Kokum Medicinal Pharmaceutical And Culinary Uses

Kokum

Plants are generally found in the spacious garden or backyard of the homes. Now, many people have started cultivating edible vegetable plants in their roof garden.

Rooftop farming is becoming famous and popular since it will make the home cooler.

The home owners or the tenants can cultivate many edible vegetables such as lettuce, chickweed, tomatoes, beets and radish for their own use.

This topic will deal with a plant named kokum which comes under the family Clusiaceae. The botanical name of this plant is Garcinia indica.

This fruit bearing tree has medicinal, pharmaceutical and industrial and culinary uses.

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Kokum Native

Kokum is native to Western Ghats region of India. There are 35 species out of which 17 are found in India.Seven species are endemic to Western Ghats, six belongs to Andaman and four belongs to northeastern regions of India.Kokum trees are found abundantly in evergreen forests, riversides and wastelands. Though they prefer evergreen forests, they thrive well in low rainfall areas.

Kokum Properties

It grows well without fertilizers and chemicals.
This famous plant in India has edible fruit.
The outer cover of the fruit is dried in the sun to get kokam.
Kokum is very famous in Goa, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Kokum is a substitute for tamarind in Konkan and Goan cuisine.
Assamese use Kokum in sour fish curry. It cures stomach upsets and other abdominal problems.
Kokum sherbet is very popular and has a cooling effect on the body.
It also improves and aids digestion.
The Konkani and Marathi people add the extract of the fruit during preparation of solkadhi.
They also add coconut milk in this food item.

Pharmaceutical Uses

The seed of this famous plant contains oil which is used in the preparation of confectionery, medicines and cosmetics.
Industries extract hydroxycitric acid from the rind of the fruit.
This ornamental tree has anti-oxidant properties and tender green leaves.
The Kokum oil is also used in foot massage.
Ayurvedic physicians prescribe the extracts of the plants as decoction, poultices and salves for treating many diseases.
These plants are hardy and fast-growing and have red fruits that are small which can be consumed like a plum directly.
The dried seeds are ground and used as flavoring spice.

Medicinal values

The highly priced fruits have a chemical component named garcinol, nutrients and antioxidant compounds.
The salve of this plant has lots of medicinal values.
The salve when applied along with butter will reduce the wrinkles.
It reduces the weight, has anti-inflammatory properties, boosts the immune, cures skin ailment and also relieves excessive flatulence, improves cognitive function, improves cardiac function, is good for pregnant and lactating mother.