Eat Healthy: the Gujarat’s delight

Cordia dichotama is a species of flowering tree in the Borage family, which is native to northern Australia and western Melanesia. Common names include fragrant manjack, snotty gobbles, glue berry, pink pearl, bird lime tree, Indian cherry. In India it is most commonly known as lasoda, gunda, lasura, bhokar.

The seeds are the fresh recalcitrant seeds that cannot be allowed to dry out once they are removed from the fruit. These seeds are expected to be seasonal and are in very short supply for the year. Glue (gunda) berry requires deep and sandy soil. It thrives in warm tropical climates with annual rainfall less than 500mm.

Immature gunda berries are used as vegetables and pickles after removing the stone and sticky white pulp. The sticky pulp is used to make glue. The ripe fruit is full of vitamins and helps in digestion. The bark and roots are used to cure cough, cold and various other ailments connected with indigestion and throat problems.

Unripe gunda is green in colour, ripened are baby pink in colour, where as over ripened gundas are deep purple in colour.

While using unripe gunda you should destalk it, clean it properly from out, and then deseed it and clean the gunda before stuffing as it contains sticky substance near the seeds which has to be cleaned before using. Unripe gunda can be stored in a plastic bag and then kept in refrigerator. It can stay unspoiled for a month’s time when kept in such a condition. Ripe gundas are more perishable in nature.