its distinct advantages.

Jujube is a small deciduous tree or shrub reaching a height of 5–12 metres (16–39 ft), usually with thorny branches.
The leaves are shiny-green, ovate-acute, 2–7 centimetres (0.79–2.76 in) long and 1–3 centimetres (0.39–1.18 in) wide, with three conspicuous veins at the base, and a finely toothed margin. The flowers are small, 5 mm (0.20 in) wide, with five inconspicuous yellowish-green petals.
Jujube fruit is an edible oval drupe 1.5–3 centimetres (0.59–1.18 in) deep; when immature it is smooth-green, with the consistency and taste of an apple with lower acidity, maturing brown to purplish-black, and eventually wrinkled, looking like a small date.
There is a single hard kernel, similar to an olive pit, containing two seeds.

Jujubes precise natural distribution is uncertain due to extensive cultivation, but is thought to be in southern Asia, between Lebanon, northern India, and southern and central China, and possibly also southeastern Europe though more likely introduced there.
Jujube is cultivated in parts of southern California.

Jujube has been introduced in Madagascar and grows as an invasive species in the western part of the island.
Jujube is known as the "hinap" or "finab" in the eastern part of Bulgaria where it grows wild but is also a garden shrub, kept for its fruit.
Jujube fruit is picked in the autumn.

The related "Indian jujube" (Ziziphus mauritiana) grows wild in the eastern Caribbean, and is reported to exist in Jamaica, The Bahamas, and Trinidad as well.
In Barbados and Guyana the fruit is called "dongz" or "donks".
In Antigua and Barbuda, the fruit is called "dumps" or "dums"; and in The Bahamas, "juju".
Jujube is also known as "pomme surette" on the French islands of the Caribbean.
Altun Ha, an ancient Mayan city in Belize, located in the Belize District about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Belize City and the surrounding woods, also boasts some jujube tree and shrub varieties where it is referred to as plums for lack of a better word among locals.

The ultimate source of the name is Ancient Greek ζίζυφον zízyphon.
This was borrowed into Classical Latin as zizyphum (used for the fruit) and zizyphus (the tree).
A descedant of the Latin word into a Romance language, which may have been French jujube or medieval Latin jujuba, in turn gave rise to the common English jujube.
This name is not related to jojoba, which is a loan from Spanish jojoba, itself borrowed from hohohwi, the name of that plant in a Native American language.

The binomial name has a curious nomenclatural history, due to a combination of botanical naming regulations, and variations in spelling.
Jujube was first named in the binomial system by Carl Linnaeus as Rhamnus zizyphus, in Species Plantarum (1753).
Philip Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, considered that the jujube and its relatives were sufficiently distinct from Rhamnus to be placed in a separate genus (as it had already been by the pre-Linnaean author Tournefort in 1700), and in the 1768 edition he gave it the name Ziziphus jujuba (using Tournefort's spelling for the genus name).
For the species name, he used a different name, as tautonyms (repetition of exactly the same name in the genus and species) are not permitted in botanical naming.
However, because of Miller's slightly different spelling, the combination of the earlier species name (from Linnaeus) with the new genus, Ziziphus zizyphus, is not a tautonym, and was therefore permitted as a botanical name.
This combination was made by Hermann Karsten in 1882.
In 2006, a proposal was made to suppress the name Ziziphus zizyphus in favor of Ziziphus jujuba, and this proposal was accepted in 2011.
Ziziphus jujuba is thus the correct scientific name for this species.

Leaves contain saponin and Ziziphin, which suppresses the ability to perceive sweet taste.

Flavinoids found in the fruits include Kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside, Quercetine 3-O-robinobioside, Quercetine 3-O-rutinoside.
Terpenoids such ascolubrinic acid and alphitolic acid were found in the fruits.

Jujube was domesticated in South Asia by 9000 BC.
Over 400 cultivars have been selected.

Jujube tree tolerates a wide range of temperatures and rainfall, though it requires hot summers and sufficient water for acceptable fruiting. Unlike most of the other species in the genus, it tolerates fairly cold winters, surviving temperatures down to about −15 °C (5 °F), and the tree is, for instance, commonly cultivated in Beijing.
This wide tolerance enables the jujube to grow in mountain or desert habitats, provided there is access to underground water throughout the summer.
The jujube (Z. jujuba) grows in cooler regions of Asia.
Five or more other species of Ziziphus are widely distributed in milder climates to hot deserts of Asia and Africa.

