Tamarind monograph.pdf - Crops for the Future

3.4.6 Wood
Tamarind wood has many uses including making furniture, wheels, mallets,
rice pounders, mortars, pestles, ploughs, well construction, tent pegs, canoes,
side planks for boats, cart shafts and axles, and naves of wheels, toys, oil
presses, sugar presses, printing blocks, tools and tool handles, turnery, etc.
(Coates-Palgrave, 1988; Troup, 1909). Tamarind heartwood is considered to
be a very durable timber and is used in furniture making as it takes on a good
polish (Jayaweera, 1981). However, due to its hardness it is difficult to work
and liable to crack during seasoning (Dalziel, 1937; Eggeling and Dale,
1951; Bolza and Keating, 1972; Allen and Allen, 1981; Chaturvedi, 1985).
The tree tends to become hollow in the centre as it gets old, and it is
therefore difficult to get a tamarind plank of any width. For this reason its
value in house construction is limited. People in the French Reunion Islands,
however, consider tamarind to be a high quality timber valued for furniture
making (Borderes, 1991). In North America, tamarind wood has been traded
under the name of ‘Madeira mahogany’ (NAS, 1979).
The wood is also good fuelwood with a calorific value of 4850 kcal/kg,
producing a great heat, which is required for example, in brick making. The
wood can be used to make charcoal but other multipurpose trees are
preferred (Gohil and Singh, 2003) since they produce a higher dry stem
biomass, even though tamarind wood density is high at 850 kg/m 3 (Rao and
Sampathrajan, 2001). It is valued for making gunpowder (NAS, 1979;
Chaturvedi, 1985; Purseglove, 1987), and it was also used as a major fuel for
producer gas (gasogen) units that powered Indian cars and trucks during
World War II. In Malaysia, although the trees are seldom felled, they are
frequently lopped to obtain firewood (Morton, 1987).
The ash is used to remove hair from animal hides (Dalziel, 1937; Irvine,
1961; Salim et al., 1998) and can be mixed with fruit pulp for cleansing and
brightening brass and copper vessels.
3.5 Medicinal uses
The medicinal value of tamarind is mentioned in traditional Sanskrit
literature. The laxative properties of the pulp and the diuretic properties of
the leaf sap have been confirmed by modern medical science (Bueso, 1980).
Tamarind fruits were well known in Europe for their medicinal properties,
having been introduced by Arab traders from India (Rama Rao, 1975).
Tamarind products, leaves, fruits and seeds have been extensively used in
traditional Indian and African medicine (Jayaweera, 1981; Parrotta, 1990).
Several medicinal properties are claimed for preparations containing
tamarind pulp, leaves, flowers, bark and roots (Bueso, 1980).
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