''Curcuma amada'', or mango ginger is a plant of the

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

family

Zingiberaceae Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical ...

and is closely related to

turmeric Turmeric (), or ''Curcuma longa'' (), is a flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. It is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that requires temperatures between and high ...

(''Curcuma longa''). The

rhizomes In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

are very similar to common ginger but lack its pungency, and instead have a raw

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

flavour.

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of the species is a subject of some confusion as some authorities have considered the name ''Curcuma mangga'' as identical while others describe it as a distinct species with ''C. mangga'' being found in southern India while ''C. amada'' is of east Indian origin.

Uses

Mango-ginger is a popular spice and vegetable due to its rich flavor, which is described as sweet with subtle earthy floral and pepper overtones and similar to that of raw mango. It is used as an addition to salads and stir fries, in South Asian and Southeast Asian as well as Far East Asian cuisines. Mango ginger are used in making pickles in south

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and chutneys in north India. It is served as chutney in community feasts in Nepal's southern plains. Mango ginger and elephant foot yam pickle is popular in Nepal's southern plains. Roots of Curcuma amada 3

References

Edible plants

amada The Temple of Amada, is one of the oldest Egyptian Temples in Nubia. It was constructed during the 18th Dynasty (c. 1550–1295 BC) by Pharaoh Thutmose III. It is one of the oldest Egyptian buildings still present along Lake Nasser. In total, thre ...

Taxa named by William Roxburgh {{Zingiberales-stub