With its sweet-sour flavor and unique texture, tamarind is a beloved fruit in many parts of the world. In this post, we’ll explore the history, health benefits, and culinary uses of tamarind, as well as some of the best ways to incorporate this flavorful fruit into your diet. We’ll also take a look at the various ways in which tamarind is produced and packaged, and discuss the key differences between fresh, dried, and processed forms of tamarind. So, let’s dive right in and discover why tamarind is such a popular ingredient in so many dishes!
Tamarind Nutrition Facts and Calories Chart
It is a tropical fruit, native to Africa and popular in various cuisines around the world. Rich in important vitamins and minerals, tamarind is a nutritious and delicious addition to any diet. Tamarind is an excellent source of dietary fiber, providing nearly 15 percent of the recommended daily value in a single 3-ounce serving. This fiber can help reduce cholesterol, maintain healthy blood sugar levels, and support digestive health. Tamarind is also rich in antioxidants, including vitamin C, which helps to protect cells from oxidative damage, and vitamin A, which helps to maintain clear vision. Additionally, tamarind is a good source of iron, magnesium, and calcium. All of these nutrients help to support healthy bones, muscles, and cognitive health. Nutritional value per 100 g tamarind:
- Biotin: 0mcg
- Calcium: 8mg
- Carbohydrates (Carbs): 64.93g
- Chloride: 22mg
- Cholesterol: 0mg
- Choline: 0mg
- Chromium: 0.5mcg
- Copper: 0.29mg
- Dietary Fiber: 12.3g
- Energy (Calories): 233kcal
- Fat: 0.38g
- Iodine: 0mcg
- Iron: 1.94mg
- Magnesium: 37mg
- Manganese: 0.34mg
- Molybdenum: 2.3mcg
- Pantothenic Acid: 0.4mg
- Phosphorus: 67mg
- Potassium: 689mg
- Protein: 2.43g
- Saturated fat: 0.06g
- Selenium: 0.2mcg
- Sodium: 11mg
- Sugars: 28.38g
- Vitamin A: 23IU
- Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): 0.07mg
- Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 0.04mg
- Vitamin B3 (Niacin): 0.6mg
- Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): 0.4mg
- Vitamin B6: 0.16mg
- Vitamin B9 (Folate / Folic Acid): 15mcg
- Vitamin B12: 0mcg
- Vitamin C: 9.7mg
- Vitamin D: 0mcg
- Vitamin E: 0.2mg
- Vitamin K: 2.4mcg
- Water: 12.1g
- Zinc: 0.31mg
Tamarind in India
Tamarind fruit is a cinnamon-colored oblong pod, from 3-8 inches long, with a thin, brittle shell enclosing a soft, brownish, acidulous pulp. Best known for its tart, slightly spicy flavor in chutneys and sauces, tamarind is mainly used as a gentle laxative to treat constipation in children. Traditionally tamarind is useful to treat constipation, fever, abdominal pain.
- Scientific Binomial: Tamarindus Indica
- Common English: Tamarind tree
- Ayurvedic: Amli / Amlikaa / Suktaa / Chukraa / Chukrikaa / Chinchaa / Chandikaa / Tintidika
- Unani: Tamar
- Sanskrit: Amlika
- Hindi / Urdu: Imli
- Bengali: Tetul / Amli
- Marathi: Chinch
- Telugu: Chinta
- Tamil: Puli / Aanvilam
- Gujarati
- Kannada: Hunase Hannu
- Malayalam
- Oriya
- Punjabi / Sindhi
- Assamese
- Kashmiri
- Konkani
- Manipuri
- Dogri
- Bhojpuri
Home Remedies
According to Ayurvedic text, unripe fruit is highly acidic; ripe fruit is a laxative, appetizer, digestive stimulant, cleanses urinary bladder; dried fruit pulp is a cardiac tonic, cures exhaustion, giddiness, mental fatigue and morbid thirst. The principal and widespread use of the ripe, sweet-sour, stringy pulp throughout the Americas and Caribbean is as a laxative. The ripe pulp contains between 10.86 and 15.23% of tartaric acid that is believed to be responsible for stimulating bowel movements. Generally only one ripe fruit is needed for mild constipation problems. Indian, specially south part of India, uses tamarind as main ingredient in many curries and other dishes – sambhar, rasam, curries and chutneys are some name to mention. In many baking recipes tamarind pulp can substitute baking powder.
- Abdominal Pain: To relieve abdominal pain in women, try dried eggplant and ripe tamarind. Take 1 liter of water and bring it to boil. Add equal amount of chopped, dried eggplant and ripe tamarind. Simmer for half an hour, strained and then drunk. Take this 2 cups a day.
- Rectal Prolapse: Seeds are useful to make jam and jelly. Seed kernel, pounded with milk, is home remedy for polyuria and urethral discharge. Paste of fried seeds can be applied on anus, after setting in the tractin position, for treating rectal prolapse.
- Boils: Boiled seeds make a poultice to boils.
- Leukoderma: To treat leukoderma try tamarind seeds and psoralea corylifolia (babchi) seeds. For this treatment equal quantity of both the seeds should be steeped in water for three to four days. They should then be shelled and dried in the shade. They should be ground into paste and applied to the white patches for a week. If the application of this paste causes itching or the white spots become red and a fluid being to ooze out, it should be discontinued. If there is no itching or reddening, babchi seeds should be taken also for 40 days.
- Constipation: Fresh or dried fruit can be made into a pleasant drink and taken to help open the bowels and relieve constipation.
- Fever: To treat fever, in the West Indies, tamarind is the best folk remedy. To do this, take 2 ripe fruit and blend them with 2 cups of cold water. Add 1 tbsp of sugar or honey. This helps to cool down body temperature by several degrees. OR Make a drink with 15 gm of ripe tamarind pulp. Boil this pulp with 1/2 liter of milk, few dates, cloves, sugar, cardamoms and a little camphor. This drink is an efficacious in fever.
- Piles: To treat piles covering of tamarind seeds are very useful. Just make a fine powder of seed covering and take pinch of powder, thrice a day. Tamarind leaves, cooked as vegetables, are useful for bleeding piles.
- Ash of the bark, with common salt, can be prescribed for internal obstructions, colic, indigestion.
- Sore Throat: Infusion of bark is also used as a gargle for sore throat and aphthous ulcers. Tamarind water or dry leaves are also works well for sore throat.
- Arthritis: Fire of bark is beneficial for fomentation of stiff joints and inflammations due to gout and arthritis. Leaves shows anti-inflammatory property and hence very beneficial for arthritis, rheumatism and gout. Poultice of leaves applied over rheumatic affections works well. Crush leaves with water can be used to make poultice to apply on inflamed joints. Recent research has found that the fruit increases the availability of ibuprofen in the body, suggesting that it could be used in arthritis to reduce the dosage of aspirin-type medicines.
- Ringworm: Juice of leaves can be beneficial if applied topically for treating ringworm. For leg ulcers, dry powder of leaves can be spread on affected area.
- Burns: The tender leaves of tamarind plant is excellent home remedy for burns. Put few leaves in pot and heat over a fire. After few minutes, take out from pot and make fine powder with these burnt leaves. Mix with sesame oil to form a paste. Apply over burn area for healing. Leaves prevent oedema formation and bring about the growth of healthy normal skin. Sesame oil acts as protection wall against harmful germs and keeps moisture away.
Side Effects
May interact with aspirin-type medicines. Excessive use may cause hyperacidity, cough or sexual weakness.