Description

Alhagi maurorum, the Persian manna plant or camel thorn, is a thorny perennial shrub of the family Fabaceae, native to the arid and semi-arid steppes, dry riverbeds, and salt flats of the Middle East, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and the northwestern Indian subcontinent. Turanjabeen — Persian manna — is the saccharine exudate that accumulates on the plant’s stems and pods during hot summer months, induced by the piercing activity of insects. When collected and dried, it forms small, pale, tear-shaped, sweet crystalline fragments. Documented in classical Unani pharmacopoeia — particularly Avicenna’s Al-Qanun — as a cooling, mild laxative substance incorporated in preparations for constipation, fever, and as a sweet demulcent for throat and gastric conditions. Traded into India from Iran and Afghanistan and incorporated in Unani compound formulations.