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Mahua: A Boon For Pharmacy and Food Industry
Mahua: A Boon For Pharmacy and Food Industry
Mahua: A Boon For Pharmacy and Food Industry
371-381
Abstract
Mahua (Madhuca longifolia) belongs to family sapotaceae, is known for
its sweet flowers which possess a lot of ethnic values among the tribal Article History
people for the development of various fermented and non-fermented food
products. The non-fermented products include halwa, meethi puri, barfi Received: 16 December
2017
whereas fermented products include mahua daaru or mahuli. Because Accepted: 04 June 2018
of its numerous phytochemical attributes traditionally it is also used as a
medicine for many diseases including headache, diarrhoea, skin and eye Keywords
diseases. The present review highlights and explore the composition (dry
Mahua,
and fresh flowers), utilization, medicinal and nutritive important along with Medicinal value,
its future prospective to improve the livelihood of the tribal people with the Sapotaceae,
increase chances of the employment. Traditional uses,
Value added products.
CONTACT Ashwani Kumar ashwanichandel480@gmail.com Food Technology and Nutrition, School of Agriculture, Lovely
Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India.
sweetener in preperation of numerous traditional much explored by researchers and food processors
dishes like halwa, kheer, meethi puri and barfi in except few for its value addition. Therefore, this
mahua production belt of India3. review has been designed in such a way to focus on
recent advancement in utilization of mahua flowers
India is considered as a treasure of various as food and medicine and its future prospective
medicinal and aromatic plant species which are regarding its value addition.
being utilized since ancient time. According to WHO
(2003)4 approximately 65% of the world’s population Area and Production
integrate the medicinal plant for treatment. Mahua is Mahua is a frost resistant species that can grow in
one of the naturally occurring plants which possess marginal areas of dry tropical and subtropical forests
numerous health benefits. Tribal people use mahua up to an altitude of 1200-1800 m, in India. It requires
flowers for curing of skin diseases, headache, pitta mean annual temperature of 2-460C, mean annual
and bronchitis5. Flower juice is supplemented to rainfall ranging from 550-1500 mm and mean annual
lactating women for augmentation of breast milk6. humidity from 40-90 percent37. Mahua trees are
Due to the availability for short time at limited places distributed from India to other Asian countries like
and highly perishable nature of this flower, it is not yet The Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka to Australia7.
It can be found scattered in pasture lands in central during7. The yield of mahua flowers varies from
India, and on river banks in semi-evergreen forests6. 80-320 kg for every tree2. Madhya Pradesh is the
In India, large quantities of mahua trees are found most astounding mahua developing state with
in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, average trade volume of 5,730 metric tonnes and
Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, worth about Indian rupees 8.4 million8. A complete
Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, detail of geographical distribution of mahua tree is
Gujarat, Rajasthan and the evaluated annual given in fig. 1 (a, b).
production of mahua flowers is 45000 Million tonnes
Pinakin et al., Curr. Res. Nutr Food Sci Jour., Vol. 6(2) 371-381 (2018) 373
[Source: Gopalan et al., (2007)10; Swain et al., (2007)11; Hiwale, (2015)12; Patel et al.,
(2011)2]
(roots), Elephantopus scaber L (roots), Lygodium Gmel (seeds)] is added7. Fermented flowers are
flexuosum (roots), Ochna obtisata (roots), Phoenix kept for distillation and alcohol content which found
acaulis (roots), Holarrhena pubescens (bark), in distillate is about 30-40 (%)22. A brief description
Homalium nepalense (bark), Woodfordia fruticose L of various non-fermented and fermented traditional
(flower), Xantolis tomentosa (fruit), Madhuka indica products is described in Table 3.
Fermented flowers
5 Preparation of Produced from dried Alcohol content of "mahua Kumari et al., (2016)22
"mahua daaru" mahua flowers by daaru" ranges from 20-40 (%).
tribal people,
6 "Mahuli" preparation Traditionally made by Alcohol content of "mahuli" Kumari et al., (2016)22;
local people of Orissa. is reported between 30-40 (%). Behera et al., (2016)7
Utilization for Medicinal Purposes (2008)25 reported that mahua flowers can cure
In Ayurveda, mahua flowers are considered as to impotency and general debility when consumed with
be cooling agent, carminative, galactagogue, and milk. Flowers fried in ghee act as a cooling agent and
astringent5. It is also reported to be beneficial for help to cure piles5. Table 4 provides brief description
heart, skin, and eye diseases20. Mahua flowers are of utilization of mahua flower as remedy for various
used traditionally as a remedy of many diseases by diseases by traditional people.
tribal people. Fresh juice of flower is utilized as tonic
and also cure skin diseases, eye diseases, raktapitta Value Addition of Mahua Flowers
and headache due to “pitta”5. Sunita and Sarojini, Nowadays the researchers and food processors are
(2013)23 referred that tribal people offer raw flowers getting attracted toward the underutilized crops for
to lactating mothers for increasing their lactation. the development of new products. Because of this
Roasted flowers are consumed to cure cough and few products are developed from mahua flowers
bronchitis by local people24. Acharya and Srivastava, also. But these are very limited at limited research
Pinakin et al., Curr. Res. Nutr Food Sci Jour., Vol. 6(2) 371-381 (2018) 377
institutes, universities, and industries, which might this section which will become a novel approach
be due to limited availability in limited space and for researchers and processors to utilize this
perishability. Some of the possible products which flower commercially for its value addition in term of
has been prepared from mahua flowers by various fermented foods and nonfermented foods.