In Madagascar, jujube trees grow extensively in the western half of the island, from the north all the way to the south.
Jujube is widely eaten by free-ranging zebus, and its seeds grow easily in zebu feces.
Jujube is an invasive species there, threatening mostly protected areas.

Varieties
Varieties of jujube include Li, Lang, Sherwood, Silverhill, So, Shui Men, and GA 866.

Culinary use
The freshly harvested, as well as the candied dried Jujube fruit, are often eaten as a snack, or with coffee.
Smoked jujubes are consumed in Vietnam and are referred to as black jujubes.
Both China and Korea produce a sweetened tea syrup containing jujube fruit in glass jars, and canned jujube tea or jujube tea in the form of teabags.
To a lesser extent, jujube fruit is made into juice and jujube vinegar (called 枣醋 or 红枣醋 in Chinese).
Jujubes are used for making pickles (কুলের আচার) in west Bengal and Bangladesh.
In Assam Jujube is known as "Bogori" and is famous for Bogori aachar (বগৰি আচাৰ).
In China, a wine made from jujube fruit is called hong zao jiu (红枣酒).

Sometimes pieces of jujube fruit are preserved by storing them in a jar filled with baijiu (Chinese liquor), which allows them to be kept fresh for a long time, especially through the winter.
Such jujubes are called zui zao (醉枣; literally "drunk jujube").
Jujube fruit is also a significant ingredient in a wide variety of Chinese delicacies (e.g. 甑糕 jing gao, a steamed rice cake).

In Vietnam and Taiwan, fully mature, nearly ripe fruit is harvested and sold on the local markets and also exported to Southeast Asian countries.
The dried Jujube fruit is used in desserts in China and Vietnam, such as ching bo leung, a cold beverage that includes the dried jujube, longan, fresh seaweed, barley, and lotus seeds.

In Korea, jujubes are called daechu (대추) and are used in daechucha teas and samgyetang.

In Croatia, especially Dalmatia, jujubes are used in marmalades, juices, and rakija (fruit brandy).

On his visit to Medina, the 19th-century English explorer, Sir Richard Burton, observed that the local variety of jujube fruit was widely eaten.
He describes its taste as like "a bad plum, an unripe cherry, and an insipid apple."
He gives the local names for three varieties as "Hindi (Indian), Baladi (native), Tamri (date-like)."
A hundred years ago, a close variety was common in the Jordan valley and around Jerusalem.
The bedouin valued the fruit, calling it nabk.
Jujube could be dried and kept for winter or made into a paste which was used as bread.

In Persian cuisine, the dried drupes are known as annab, while in neighboring Azerbaijan, it is commonly eaten as a snack, and is known as innab.
Confusion in the common name apparently is widespread.
The innab is Z. jujuba: the local name ber is not used for innab.
Rather, ber is used for three other cultivated or wild species, e.g., Z. spina-christi, Z. mauritiana, and Z. nummularia in parts of India and is eaten both fresh and dried.
The Arabic name sidr is used for Ziziphus species other than Z. jujuba.

Traditionally in India, the fruits are dried in the sun and the hard seeds removed, after which the dried flesh is pounded with tamarind, red chillies, salt, and jaggery.
In some parts of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, fresh whole ripe Z. jujuba fruit is crushed with the above ingredients and sun-dried to make cakes called ilanthai vadai or regi vadiyalu (Telugu).
Z. jujuba is also commonly consumed as a snack.

In Northern and Northeastern India the fruit is eaten fresh with salt and chilli flakes and also preserved as candy, jam or pickle with oil and spices.

In Madagascar, jujube fruit is eaten fresh or dried. People also use it to make jam.
A jujube honey is produced in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Italy has an alcoholic syrup called brodo di giuggiole.
In Senegal and The Gambia, Jujube is called Sii dem or Ceedem, and the fruit is used as snack and also turned into a dried paste favoured as a sweetmeat by schoolchildren.
More recently it has been processed and sold in Dakar by women.

The commercial jujube candy popular in movie theaters originally contained jujube juice but now uses other flavorings.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Z. jujuba fruit and its seeds are used in Chinese and Korean traditional medicine, where they are believed to alleviate stress, and traditionally for anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-ulcer, anti-inflammatory purposes and sedation, antispastic, antifertility/contraception, hypotensive and antinephritic, cardiotonic, antioxidant, immunostimulant, and wound healing properties.
Z. jujuba is among the fruits used in Kampo.
Jujube, along with Gan Cao, is used in Chinese medicine to harmonize and moderate other herbs.

