The produce of a large tree very common in Hindostan. The fruit is
about the size of, and very much resembling in shape, a goat's kidney,
and having the external appearance of an apple. When ripe, it sometimes
retains the green color, but oftener becomes yellow, or red and yellow.
The virtues ascribed to this tree, are as follows:--The bruised
leaves and young shoots applied to the hair, expedite its growth,
and considerably darken its color.
The bark of the trunk of the tree, and of its roots, is cooling and
astringent; the former powerfully so. The leaves are astringent,
and promote digestion; their ashes styptic.
The young flowers are cool and drying; have a pleasant aromatic scent,
and when taken internally, are cooling and astringent; recommended
for the cure of chronic Gonorrhoea or Gleet, purulent expectoration,
bilious foulness of the blood and boils. The young unripe fruit has
much acidity, and is drying; moderately used, it increases all the
animal secretions, and is beneficial in chronic affections of the
liver; it promotes appetite, and is lithonthriptic. The fruit, when
ripe, is sweet, cooling, mucilaginous and heavy, tending to allay
thirst, and useful in nervous affections; strengthens the system,
restores impaired appetite, (is said to moderate an increased secretion
of bile,) and improves the complexion. The fruit is of various sizes,
from a few drachms to a pound weight; but it is usually met with
weighing about 4 ounces. It becomes acid about a month after the fall
of the flower, in which state it is used as preserves, such as jellies,
pickles, &c.; at this time, too, it is used as seasoning for Pilaus,
and other dishes; for when the stone or kernel has become hard, it
is no longer fit for these purposes. When the fruit has attained its
full growth, and when nearly ripe, it is to be taken from the tree,
and put into dry grass, straw, or the leaves of the Palass tree, and
there allowed to become ripe; this process deprives it of all acidity,
and also prevents the formation of a resinous gum, which it contracts
when allowed to ripen on the tree, and which renders it too pungent
to be eaten with relish.
The fruit is in perfection in the hot winds, and when the rains
commence, it ripens very fast; before the cold weather it is usually
out of season.
There are some trees that blossom the whole year, and some few that
even produce fruit; but instances of this are very rare.
There is a variety of this tree on which the fruit is sweet from its
first formation; this requires to be used early, otherwise it will
in all probability become a prey to insects.
Some trees produce fruit only once in 4 years. In general, it produces
fruit in abundance every second year, and less in the alternate year;
some are even perfectly barren every alternate year.
There is a mode of manuring this tree, which it is said improves
the flavour of the fruit greatly; this is mixing the juice of its
fruit with milk, and pouring it over the roots. It is also said to
be possible to communicate the flavor of any particular fruit to the
mangoe, by its expressed juice being made use of, as an application
to the roots of the tree.
The kernel of the mangoe, roasted, is pleasant to the taste, and
grateful to the stomach; it is much recommended in laxities of the
bowels, and strengthens the primÊ viÊ; water drank after having eat
of this kernel, seems to possess a flavor peculiarly excellent. The
usual mode of preparing them, is to allow them to remain exposed to
the rains, till the shell shall have become decayed; by this process
it is deprived of any heating or irritating property. Prepared in this
manner, and kept a short time in lime juice, taken out, bruised and
mixed with salt, fennel, &c, it is much extolled for strengthening
the stomach, and promoting digestion.
If preserved for 3 years, pounded, and swallowed to the quantity of a
tolah, with a little water, no medicine is preferable for strengthening
bowels habitually lax.
In the acid state, the fruit is very prejudicial to those who have
any disorders in their teeth, a cough, an affection of the chest, or
who are subject to cholicky pain in the bowels, but very beneficial
when used in irritable habits. The best method of using them is
this. The acid unripe fruit, after the outer rind has been peeled
off, is to be cut into thin slices, and infused for some hours in
water; this water so impregnated, is to be drained off, mixed with
a sufficient proportion of sugar, and used as sherbet. It produces a
great relish for food, and is in other respects beneficial. The same
effects are produced by the unripe fruit, being roasted and allowed to
remain in water, as above mentioned. It is recommended in paralysis,
from coup de vent. Many physicians have considered the mangoe to be
of a cooling nature, but, in my opinion, it is heating in all its
stages. The Yunani physicians have stated the ripe fruit to be hot
in the 2d, and dry in the 3d degree.
Its virtues may be described in a few words. It strengthens the
system, gives tone to the kidnies, restores impaired appetite, &c. It
is aperient, improves the complexion, beneficial in piles, an useful
deobstruent, braces and increases the bulk of the solids, and removes
nervous affections. In some of these disorders I am inclined to doubt
of its good effects, but such virtues are attributed to it. It is
recommended, in order to prevent any bad effects from the fruit in
its unripe state, that raisins be eaten with it. Hukeem Alwee Khan,
a man of eminence in his profession in the reign of Mahommed Shah,
says, that if ever this fruit disagreed with the system, it must have
been eaten when unripe or green.
I had occasion to attend a gentleman of very high rank, who laboured
under dropsy; I cured him of the disease, but 3 years afterwards,
having eaten a large quantity of mangoes, the disease returned,
and I have observed the same effects in other cases.
Hukeem Alli Mughphoor, physician, states, that influenced by the
resemblance of the mangoe to the human kidney, he concluded that
it must be beneficial in that organ, (disorders of;) he therefore
prescribed it in a case of hectic fever, arising from diseased kidney,
and completely cured the disease. In this I differ from him entirely;
he must have mistaken the nature of the complaint, for a remedy given
expressly for the cure of a disease in the kidney, could not, at the
same time, have removed the fever, excepting appropriate medicines
had been administered along with it!!
The best mangoes are those having a thin juice, sweet and free from
fibres; and they ought to be cooled in water or in ice, especially
during the hot weather. It is preferable to use the juice of the fruit
without eating any of the fibrous parts; a neglect of this may produce
various disorders, such as indigestion, cholicky pains, &c. It is very
common to eat the expressed juice, mixed with sugar and other things,
with rice, or with bread, but this is great imprudence; for in the
most healthy subjects it may produce nausea, and general uneasiness.
Should any ill effects follow the use of the mangoe, milk, or the
kernel of the fruit, will be found a corrector. My father's opinion
is, that these are not the only remedies; for if it produces any
heating effect, curdled milk will give relief, or even cold water,
or acidulated sherbet, and he himself was always in the habit of
using the Phalsa sherbet on these occasions.
Should cholic be produced, the Oil of Almonds or other sweet oils,
will remove the complaint; and a diarrhoea is to be cured by the use of
the kernel; and a swelling of the abdomen, by milk, in which a little
ginger has been mixed; or even ginger by itself will have the effect
A substitute for mangoe, as a medicine, may be had in Chobe Cheenee.
In general, it will be adviseable to abstain from the use of the
mangoe, till 2 or 3 showers of rain have fallen; but those of a
cold phlegmatic or melancholic temperament do not require to be
so particular.
Those for whose complaints mangoes have been recommended, have in a
few months derived great benefit from their use, by eating them with
camel's milk. There are many kinds of this fruit, and their names
are as various; but the stronger the scent, the more effectual they
are as a medicine. In Persian it is called Nugzuck.
2 Aramsheetul.--Pungent and cooling; useful in bilious and catarrhal
complaints; also recommended in foulness of the blood.
3 Akaholie.--Vermifuge, also recommended in bilious and catarrhal
disorders, in seminal weakness and gonorrhoea.