94 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



sugar, and thus prepared as the custard known as mangophul, 

 or dried and made into the native ambchur. When very young 

 it may be cut into small pieces and eaten in salad. So again, 

 the ripe fruit is used in curries and salads, and the expressed 

 juice when spread on plates and allowed to dry is formed into 

 the thin cakes known as ambsath." 



In the United States, mangos have up to the present been 

 used chiefly as dessert fruits. To a less extent they have been 

 made into chutney, the spicy sauce well known to all those 

 who have traveled in the Orient, preserves, sauces, and pies. 

 For these purposes the fruit is taken before fully ripe. The 

 "mango pickles" sold in the northern United States are not 

 made from the mango, but from a sweet pepper; the use of 

 the name mango in this connection is unwarranted. 



Mangos are canned in the same manner as peaches. Recently 

 a firm at Muzaffarpur, India, has undertaken to develop an 

 export trade in preserved mangos. About 18,000 cans were 

 shipped to England in a single year. Consul General William 

 H. Michael said of the product, " 1 have opened one can of the 

 Bombay Extra mangos and find that they are carefully packed 

 and retain their flavor as well as could be expected of this sort 

 of fruit. In fact they are as well preserved and retain their 

 flavor quite as well as do peaches canned in California." 



Hindu and Muhammadan writers on Materia Medica discuss 

 at length the medicinal virtues of the mango : 



"Shortly, we may say that they consider the ripe fruit to be in- 

 vigorating and refreshing, fattening, and slightly laxative and diuretic ; 

 but the rind and fiber, as well as the unripe fruit, to be astringent and 

 acid. The latter when pickled is much used on account of its stomachic 

 and appetizing qualities. Unripe mangos peeled and cut from the 

 stone and dried in the sun form the well-known Amchur or Ambosi 

 (Amrapesi, Sans.,) so largely used in India as an article of diet ; as 

 its acidity is chiefly due to the presence of citric acid, it is a valuable 

 anti-scorbutic ; it is also called Am-ki-chhitta and Am-khushk. The 

 blossom, kernel, and bark are considered to be cold, dry and astringent, 

 and are used in diarrhoaa, etc. The smoke of the burning leaves is 