Jujube fruit is also combined with other herbs to treat colds and influenza.
The fruit contains many different healthy properties like Vitamins, amino acids.
The use of the fruit can be helpful for spleen diseases in Chinese medicine.

Other uses
In Japan, the natsume has given its name to a style of tea caddy used in the Japanese tea ceremony, due to the similar shape.
Its hard, oily wood was, along with pear, used for woodcuts to print the world's first books, starting in the 8th century and continuing through the 19th in China and neighboring countries.
As many as 2000 copies could be produced from one jujube woodcut.

In China, the jujube leaves are sometimes picked for teas, such as by families in Laoshan Village, Shandong Province, China, where it counts as a variety of herbal tea.

The timber is sometimes used for small items, such as tuning pegs for instruments.
Select grade Jujube timber is often used in traditional Asian instruments for fingerboard, pegs, rests & soundposts, ribs & necks etc.
Ziziphus jujuba has a medium to hard density similar to luthier grade European maple and has excellent tonal qualities.
Jujube Wood can be found in local folk instruments from Ceylon/India thru to China/Korea; it is also commonly used in China in violin & cello making for overseas export, though usually stained black to imitate the look of ebony.
Luthier grade jujube wood planes and carves beautifully.

Jujube Ziziphus jujuba Mill is a native plant of China.
Ziziphus jujuba's fruits have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than two thousand years.
The bioactivities of the polysaccharides in this fruit, such as immunobiological and antioxidant activities, have been reported.
The fresh Chinese winter jujube ripens easily and is susceptible to pathogenic infections after harvest, which strongly limits the postharvest life and supply period of the fruit.
Infection is mainly caused by Alternaria alternata and Monilinia fructicola.

The jujube originated in China where they have been cultivated for more than 4000 years and where there are over 400 cultivars. The plants traveled beyond Asia centuries ago and today are grown to some extent in Russia, northern Africa, southern Europe, the Middle East and the southwestern United States. Jujube seedlings, inferior to the Chinese cultivars, were introduced into Europe at the beginning of the Christian era and carried to the United States in 1837. It not until 1908 that improved Chinese selections were introduced by the USDA.

Jujubes are species of the genus Ziziphus Tourn. ex L.
The Zijihus belongs to the family Rhamnaceae named after the genus Rhamnus.
The Rhamnaceae have fruits which are drupes or are dry and are closely related to another family, Vitaceae, which includes major economic species whose fruits are berries.
The name Ziziphus is related to an Arabic word and ancient Greeks used the word ziziphon for the jujube.
There are two major domesticated jujubes, Ziziphus mauritiana Lam. (the Indian jujube or ber), and Ziziphus jujuba Mill.
These two species have been cultivated over vast areas of the world.
The species has a wide range of morphologies from shrubs to small or medium sized trees which might be erect, semierect or spreading.
Height can vary from 3–4 to 10–16 m or more although trees of 20 m are rare.
Trees are semideciduous and much branched.

The bark has deep longitudinal furrows and is grayish brown or reddish in color.
Usually the shrub or tree is spinous, but occasionally unarmed. Branchlets are densely white pubescent, especially when young and tend to be zigzag.
Branches spread erect, becoming flexuous and dull brown gray.
Fruiting branches are not deciduous. Leaf laminae are elliptic to ovate or nearly orbicular.
The apex is rounded, obtuse or subacute to emarginated, the base rounded, sometimes cuneate, mostly symmetrical or nearly so.
Margins are minutely seriate.
There are three marked nerves almost to the apex, the nerves being depressed in the upper, light or dark green, glabrous surface.
Lower surface is whitish due to persistent dense hairs but may be buff colored.
Occasionally the lower surface is glabrous.
Leaves are petiolate 1.1–5.8 mm long and stipules are mostly spines, in each pair one hooked and one straight, or both hooked, or more rarely developed into a spine.

Flowers have sepals which are dorsally tomentose, a disk about 3 mm in diameter and a two-celled ovary, immersed in the disk.
Styles are 2, 1 mm long and connate for half their length.
Flowers tend to have an acrid smell. Flowers are borne in cymes or small axillary clusters.
Cymes can be sessile or shortly pedunculate, peduncles 1–4 mm tomentose.
Pedicels are also tomentose and are 2–4 mm at flowering and 3–6 mm at fruiting.
Fruit is a glabrous globose or oval edible drupe varying greatly in size from 1 to 2 cm diameter but some oval varieties can reach 5×3 cm. The pulp is acidic and sweet, the fruit greenish yellow or sometimes reddish.

