Bidara / Jujube is a small, fruit-bearing tree that grows in dry areas. Superior jujube cultivars are traded fresh, eaten raw, or made into refreshing drinks. In some places, the fruit is also dried, candied, or prepared. Young fruit is eaten with salt or in rujak (fruit salad). It is thought to have originated in Central Asia and has spread naturally across a wide area from Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Uganda, and Kenya in Africa; to Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, Bangladesh, southern China, Vietnam, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and Australia. Jujube is now cultivated in many African countries, including Madagascar. However, only India, China, and to a lesser extent Thailand are the only countries where it is commercially cultivated.

This plant thrives best in areas with a distinct dry season. Its fruit quality is best in hot, sunny, and fairly dry environments; however, it should experience an adequate rainy season to allow for the growth of twigs, leaves, and flowers, and to maintain soil moisture during fruit ripening. Bidara grows widely in areas with 300–500 mm of annual rainfall. For commercial purposes, the jujube tree can be grown up to an altitude of 1,000 m above sea level, but above this altitude, growth is less favorable. Tolerant of dry climates and flooding, the jujube is adaptable and often grows wild in poorly maintained areas and along roadsides. Grows in various types of soil: laterite, well-drained black soil, sandy soil, clay, alluvial soil along river courses.

• Roots. Taproots are fast-growing and deep, with extensive lateral roots—an important adaptation to drought.

• The trunk is up to ±40 cm in diameter. The bark is dark gray–black, dull, irregularly grooved/fissured. Young branches are finely hairy (tomentose). A large shrub to small–medium tree, evergreen, generally 3–15 m tall; the crown is spreading with many drooping branches. In very dry/extreme locations, it often grows compactly to only ±3–4 m.

• Leaves. Arranged alternately in two rows; generally oblong-elliptic, approximately 2.5–6 × 1.5–5 cm (may be larger in cultivars). Upper surface is glossy green and glabrous; under surface has dense whitish hairs (tomentum). Leaf margins are wavy-finely serrated (crenate-serrate); prominent veins in three bundles from the base (triplinervius). Leaf stalks are short.

• Flowers. Small flowers (±2–3 mm), whitish-yellowish green, faintly scented; corolla 5 (concave/“pocketed” petals typical of Rhamnaceae), sepals 5 with deltoid lobes, finely hairy on the outside. Flowers are gathered in axillary cymes ±1–2 cm long, each cyme containing ±7–20 flowers; pedicels ±3–8 mm long.

• Fruit & seeds. The fruit is a drupe; in the wild it is generally globose-ovoid with a diameter of approximately 2–3 cm, but in cultivation it can enlarge to ±6 × 4 cm. The skin is smooth (sometimes somewhat rough), shiny, thin but strong; ripe color is yellow–reddish brown to blackish. The flesh is white, crispy to mealy when very ripe. The stone/core (pyrene) is warty-irregularly grooved, hollow with 1–2 chambers with 1–2 elliptical brown seeds (±6 mm).

• Spines/stipules. Stipules are modified spines; usually in pairs, they can be straight or curved (hooked). Spines are generally short to medium (5–15 mm), with some individuals being nearly spineless.

• Generative Propagation (through seeds)

• Vegetative Propagation (through cuttings, grafting, and budding)

Treating diarrhea and dyspepsia, fever, cough/asthma, Healing wounds and abscesses (leaves/topical cream), As a liver tonic and for liver disorders, Calming/sedative effect (seeds/kernels are used traditionally for sleep complaints, anxiety), Antimicrobial against skin infections and wounds and as a local anti-inflammatory.

Alkaloids, Flavonoids, polyphenols (e.g. luteolin, quercetin, myricetin, glycoside derivatives), Triterpenes, triterpenoids (e.g. betulinic acid, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid), Saponins (including jujuboside/spinosin-type in some species), Phenolics, phenolic acids, Fatty acids & nutritional components (vitamin C, carotenoids, sugars)