Herb library · Herb · Aegle marmelos
Bael (bilva)
The hard-shelled wood apple of India, whose leaves are offered to Shiva and whose unripe fruit is Ayurveda's classic remedy for loose bowels. The one trial of bael alone, in dysentery, found no benefit.
Traditional use
Dutt's 1877 compilation of the Sanskrit medical writers records that Hindus hold the bael tree in great veneration as sacred to Shiva, whose worship needs its leaves. In medicine, the unripe or half-ripe fruit was regarded as astringent and digestive and used to restrain discharges from the bowels, the dried pulp was counted a specific for dysentery, the ripe fruit was eaten as a sweet, cooling laxative, and the root bark is one of the ten roots of dashamula. Bael fruit is still eaten fresh and as a summer drink (bel sharbat) across India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
What studies show
- Limited· shows no benefit
Dysentery: in a 1991 randomized, double-blind trial in Bangladesh, 16 men with shigella dysentery took dried unripe bael fruit powder. They did no better than those given a placebo, while those given the antibiotic ampicillin improved. One small trial cannot settle it.
Be careful of
Cautions
- InteractionIn lab tests with human liver enzymes, bael fruit extract blocked CYP3A4 and CYP1A2, enzymes that break down many medicines. Whether eating the fruit does this in people is not known; ask a pharmacist if you take prescription medicines and use bael extracts regularly.
- ConditionBloody diarrhea, or diarrhea with fever, needs a clinician. In the one trial, bael did not help people with shigella dysentery.
- PregnancyNo safety information for bael extracts in pregnancy or breastfeeding was found; the fruit as ordinary food is a different matter from concentrated extracts.
- Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using bael extracts if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving them to a child.
From the old books
What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.
“The unripe or half ripe fruit is regarded as astringent, digestive and stomachic and as useful in restraining discharges from the alimentary canal.”
Sources
- Evaluation of indigenous plants in the treatment of acute shigellosis (Trop Geogr Med, 1991) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Inhibition of CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 by Aegle marmelos and its constituents (Xenobiotica, 2016) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
Reviewed September 25, 2026.