Witnessed by: Ayurveda · Unani
Mango (Mangifera indica), of the Anacardiaceae family. Large, long-lived evergreen tree with a dense rounded crown; native range: the Indo-Burmese region and the foothills of the eastern Himalaya; cultivated across the tropics since deep antiquity. Globally recognized as amra / rasala / sahakara in Sanskrit, aam in Hindi, anba in Arabic, and mango; the unripe (green) fruit is the Unani drug anbaj in English. The part used is ripe fruit and unripe (green) fruit; bark; kernel of the stone (seed); flowers. Green fruit sharply sour and mouth-puckering; the ripe fruit fragrant, golden and honey-sweet. The bark and the flat kernel are dry, bitter-astringent and mouth-drying.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
MANGO
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Mango
- Scientific name
- Mangifera indica L.
- Family
- Anacardiaceae
Form
- Part used
- ripe fruit and unripe (green) fruit; bark; kernel of the stone (seed); flowers
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- ripe fruit: sweet (madhura) · unripe fruit, bark, kernel: sour · astringent (amla-kashaya)
- Unani
- astringent (qabiz, in the unripe fruit and kernel), sour
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- ripe fruit: cooling (sheeta, sweet and nourishing) · unripe fruit: heating (ushna, sour and pitta-provoking)
- Unani
- unripe (anbaj): cold & dry (2nd degree), astringent · ripe: hot (1st degree), moist and nutritive
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Unani
- stomach · intestines · liver (astringent to the bowels, a styptic to the blood)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- grahi (astringent, checks diarrhoea) and stambhana (styptic) in the bark and kernel; the ripe fruit brimhana (nourishing), balya, vrishya (aphrodisiac), hridya (cardiotonic) and vata-pitta-hara
- Unani
- qabiz (astringent), habis-ud-dam (styptic), muqawwi-e-meda (stomach tonic); the ripe fruit mufarreh (exhilarant) and a nutritive restorative
Cautions
- Contraindications
- unripe fruit in excess provokes pitta, acidity and throat irritation; ripe fruit taken heavily aggravates kapha and burdens the diabetic
- Toxicity
- the sap and skin can raise a contact dermatitis in sensitive people (the tree is a relative of poison ivy); over-eating the ripe fruit is heavy and cloying
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