Monkey Brand: Avoid Worthless Imitations

Reston: I was shopping for Indian condiments yesterday, and I saw this, which I of course had to buy:

Monkey Brand, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Ah! The entire mouth cavity!

Monkey Brand, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Monkey Brand, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Monkey Brand, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Aside from the charcoal, I don’t even know what this stuff is.

I looked into the Haritaki ingredient, which is also known as Terminalia Cheluba:

[from Wikipedia]

(Black Myrobalan or Chebulic Myrobalan; Chinese: 诃子 he zi) is a species of Terminalia, native to southern Asia from India and Nepal east to southwestern China (Yunnan), and south to Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Vietnam.

It is an evergreen tree growing to 30 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter. The leaves are alternate to subopposite in arrangement, oval, 7-18 cm long and 4.5-10 cm broad with a 1-3 cm petiole. The fruit is drupe-like, 2-4.5 cm long and 1.2-2.5 cm broad, blackish, with five longitudinal ridges.[1]

There are two varieties:[1]

* Terminalia chebula var. chebula. Leaves and shoots hairless, or only hairy when very young.

* Terminalia chebula var. tomentella (Kurz) C.B.Clarke. Leaves and shoots silvery to orange hairy.

Cultivation and uses

This tree yields smallish, ribbed and nut-like fruits which are picked when still green and then pickled, boiled with a little added sugar in their own syrup or used in preserves or concotions. The seed of the fruit, which has an elliptical shape, is an abrasive seed enveloped by a fleshy and firm pulp. It is regarded as a universal panacea in the Ayur-Vedic Medicine. It is reputed to cure blindness and it is believed to inhibit the growth of the malignant tumours. It is allegedly also a powerful detoxification agent.[citation needed]

In Urdu and Hindi it is called Hardad, Haritaki or Harada respectively Inknut. In Sri Lanka it is called Aralu.

In Telugu it’s called ‘Karakkaya’. The dry nut’s peel is used to cure cold-related nagging cough. The bark/peel of the nut is placed in cheek a.l.a a Halls or Vicks. However, this will not dissolve like the cough drops. The resulting saliva (bitter in taste) is believed to have medicinal qualities to cure cold related cough.

The nut’s peel can be powdered down to a fine consistency and mixed with honey to make a very potent medicine for common cold/cough. Having a spoonful of this medicine before going to bed can provide a lot of relief.

Wow. A short trip to the Indian market slaps me with my ignorance.