MANGIFERA INDICA L.

Common name: Mango • Hindi: Am आम • Manipuri: Heinou • Tamil: மா Ma • Telugu: Mamidi •Malayalam: Mangga • Kannada: Mavina mara • Marathi: Amba अंबा • Konkani: Ambo आंबॉ

Botanical name: Mangifera indica     

Family: Anacardiaceae (Cashew family)

Geographical distribution

The plant occurs in tropical and subtropical parts of India and cultivated.

Introduction: It is a matter of astonishment to many that the delicious mango, one of the most celebrated of Indian fruits, is a member of the family Anacardiaceae–notorious for embracing a number of highly poisonous plants. The mango tree is erect, 30 to 100 ft high, with a broad, rounded canopy which may, with age, attain 100 to 125 ft in width, or a more upright, oval, relatively slender crown. In deep soil, the taproot descends to a depth of 20 ft, the profuse, wide-spreading, feeder root system also sends down many anchor roots which penetrate for several feet. The tree is long-lived, some specimens being known to be 300 years old and still fruiting. Nearly evergreen, alternate leaves are borne mainly in rosettes at the tips of the branches and numerous twigs from which they droop like ribbons on slender petioles 1 to 4 in long. Hundreds and even as many as 3,000 to 4,000 small, yellowish or reddish flowers, 25% to 98% male, the rest hermaphroditic, are borne in profuse, showy, erect, pyramidal, branched clusters 2 1/2 to 15 1/2 in high. There is great variation in the form, size, color and quality of the fruits. They may be nearly round, oval, ovoid-oblong, or somewhat kidney-shaped, often with a break at the apex, and are usually more or less lop-sided.

Chemical composition

The ripe fruit contain vitamin A, benzol, gallic acid, citric acid and gum. Bark have 16-20% tannin from which mangeferin is extracted. The cotyledons contain gallic and tannic acid.

Therapeutic uses

A powder of the tender leaves is given in diarrhoea and diabetes. The bark  is astringent and have marked action on mucous membranes. It is given in menorrhagia, leucorrhoea, dysentery, bleeding piles, haemorrhage from lungs, intestine, uterus and diarrhoea. Dried flowers, being astringent and are useful in diarrhoea, chronic dysentery and catarrh of the bladder. The unripe fruit is acidic and astringent. The ripe fruit is diuretic, laxative and astringent.

Folk medicinal uses

The juice of the fresh bark with the addition of the white of an egg or some mucilage and a little opium is given for the treatment of leucorrhoea and menorrhagia. Powder of the bark is given in doses of 60 gm twice a day for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery. An ointment made of the resinous gum from the tree is used in dressing for scabies and other parasitic skin diseases.

Flowers: March-April Fruits : June-July