THE INDONESIAN MANGO
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Mangifera indica
FAMILY: Anacardiaceae
The Indonesian Mango is possibly one of the oldest known fruits. In the 4000-year-old Sanscrit scriptures, the mango was already mentioned as a fruit for the Gods. Originally from India, it is now grown all over the world in tropical and semi-tropical countries. In most of the parts of Indonesia the mango is called 'pelem' or 'poh'.
The tree has a dense dome shape and can grow out to giants of over 30m high. The thousands of tiny flowers, green-yellowish in colour, are part bisexual and part male. Only one in five stamens is fertile. This is the reason why relatively few fruit are set.
Due to drier weather, most mango trees are found in Central and East Java. The famous Arumanis variety comes from Probolingo in East Java.
In Indonesia, not much is being wasted. The cultivated ripe mango is consumed as a fruit. The stringy varieties, and there are many of them, are excellent for juice or jam. Dried mango is in Indonesia and is as popular as it is everywhere else. The sun is used instead of a dehydrator.
Very young fruit is used as a vegetable, cooked or raw. The reddish-coloured young leaves are freshly eaten as a salad or side dish. Not all Mangifera varieties, however, are suitable for salad. A rather popular dish is the rujak, in which not only young mango is used, but most young, unripe fruit, such as kedongdong, bilimbi, carambola, rose apple and many more. The fruit is then eaten raw with a sauce of ketjap, palm sugar and sambal.
Small and very young fruits are pickled in vinegar or salt and are reminiscent of Spanish olives. Chutney is another condiment made of young mangos. In East Java, this is known as 'pakel'. A tasty puree is made from half-ripe fruit. From the cotyledons, or seed lobes of ripe seeds, a rather sticky sweet is produced, the so-called 'dodol'.
Not only the fruit of the mango tree is used; the brew of the bark is also. A stain is used to give the material a nice green colour. The bitter, somewhat aromatic bark can also be used to treat a variety of little ailments, including diarrhoea.
Cakes of mango resin are said to cure the venereal disease, syphilis.
In Madura, an island north-east of Java, the leaves of the mango tree are a popular fodder. However feeding cattle too much on these leaves will turn their urine into a dark yellow, almost glutinous liquid, which can be used as a paint! It is then called 'konengan' or 'Indian Yellow'.
DATE: September 1993
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