There is a variety of this tree on which the fruit is sweet from its first formation; this requires to be used early, otherwise it will in all probability become a prey to insects.
Some trees produce fruit only once in 4 years. In general, it produces fruit in abundance every second year, and less in the alternate year; some are even perfectly barren every alternate year.
There is a mode of manuring this tree, which it is said improves the flavour of the fruit greatly; this is mixing the juice of its fruit with milk, and pouring it over the roots. It is also said to be possible to communicate the flavor of any particular fruit to the mangoe, by its expressed juice being made use of, as an application to the roots of the tree.
The kernel of the mangoe, roasted, is pleasant to the taste, and grateful to the stomach; it is much recommended in laxities of the bowels, and strengthens the primæ viæ; water drank after having eat of this kernel, seems to possess a flavor peculiarly excellent. The usual mode of preparing them, is to allow them to remain exposed to the rains, till the shell shall have become decayed; by this process it is deprived of any heating or irritating property. Prepared in this manner, and kept a short time in lime juice, taken out, bruised and mixed with salt, fennel, &c, it is much extolled for strengthening the stomach, and promoting digestion.
If preserved for 3 years, pounded, and swallowed to the quantity of a tolah, with a little water, no medicine is preferable for strengthening bowels habitually lax.
In the acid state, the fruit is very prejudicial to those who have any disorders in their teeth, a cough, an affection of the chest, or who are subject to cholicky pain in the bowels, but very beneficial when used in irritable habits. The best method of using them is this. The acid unripe fruit, after the outer rind has been peeled off, is to be cut into thin slices, and infused for some hours in water; this water so impregnated, is to be drained off, mixed with a sufficient proportion of sugar, and used as sherbet. It produces a great relish for food, and is in other respects beneficial. The same effects are produced by the unripe fruit, being roasted and allowed to remain in water, as above mentioned. It is recommended in paralysis, from coup de vent. Many physicians have considered the mangoe to be of a cooling nature, but, in my opinion, it is heating in all its stages. The Yunani physicians have stated the ripe fruit to be hot in the 2d, and dry in the 3d degree.
Its virtues may be described in a few words. It strengthens the system, gives tone to the kidnies, restores impaired appetite, &c. It is aperient, improves the complexion, beneficial in piles, an useful deobstruent, braces and increases the bulk of the solids, and removes nervous affections. In some of these disorders I am inclined to doubt of its good effects, but such virtues are attributed to it. It is recommended, in order to prevent any bad effects from the fruit in its unripe state, that raisins be eaten with it. Hukeem Alwee Khan, a man of eminence in his profession in the reign of Mahommed Shah, says, that if ever this fruit disagreed with the system, it must have been eaten when unripe or green.
I had occasion to attend a gentleman of very high rank, who laboured under dropsy; I cured him of the disease, but 3 years afterwards, having eaten a large quantity of mangoes, the disease returned, and I have observed the same effects in other cases.
Hukeem Alli Mughphoor, physician, states, that influenced by the resemblance of the mangoe to the human kidney, he concluded that it must be beneficial in that organ, (disorders of;) he therefore prescribed it in a case of hectic fever, arising from diseased kidney, and completely cured the disease. In this I differ from him entirely; he must have mistaken the nature of the complaint, for a remedy given expressly for the cure of a disease in the kidney, could not, at the same time, have removed the fever, excepting appropriate medicines had been administered along with it!!
The best mangoes are those having a thin juice, sweet and free from fibres; and they ought to be cooled in water or in ice, especially during the hot weather. It is preferable to use the juice of the fruit without eating any of the fibrous parts; a neglect of this may produce various disorders, such as indigestion, cholicky pains, &c. It is very common to eat the expressed juice, mixed with sugar and other things, with rice, or with bread, but this is great imprudence; for in the most healthy subjects it may produce nausea, and general uneasiness.