The fruits of Ziziphus jujuba, commonly known as jujube, red date or Chinese date, are taken as fresh or dried food, and as traditional medicine worldwide due to high nutritional and health values.
Traditionally in China, jujube is considered as a medicinal fruit that is being used in treating blood deficiency.

Jujube is usually called red date or Chinese date, which is the fruit of Ziziphus jujuba Mill.
that belongs to Rhamnaceae family. Jujube is native to China, and which has been commonly consumed as food supplement and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for thousands of years.
Today, jujube plant is distributed widely not only in China but also in other countries, e.g. Korea, India, Japan, Europe and the United States.
In Huangdi Neijing (475–221 BC), a classic medical text from ancient China, jujube was recorded as one of extremely valuable fruits.
According to Shennong Bencao Jing written between 300 BC and 200 AD, one of the earliest books specializing in Chinese medicine, jujube was regarded as one of the top-grade medicinal herbs that could extend one’s life expectancy by nourishing blood, increasing sleep quality and improving digestive system.
Along with growing number of studies on jujube, various beneficial nutrients within jujube are being proposed, including carbohydrate, mineral, vitamin, sugar and amino acid.
Thus, jujube is considered as a popular nutritious food, worldwide.
Being a Chinese herb or health food supplement, recent studies have indicated that jujube possesses a wide range of pharmacological activities in nervous system, cardiovascular system, as well as anti-oxidation and anti-cancer properties.

Clinically, blood deficiency is usually encountered in women due to the loss of menstrual blood, or in patient who has lost blood or suffered from chronic malnutrition.
Jujube is a functional food, which is believed to possess robust effect in tonifying the blood, in order to prevent blood deficiency in human.
According to the theory of TCM, blood deficiency shows similarity to anemia of individual in western medicine.

The nutritional jujube (Ziziphus jujube Mill.) fruit belonging to the Rhamnaceous family grows mostly in Europe, southern and eastern Asia, and Australia, especially the inland region of northern China.
Jujube has a long history of usage as a fruit and remedy. The main biologically active components are vitamin C, phenolics, flavonoids, triterpenic acids, and polysaccharides.
Recent phytochemical studies of jujube fruits have shed some light on their biological effects, such as the anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiobesity, immunostimulating, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, and gastrointestinal protective activities and inhibition of foam cell formation in macrophages.

Ziziphus jujuba is a deciduous Tree growing to 10 m (32ft) by 7 m (23ft) at a fast rate.

Jujube is both a delicious fruit and an effective herbal remedy.
Jujube aids weight gain, improves muscular strength and increases stamina.
In Chinese medicine Jujube is prescribed as a tonic to strengthen liver function.
Japanese research has shown that jujube increases immune-system resistance.
In one clinical trial in China 12 patients with liver complaints were given jujube, peanuts and brown sugar nightly.
In four weeks their liver function had improved.
Antidote, diuretic, emollient, expectorant.
The dried fruits contain saponins, triterpenoids and alkaloids.
Jujubes are anodyne, anticancer, pectoral, refrigerant, sedative, stomachic, styptic and tonic.
Jujubes are considered to purify the blood and aid digestion.
Jujubes are used internally in the treatment of a range of conditions including chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, pharyngitis, bronchitis, anaemia, irritability and hysteria.
The seed contains a number of medically active compounds including saponins, triterpenes, flavonoids and alkaloids.
Jujube is hypnotic, narcotic, sedative, stomachic and tonic.
Jujube is used internally in the treatment of palpitations, insomnia, nervous exhaustion, night sweats and excessive perspiration.
The root is used in the treatment of dyspepsia.
A decoction of the root has been used in the treatment of fevers.
The root is made into a powder and applied to old wounds and ulcers.
The leaves are astringent and febrifuge.
Jujube is said to promote the growth of hair.
Jujube is used to form a plaster in the treatment of strangury.
The plant is a folk remedy for anaemia, hypertonia, nephritis and nervous diseases.
The plant is widely used in China as a treatment for burns.

Common jujube is a deciduous tree or large shrub that is native from southeastern Europe to China growing 15 to 30 feet tall with a rounded or vase form.
The branches typically have thorns and can be drooping in appearance.
The fruit is edible and has been used in China for many years but is just becoming known in this country.
The fruits mature from green with an apple-like texture and taste to a brownish-purple wrinkled fruit that is date-like.
Jujube can be eaten raw, dried or cooked. Fruit set may not occur in its northernmost zone due to a too-short growing season.

