‘ICAR-CISH’s red mangoes rich in bioactive compounds’
LUCKNOW: The red mangoes developed by ICAR-CISH to tap the export market are rich in bioactive compounds, according to Shailendra Rajan, director, ICAR- Central Institute Subtropical Horticulture (CISH) that developed the fruit.
CISH had a mandate of developing red varieties to tap the export market dominated by coloured mangoes from Brazil and other Latin American countries. The red appearance of the fruit was the target trait but gradually, increasing awareness about the medicinal properties of mangoes due to bioactive compounds had given a new target of developing varieties rich in such compounds, Rajan said.
CISH conserves one of the world’s richest arrays of mango varieties and analysis of the fruits from the collection has shown that there is a wide range of variability in these bioactive compounds. Apart from known varieties, the institute has developed several hybrids, a storehouse of these compounds.
Rajan said research had established that mangoes were ‘super fruit’ because of their rich source of vitamins, minerals, polyphenol antioxidants and many more compounds like mangiferin and lupeol.
Mango varieties differed from each other in shape, colour, size, aroma, taste and many other characteristics, he said.
They also showed large variation in the bioactive compounds content. Some commercial varieties had high potential in the market but they were poor in nutraceutical value. Some of the varieties had high content of these compounds but were not known to common people and were unavailable in the market, he said.
At CISH, more than 100 mango types were studied for nutraceuticals in pulp and peel. Interestingly, mango fruit peel is also rich in these compounds. Amrapali had high flavonoids as well as total carotenoid content, he said.
The study indicated that a famous variety Langra was rich in total antioxidant activity but low in carotenoids.