researchers scientifically are described here in
Used as tonic Flower juice Flower juice having high. Mishra and Pradhan, (2013)26;
amount of protein so it Amia and Ekka, (2014)20;
is used as tonic Sinha et al., (2017)5
Cure skin Flower juice rubbed on skin Mishra and Pradhan, (2013)23;
diseases for oleation to relieve Amia and Ekka, (2014)20;
from itching Sinha et al., (2017)5
Cure eye Flower juice is used for Amia and Ekka, (2014)20
diseases treatment of eye diseases.
Cure Raktapitta Flower juice is used to Sinha et al., (2017)5
arrest bleeding
Cure headache Flower juice is used Sinha et al., (2017)5
due to "pitta" as nasal drops
Cure diarrhoea Flower powder Flower act as an astringent Amia and Ekka et al., (2014)20;
and colitis to cure diarrhoea and colitis Sinha et al., (2017)5
Increases Raw flowers Flowers act as a galactogouge Mishra and Pradhan, (2013)23;
lactation which can help in augmentation Sinha et al., (2017)5
of breast milk.
Cure cough Roasted flowers …… Palani et al., (2010)24;
and bronchitis Chandra, (2011)26;
Mishra and Pradhan, (2013)23;
Sinha et al., (2017)5
Cure impotency Flower mixed with milk …… Acharya and Shrivastava, (2008)25;
and general debility Amia and Ekka, (2014)20
Cure piles Flowers fried in ghee Mahua flower act as a cooling Sinha et al., (2017)5
agent to cure piles
Sinha et al., (2017)5 reported that fresh flower juice is Other value-added products like candied flower,
concentrated and used as liquid sweetener in bakery glazed flower and mahua bar are also developed
and confectionary products. Fresh flowers are also from dried mahua flowers30.
utilized for making puree and sauces by crushing
the flowers3. Pulp of ripe flowers can be utilized to Because of having high amount of fermentable
make intermediate moisture foods (IMF) like jam, sugars, mahua flowers are utilized for making
jelly, marmalade3,5,26. wine by various researchers scientifically using
Saccharomyces cerevisiae22,31-32. Freshly prepared
Recently Orissa University of Agriculture and mahua wine has been fortified with traditional Indian
Technology, Bhubaneshwar have developed many herbs (Black pepper, cinnamon, clove, cumin,
value-added products from dry mahua flowers like fenugreek, nutmeg, fennel and Indian cassia) for
candy, cake, RTS, toffee, squash and ladoo28. Mishra development of new value-added product, called
et al., (2013)29 reported the storage study of mahua mahua vermouth33,. Malavade and Jadav, (2000)34
RTS in combination of ginger and fennel extracts. reported that dry flowers are also utilized to make
Pinakin et al., Curr. Res. Nutr Food Sci Jour., Vol. 6(2) 371-381 (2018) 378
fermented products like brandy, acetone, and be explored by the researchers and food processors.
lactic acid. Beside that all mahua flowers can The complete detail of the utilization of mahua flower
be successfully used as a substrate for surface recently by various researchers for preparation of
fermentation using Aspergillus niger for production value added products is given in table 5 along with
of citric acid35. But in these aspects the availability them specific remarks.
of the documentation is still very low which need to
1 Puree & Fresh flowers Fresh flowers are crushed Patel, (2008)3;
Sauces into puree after removal of Sinha et al., (2017)5
stamens manually and processed
to make puree.
2 Juice Fresh flower Used as a sweetener in bakery Sinha et al., (2017)5
Concentrates juice and confectionary.
3 Mahua Jam Pulp of ripe Jam is made with addition Patel, (2008)3;
flowers of citric acid. Jha et al., (2013)27;
Bakhara et al., (2016)31;
Sinha et al., (2017)5
4 Jelly Combined with guava to Sinha et al., (2017)5
reduce astringency of
mahua flower.
5 Marmalade By addition of citrus peels. Sinha et al., (2017)5
Candied
6 flowers ……
Glazed
7 flowers
8 Mahua bar Bakhara et al., (2016)31;
9 Mahua candy Dash, (2017)28
10 Mahua toffee
11 Mahua cake Dry flowers
12 Mahua squash
13 Mahua ladoo
14 Mahua RTS RTS blended with ginger extract
@ 10 (%) have TSS of 18°
Brix and with fennel extract @ Mishra et al., (2013)29
5 (%) have TSS of 14.8° Brix.
15 Antioxidant rich Mahua flower and The blend showed TPC of 15.94 Patel et al., (2016)36
beverage Amla juice (mg GAE/ml) and 91.22 (%)
DPPH radical scavenging activity.
Fermented flowers
16 Mahua wine Fermentation of Fermentation at 16° C favours wine Yadav et al., (2009) (a)31
flower juice quality and increase alcohol content Kumari et al., (2016)22
(up to 9.9 %). Sensory evolution
Pinakin et al., Curr. Res. Nutr Food Sci Jour., Vol. 6(2) 371-381 (2018) 379
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