Surprising health benefits of eating Mango

Debiji sent a great presentation on the health benefits of ingesting Mango. But I like to check these statements in published studies as many forwards sometimes have dubious claims which the sender may not have researched for himself. Here is what I found :

Mango is the national fruit of India and the Philippines, and the national tree of Bangladesh. Over one thousand mango fruit varieties are available worldwide.

It is native to India and Southeast Asia where it has been cultivated for over 4000 years. Currently, mango is also grown in Central America, Africa, Australia, and for a few years in Europe (Sicily, among other places).

Although Mango was first introduced in Sicily in the 1980s, it was only in-depth research that allowed it to be reintroduced in the 2000s. It is now enthusiastically used in Sicily to cover abandoned soils, previously dedicated to citrus groves and no longer profitable for the Sicilian rural market. 

Mango pulp has relatively high content in calories (60 Kcal/100 g fresh weight) and is an important source of potassium, fibre, and vitamins. Mango pulp is also a particularly rich source of polyphenols and carotenoids, a group of micronutrients found in plants which exert specific health benefit.

Mango skin and seed are usually discarded. However, several studies report that these mango by-products also contain high levels of health-enhancing compounds.

Mango skin has been found to be a good source of polyphenols, carotenoids, dietary fibre, and vitamin E. Many healthful compounds in fruit peel are present only in small amounts in the pulp.

A polyphenol called Mangiferin is one of the most potent antioxidants known. It has been found in mango bark, leaves and pulp, but the richest part of the plant in mangiferin is the fruit peel.

However, peel consumption can also promote an allergic reaction in some people because of either the presence of allergen urushiol in the fruit peel, or the presence of pesticides.

Mango seed kernels are equally rich in polyphenols with potent antioxidant activity. 

Finally, polyphenols are also present in mango leaves, flowers, and stem bark.

A certain number of Reactive Oxygen S3pecies (ROS) are produced in the human body and can damage cells. The ability of the body to fight off ROS goes down during stressful conditions. If ROS are not removed, their accumulation overcomes the cellular reparative abilities, causing the collapse of cellular functions and can result in the generation of pathological states related to aging, cancer, atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, and diabetes. 

The large variety of antioxidants, pigments, and vitamins that are present in any part of the mango plant are responsible for the antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities (destruction of ROS).

Several varieties of Mango from Bangladesh were tested, and Langra was found to have the highest phenol content as well as antioxidant properties.

Several studies showed that phytochemicals contained in mango play an anti-inflammatory role in several chronic pathological disorders associated with inflammatory responses.

Bioactive compounds of mango, particularly in its pulp and leaf extracts, have been also reported to exert anti-diabetic effects. Doses of Mango pulp to diabetic rats resulted in a significant decline in blood glucose levels.

Bioactive components contained in the different parts of mango (bark, pulp and kernels) have also shown anticancer activity in different tumour cell lines. The data collected is very encouraging and suggests a targeted action on tumour cells.