Calabash chalk

General information

Calabash chalk is a mineral that is mainly composed of fossilized seashells. It is also known as Calabar stone, La Craie or Argile in French, Nzu by the Ibo of Nigeria, and Mabele by the Lingala speaking people of Zaire. In some African communities it is eaten by pregnant women to relieve morning sickness.

Calabash chalk should not be confused with other terms containing the word “calabash”. The calabash tree is a tropical American tree ( Crescentia cujete ) with a large melon-like fruit, also called calabash, and the word is also used to refer in general to a gourd or the shell of the calabash fruit, used, for example, as a vessel or tobacco pipe. Calabash nutmeg is the fruit of an unrelated tropical tree ( Monodora myristica ), whose seeds are used as nutmegs.