A Most Nutritious Fruit, Nungu/Palm Fruit/Ice Apple/Thaale Hannu/Borassus Flabellifer, The Summer Fruit!

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Nungu fruit. 5 fruits Rs.20, this year!

Nungu seller....we buy from this man.

Now, is the season for this fruit, Nungu, in Tamil.  All of us in the family love this fruit.  It is available from around June to August, I was told by this vendor.  We buy it from him on our way back from our morning walk.  You can see one bag of nungu at his back.  He brings three bags and all are sold within a day! He comes in a particular area on alternate days.  It used to be one fruit a rupee until a few years back.  Now, since the trees are felled everywhere for construction of flats, he brings them from 20 Kms. away from the city.  The cost should be covered.

The fruit is a bit transparent.  We can eat it with its cream coloured skin, which is also very nutritious and full of fibre. If you don't like it, you can peel the skin off and eat.  It has got a couple of spoons of sweet water inside, which is very tasty.  So, you have to buy soft ones.  If it is hard, it won't be tasty.  It is better to eat it immediately, at least within half an hour.  It becomes hard and tasteless if kept in the fridge too.   

Palm trees which are seen in the outskirts of the cities in India, though this picture is from Mumbai.  (wiki picture)

Palm fruit (wiki picture)

I remember drinking padaneer (extracted from Palm paalai/sap).  Palm jaggery is a coolant. I make sukku kaapi (dry ginger powder boiled in water with palm jaggery and a little milk).  The trunk is like iron rods, very strong, which are used in construction of huts.   

This link gives these details about Nungu:

Nutritional Value of Nungu

According to the book, “The Encyclopedia of Fruit and Nut,” nungu contains the following per 100g of edible flesh:

43kcal

87.6g Water

.8g Protein

.1g Fat

10.9g Carbs

1g Fiber

27mg Calcium

30mg Phosphorous

1mg Iron

.04mg Thiamin

.02mg Riboflavin

.3mg Niacin

5mg Vitamin C

Health Benefits of Nungu:

Nungus provide hydration and, according to a Deccan Herald article, a good balance of minerals and sugar for the body. As indicated by the nutrition profile, the fruit is rich in B vitamins, iron, and even calcium. Traditionally, the fruit is used to treat digestive issues and stomach ailments.

Jaggery, the sugar made from palmyra, has Ayurvedic benefits as well. The book, The Ayurveda Encyclopedia” lists jaggery as a rejuvenative and a tonic. Furthermore, the natural sugar may help digestion and proper elimination.

All parts of this tree is useful for us.  Wiki gives all the details!

I just wonder even the remaining trees might abscond in another another few years for building complexes.  So, I never cross the vendor without buying nungu nowadays. 

Have a look at this video.  You can peel and eat if you have got patience otherwise eat with the skin, it has got fibre!