Hanza facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hanza |
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| Unripe fruits | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Boscia
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| Species: |
senegalensis
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Boscia senegalensis, also known as hanza, is a plant from the Capparaceae family. It comes from West Africa. This plant is a traditional food in Africa and can help people get enough to eat, especially in dry areas.
Hanza is a woody plant from the Sahel region in Africa. It's an evergreen shrub that can grow 2 to 4 meters (about 6 to 13 feet) tall. Its leaves are small and tough. The plant grows yellow, round fruits in small bunches, about 1.5 cm (half an inch) wide. Each fruit has 1 to 4 greenish seeds.
Hanza is important because it provides many useful things. It helps people in the Sahel region, where food can be scarce. It offers food, items for homes, and even medicines.
People in different places call hanza by many names. Some common names include aizen in Mauritania, mukheit in Arabic, and ngigili in Fulani. The fruits also have different names, like dilo in Hausa.
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Where Hanza Grows and Its History
Hanza is a wild plant that grows naturally in the Sahel region of Africa. It has not been grown on farms like many other crops. You can find it in countries like Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Senegal.
This plant has been very important to local people for a long time. For example, the Hausa people in Niger and Fulani herders in West Africa know a lot about using hanza. During a big food shortage in 1984–1985, over 94% of people in northern Darfur relied on hanza for food.
How Hanza Grows Best
Hanza can grow in many different places. It grows at heights from 60 to 1450 meters (about 200 to 4750 feet) above sea level. It likes temperatures between 22 and 30 degrees Celsius (72-86°F). It also needs only a little rain, about 100 to 500 mm (4-20 inches) each year.
Hanza can grow in poor soils like rocky ground, clay hills, or sand dunes. This makes it a very strong plant. It can grow even in the very hot and dry desert areas of the Sahel. This is why it's so important for farmers who don't have much money. When other crops fail because of drought, hanza can still survive and provide food.
Benefits for Farms and the Environment
Hanza helps farmers by protecting the soil. It stops the soil from washing away or becoming damaged by wind. It also helps stabilize sand dunes and gives shade to other plants. It even helps put nutrients back into the soil.
Sometimes, farmers cut or burn hanza trees to make space for other crops like millet. But hanza is very tough! It grows back as a small bush after the first rains.
What Hanza is Used For
Eating Hanza Fruits and Seeds
Hanza fruits are ready to eat at the start of the rainy season. This is when most other crops are just being planted, so there isn't much other food around. You can eat the fruits raw or cooked. Raw fruits are sweet at first, then they dry into a sugary solid.
People often cook the fruits. You can also squeeze out the juice and boil it down to a butter-like paste. This paste can be mixed with millet and milk to make cakes. In Sudan, people even make beer from the fruit!
The seeds of hanza are also a very important food source, especially when there's not much food. To get the seeds ready, people dry the fruits in the sun. Then they pound them to remove the outer shell. After that, the seeds are soaked in water for several days. The water must be changed every day. This soaking process is called debittering. It removes bitter and possibly harmful parts from the seeds.
Seeds are usually cooked before eating. Cooked hanza seeds are like chickpeas. You can use them in stews, soups, and porridges instead of cereals. You can also dry the seeds again and store them for later. They can even be ground into flour to make porridge. Roasted hanza seeds can be used as a coffee substitute.
In Niger, new foods are being made from hanza seeds. These include couscous, cakes, cookies, bread, and hummus. These new products won an award at a food fair in Niger in 2012.
Other Uses of the Hanza Plant
The leaves of hanza have special substances that help make flour from cereals. They also help protect stored cereals from pests. Hanza leaves have many medicinal uses too. They can fight parasites, fungi, and help heal wounds. Even though they don't taste great, animals can eat the leaves if there's no other food.
Young hanza roots can be ground up and boiled to make a thick, sweet porridge. The wood from the plant can be used to build homes or as fuel for cooking when needed.
Hanza also has natural cleaners that can make dirty water clear. Parts of the plant, like bark or leaves, can be put into murky water. They make the dirt sink to the bottom, so you can get clean water from the top.
What's Inside Hanza? (Nutritional Information)
Hanza fruits are full of carbohydrates, which give you energy. They are about 66.8% carbohydrates.
The seeds are also very nutritious. They have a lot of protein (25%) and carbohydrates (60%). This means they have more protein and carbs than local cereals like sorghum and millet. Hanza seeds are also rich in zinc, iron, and important vitamins like B-vitamins. They have a lot of tryptophan, which is an important nutrient.
Hanza leaves have many antioxidants, which are good for your body. They have almost 1.5 times more antioxidants than spinach! They are also high in calcium, potassium, manganese, and iron.
Hanza and Money (Economics)
People buy and sell hanza leaves, seeds, and fruits in many small markets in the Sahel region. There are ways to make hanza even more valuable. For example, roasting seeds to sell as a coffee substitute or making beer from the fruit. Processing hanza into prepared foods or medicines can also help.
Hanza can help poor people earn more money. It protects their stored cereals from pests, so they don't have to buy as much. It also provides food they might otherwise have to buy. In Niger, a company sells many products made from hanza seeds.
Hanza and Women
In rural areas, women often gather and prepare hanza for their families. This can mean extra work for them. However, because they control this process, they have better access to this food. This can help improve their nutrition. In Niger, women in villages gather and prepare hanza seeds for sale to companies. This gives them a valuable way to earn money.
Why Hanza Seeds are Bitter
Hanza seeds taste very bitter because they contain a substance called glucocapparin. To make them safe to eat, the seeds must be debittered. This usually involves soaking them in water for about a week, changing the water daily. The bitter substance washes out into the water.
The bitterness in hanza seeds acts like a natural bug spray when the fruits are on the tree. Most animals don't want to eat the fruits until they are fully ripe. Also, dried hanza seeds that are still bitter are not eaten by rodents or insects. This means bitter hanza seeds can be stored safely for several years if kept dry. Then, they can be debittered and eaten when needed. This is very helpful for making sure people have food when times are tough.
Challenges for Hanza
One challenge with hanza seeds is that they are hard to store for a long time. They quickly lose their ability to grow if they get too dry. This makes it hard to grow many hanza plants for large-scale farming.
Another challenge is the bitterness. Removing the bitter parts needs a lot of water, which is scarce in dry areas. It also takes extra work.
Helpful Tips for Hanza
Storing hanza seeds in cool places can help them last longer. They can be stored for up to 2 months at 15 degrees Celsius (59°F).
It's important to teach farmers about all the benefits of hanza. This will encourage them to plant more of it. New hanza plants would help protect the soil and provide food during times of hunger.
Scientists are also looking into ways to improve hanza. They are trying techniques like grafting and creating new types of hanza plants. This could lead to bigger harvests or better fruits. Research is also being done to grow hanza in labs.
