The specialty of the flower is not only in the taste (which is bittersweet like dark chocolate or strong coffee) but also in its nutritional value.

 

The sugary sweet taste makes it a healthy substitute of white sugar - the reason that makes the flower useful to make a wide range of food products like laddu, cake, biscuits, jam, jelly, candies, and more. And the nutritional value is an add-on to the savoury products.

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It is full of vitamins (B1, B2, B3, C and more), essential minerals (iron, calcium, potassium), protein and carbs. Its nutritional value and medicinal properties have been embedded in the indigenous knowledge system for centuries.

 

It may lack the nomenclature of modern science (like this vit or that mineral), but medicinal use of mahua flowers is very much alive in their regular practice. The healing nature of the flower was also well ascribed in the Ayurvedic scriptures. In fact, the scientific name of the tree Madhuca is derived from Sanskrit.

 

Getting cues from the indigenous knowledge system, to tap the benefit of the flowers, modern science is exploring its chemical composition and finding that presence of various bioactive phytochemicals makes the flower antidiabetic, antibacterial, anticancer, antiulcer and antianemic - a superfood indeed!

 

We gathered a host of research papers that assert these findings. Below are a few and others are provided in the repository. We will work on adding more such research works.
 

• Madhuca indica: A Review on the Phytochemical and Pharmacological Aspects 

• The role of Mahua as a functional food

• Mahua (Madhuca indica): indigenous flower as nutrient and phenolic rich food

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Here, it is very crucial to remind us here that these research papers are in no way an authority that approves or rejects the indigenous knowledge. The veracity of the ethno-medicinal usage of mahua does stand by itself.

 

These research papers are the modern science way of knowing mahua, only re-finding it, neither validating nor invalidating.