Jujube tree prefers warm and somewhat dry climates and is very tolerant of alkaline soils.
Jujube will grow in full sun to partial shade and prefers well-drained but moist soils.
Jujube will tolerate poor soils and drought.
Use in an edible garden, Asian garden or naturalized setting.

Ziziphus jujuba, called common jujube, is a small, droopy-branched, somewhat spiny, deciduous tree or large shrub that is native from southeastern Europe to China.
Ziziphus jujuba typically matures over time to 15-30' tall.
Ziziphus jujuba was first cultivated in China for its fruit over 4000 years ago.
Although the fruit from this tree is very popular in China today, it is largely unknown in much of the U.S.
Small ovate to oblong-elliptic leaves (to 2" long) are glossy green with finely toothed margins.
Each leaf has two sharp stipular spines. Leaves turn yellow in fall.
Non-showy, white to yellowish green flowers (3/16" diameter) are fragrant.
Flowers bloom in the leaf axils from late spring to early summer.
Fruit is a round to elongate drupe of varying size (from cherry to plum), but typically to 1 1/4" long with a single stone within. When maturing from green to red, each smooth-skinned fruit has a sweet, crisp flesh somewhat reminiscent of an apple.
After maturing to red/reddish brown, the fruits wrinkle and take on the appearance (and some say taste) of a date, hence the alternate common name of Chinese date for this plant.
Many excellent cultivars exist in China.
Fruits may be eaten fresh or may be dried, candied or canned.
Numerous prior medicinal uses.
Ziziphus jujuba is sometimes called Ziziphus zizyphus.

Genus name comes from the Persian name zizfum or zizafun.

Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), or Chinese date, is the most important species of Rhamnaceae, a large cosmopolitan family, and is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees in the world.
Ziziphus jujuba originates from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the ‘mother river’ of the Chinese people.
Ziziphus jujuba is distributed in at least 48 countries on all continents except Antarctica and is becoming increasingly important, especially in arid and semiarid marginal lands.

The fruits of Ziziphus jujuba, known as jujube or Chinese date, are being consumed all around the world because of their health benefits, as both food and herbal medicine.
Traditionally, one of the main functions of jujube, as described in herbal medicine, is to benefit our brain by calming down the mind and improving quality of sleep.

Zizyphus is a shrub or small tree. The fruit is used as food and to make medicine.

People use zizyphus for conditions such as diabetes, high levels of cholesterol or other fats (lipids) in the blood (hyperlipidemia), insomnia, and many others, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.

In manufacturing, zizyphus extracts are used in skin care products.

Jujube is primarily grown for its highly ornamental fruit.
The Ziziphus jujuba fruits are showy dark red drupes carried in abundance from late summer to mid fall.
The Ziziphus jujuba fruit can be messy if allowed to drop on the lawn or walkways, and may require occasional clean-up.
Ziziphus jujuba has green foliage throughout the season. The serrated oval leaves do not develop any appreciable fall color.
The flowers are not ornamentally significant.

This plant is primarily grown as an ornamental, but it's also valued for its edible qualities.
The oval sweet fruit is most often used in the following ways:

-Fresh Eating
-Preserves
-Juice-Making
-Drying

Jujube will grow to be about 40 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 30 feet.
Ziziphus jujuba has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 3 feet from the ground, and should not be planted underneath power lines.
Ziziphus jujuba grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 60 years or more.

This tree does best in full sun to partial shade.
Ziziphus jujuba prefers to grow in average to dry locations, and dislikes excessive moisture.
Ziziphus jujuba is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for xeriscaping or the moisture-conserving landscape.
Ziziphus jujuba is not particular as to soil type or pH.
Ziziphus jujuba is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution.

SYNONYMS
Paliurus mairei H. Lév.
Rhamnus jujube L.
Rhamnus soporifera Lour.
Rhamnus ziziphus L.
Ziziphus mairei (H. Lév.) Browicz & Lauener
Ziziphus nitida Roxb.
Ziziohus orthacantha DC.
Ziziphus rotundata DC.
Ziziohus sativa Gaertn.
Ziziohus soporifera (Lour.) Stokes
Ziziohus tomentosa Poir.
Ziziphus vulgaris Lam