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Mango ginger can be regarded as the master impersonator in the plant kingdom. This spice, known as Curcuma amada in scientific lexicon, resembles ginger because of its irregularly branched rhizomes and white flesh, and has the rich sweet flavour of a raw mango.
However, it is nowhere close to a mango or ginger. Rather, the spice belongs to the same genus as turmeric (Curcuma longa). But even here there is a difference: Unlike turmeric’s rich yellow tissue, mango ginger just has a pale yellow core.
Two Curcuma species share the name mango ginger. While C mangga is native to Indonesia, C amada is said to have originated in India. Almost all the major languages of India have a name for the spice, which suggests its long history of use in the country.
Its Bengali name amaada, which literally means mango-like flavour, may have provided its scientific name. Some names allude to its direct link with turmeric, like amragandhi haridra (in Sanskrit), aam haldi (Hindi), ambe halad (Marathi), amba haldar (Gujarati) and huliarasina (Kannada). Other southern languages refer to it “mango ginger” or manga inchi (Malayalam), mankayinchi (Tamil) and mamidi allam (in Telugu).
The spice is cultivated in parts of Odisha, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where it is usually planted in April and harvested seven to eight months later.
But because of its scattered cultivation pattern, data on area, production and productivity are not available. Its flowers are white or pale yellow and valued as decoratives. Good cut flowers have a vase life of 10 days.
Much like turmeric, the rhizome of mango ginger is used extensively in traditional medicine. It has some 130 compounds with antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal and insecticidal properties, says a 2007 review article published in Phytotherapy Research by researchers in Japan.
Indian systems of medicine such as Ayurveda and Unani use the wound-healing properties of the crushed rhizome to treat internal injuries and sprains. A 2015 study on mice by researchers from VNS Group of Institutions in Bhopal, published in Current Traditional Medicine, also finds that applying an ethanolic extract of mango ginger to wounds results in faster healing.
While turmeric is known to have some success in cancer treatment not much research has been done to show if mango ginger could have similar effects. However, researchers from Tamil Nadu have found its methanol extract can kill breast cancer cells without any adverse effects on non-cancerous cells.
Their results were published in Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine in September 2014. A study in March 2021 by Andhra Pradesh researchers says mango ginger can be used to reduce obesity caused by high-fat and high-sugar diets.
Rats, fed on 300 mg of the spice per kg of body weight, showed reduction in diet-induced obesity, memory loss, oxidative stress and neurodegeneration, says the study published in Nutritional Neuroscience.
Use as you wish
Along with medicine, mango ginger also finds extensive use in traditional cuisine. The rhizome is known to stimulate appetite.
People in Odisha, for example, use mango ginger as a palate cleanser between meal courses by simply cutting it into small pieces and mixing with salt and lemon juice, says Gurugram-based food blogger Shweta Mohapatra, who writes about Odia food.
Crushed mango ginger is also added, along with curd, chillies and salt, to pakhala bhat, a fermented rice dish prepared by soaking cooked rice overnight. One of her favourites is a sweet and sour tomato chutney (see recipe).
Chitra Balasubramaniam, a Delhi-based food writer, prepares an instant pickle with the spice. She says that despite its benefits, unique taste and easy availability, mango ginger remains under-utilised and has not been used much beyond traditional cuisine. She adds that people can easily experiment with this rhizome, as it can be added raw to several dishes.
The spice is said to taste best when consumed fresh or as pickles and chutneys. Though mango ginger is easily available in the forms of pickles and dried powder on e-commerce sites, its potential for greater use in the food industry is now being explored.
Researchers with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysuru have mixed the rhizome powder with wheat flour in the ratio of 1:10 to prepare soup sticks. They say the spice improves both the texture and nutritional proper-ties of the soup sticks.
These had higher dietary fibre content (8.64 per cent) and antioxidant activity (48.06 per cent) as against control sticks (3.31 per cent and 26.83 per cent, respectively), they write in the Journal of Food Science and Tech-nology in December 2014.
Used in any form, the quaintly named mango ginger is sure to add zing to a meal.
Recipe: Tomato chutney
Ingredients
Method
Heat oil in a pan and add panch phoron. Wait until they pop, and add the chilli and chopped tomatoes. Now add the mango ginger and let it cook till the tomatoes soften. Add jaggery, salt and half a cup of water to it; keep cooking till the tomatoes turn pulpy. Taste and adjust for salt or jaggery. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with a coriander leaf.
Recipe: Instant pickle
Ingredients
Method
Cut the mango ginger into small pieces. Add salt and mix well. Add oil heated and tempered with mustard seeds and asafoetida. Add lemon juice and the pickle is ready to eat.