Mangga

Uses

The dried and pulverized kernel of the seed is used as an anthelmintic in doses of 1½–2 grams both in India and Brazil. The same preparation is used in the Philippines in the treatment of dysentery and diarrhœa and its effect is doubtless due to the large quantity of tannin it contains. It is administered as follows: The pounded kernels of 20–25 seeds are brought to a boil in 2 bottles (sic) of water. When the liquid has evaporated a third, it is removed from the fire, cooled, decanted, and again placed on the fire after adding three to four hundred grams of sugar. This time it is allowed to boil till reduced to one bottle. The dose is 50–60 grams 2–3 times a day. Incisions in the trunk exude a brownish resin which solidifies in the air, is slightly acrid, bitter, dissolves in alcohol and partially in water. In Malabar it is given internally in the treatment of diarrhœa and dysentery, mixing it with white of egg and opium. But the curative value of the combination is more likely due to the albumen and opium than to the resin. Dissolved in lemon juice it is a useful application in the itch. The trunk bark is astringent and is employed in decoction as a wash for ulcers and eczema and as an injection in leucorrhœa.

The fruit is one of the most highly prized in the Philippines, and resident Europeans are able to eat large quantities of it without ill effects unless the fruit is over-ripe, in which case it often causes transient diarrhœa, which should be treated with a mild purge.

In Mauritius the following compound powder is used in dysentery:

[table omitted; see the source text]

Mix.

Dose

For an adult one dessert-spoonful every 4 hours; may be given in cauge or arrowroot.

The flowers, testa and bark are, in Hindoo therapeutics, considered “cold,” and “astringent,” and are used especially in diarrhœa. In certain throat affections the Hindoos employ the burning leaves for inhalation. They also use the gum made by evaporating the juice of the ripe fruit, as a confection and an antiscorbutic. Dr. Linguist recommends the bark as a local astringent in uterine, intestinal and pulmonary hemorrhage and employs the following:

Fluid Extract.—

[table omitted; see the source text]

Mix. Dose, 1 teaspoonful every 1 or 2 hours.

Botanical description

A noble tree, 30° to 40° high, dome-like or rotund in outline. Leaves dark green, lustrous, alternate, lanceolate, entire; short petioles. Flowers racemose, in verticillate panicles. Calyx, 4, 5 or 6 sepals. Corolla white, fragrant, 4, 5 or 6 petals. Stamens 5, of which perhaps 1, 2 or 3 are fertile. Style on one side of the ovary. Stigma simple. Fruit large, reniform, fleshy, yellow when ripe; contains a large, flattened, reniform pit. Blooms from January even till June. The natives force the fruit by building fires under the trees when but little air is stirring.