Surf the web and you’ll discover a positive plethora of pills and potions based on mango allegedly assisting you to attain a more sylph-like dimension. Google alone features more than a million mentions.
A recent more science-orientated addition has been added to these offerings, suggesting mango skin might aid in weight reduction.
Global newspapers breathlessly reworked a University of Queensland Media Release from the 31 May. In tests, extracts from mango skin appeared to ‘inhibit the development of human fat cells.’
The secret is in phytochemicals found on the outside of the fruit, said the Aussie researchers whose study was published in the journal
Food & Function.
While it is not unusual for the outer skin of a fruit to have a different chemical composition from the flesh, University of Queensland scientists had in fact tested only three out of over 1,000 known varieties of the popular tropical fruit. The peel of two of these, ‘Irwin’ and ‘Nam Doc Mai’, demonstrated the biggest fat-reducing potential.
Unfortunately a third variety, ‘Kensington Price,’ has compounds that promote fat cell growth. Indulge in such and you’ll risk putting on weight, rather than losing it, a point picked up by the newspaper Perth Now but remarkably few other publications.
None of these varieties are likely to be easily found in North America. Here the green-blushed-red hue of ‘Tommy Atkins’ and its derivatives dominates the scene. These wretched fruits are the mango equivalent of a supermarket tomato. Fortunately the yellow Ataulfo from Mexico is becoming appreciated by mangophiles for its stringless, yellow flesh with a small seed/high flesh ratio. Its popularity is attested by many other names: Adaulfo, Adolfo, baby, champagne, honey, manila, yellow, and young, for example.
There should be plenty of peel available, however. Mangoes constitute about half of all tropical fruits produced worldwide – 35-million tonnes a year globally by UN estimates. It is the national fruit of Pakistan, India, and Philippines, and the national tree of Bangladesh.
Unfortunately, the fly in the ointment or, in this case the chemical in mango peel, sap, leaves and stems is urushiol. The same substance causes much misery when the unwary come into contact with poison ivy or poison sumac. Urushiol is found in many other members of the Anacardiaceae, the cashew family, comprising of some 68 genera, and up to about 800 species of trees, shrubs and lianas.
Thomas Ogren wrote a cautionary account of his encounter with mango in New Scientist (13 January 2001). Taking advantage of bargain prices at his local supermarket, he ate two or three every day for weeks. One day, he writes, “my nose began to itch, my lips to swell. Less than an hour later, my lips were huge and my nose felt as though it belonged to Mr. Potato Head.”
Again checking the web under mango allergies, there are almost as many entries as here are for slimming aids derived from
Mangifera indica. Most agree that the skin is the thing to avoid at all costs.
Mango “sap and debris can cause severe dermatitis, similar to poison oak,” advises the California Rare Fruit Growers, adding that, “It is best to avoid burning prunings or litter.”
Most people can eat mango flesh if not the skin without fear of developing an allergy such as that experienced by the unfortunate Thomas Ogren. Indeed, India would be left desolate if such were so. The country accounts for about half of total global production but almost none is exported such is the home demand.
Still it would have been helpful if the University of Queensland had mentioned the possibility of an allergic reaction. And even more helpful if global media would check a trifle more thoroughly before becoming over-enthusiastic over alleged weight loss remedies.
