Non alcoholic Food Products from Mahua

Gadchiroli District is categorized as tribal and undeveloped district and most of the land is covered with forest and hills. Forest
cover is more than 75.96% of the geographical area of the district. The district is famous for bamboo and tendu leaves. The Tribal Community
population that resides in the district is 38.17 % ( As per Census 2011). The tribals in the district are Gonds and Madias which basically primitive
tribal groups are. They are mostly dependent on forests for their survival.Tendu leaf picking and bamboo cutting are the employment avenues that
these people have in the remotest and naxal effected areas in the absence of any predominant industries which can give them employment.

Their agriculture is mostly rainfed and hence they cannot take two crops in a year and hence people are unemployed for most of the
time. The infrastructure in this area is very less and there is no connectivity and road network is poor and hence other delivery mechanisms are at a
toss. In the exsisting scenario the tribals sell out whatever they produce and collect to the local vendors and weekly haats in a very low cost. Barter
system is very prevalent tribals sell out valuable medicinal plant parts in exchange of salt and other daily needs.The non timber forest produce forms
an integral part of tribal life. The district is good source of non timber forest produce which are the raw materials for many industries such a
medicine, dyes, biofuels, oils, food products, lubricants, gums etc.

The mahuwa flower is edible and is a food item for tribals. They are used to make syrup for medicinal purposes.[2]

They are also fermented to produce the alcoholic drink mahuwa, a country liquor. Tribals of Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Orissa, Santhals of Santhal
Paraganas (Jharkhand), Koya tribals of North-East Andhra Pradesh (vippa saara: ) and tribals of North Maharashtra consider the
tree and the mahuwa drink as part of their cultural heritage. Mahuwa is an essential drink for tribal men and women during celebrations.[9] The main
ingredients used for making it are chhowa gud (granular molasses) and dried mahuwa flowers.
 comparitive nutritional constituents of mahua flower with other fruits
Mahua Mahua
flower Flower
per 100 gm Apple (ripe) Banana Mango dry Raisins
Moisture * 84.6 73.6 70.1 81 11.61 20.2
Protein * 0.2 1.4 1.2 0.6 6.67 1.8
Fat * 0.5 1.6 0.3 0.4 0.09 0.3
Mineral* 0.3 0.7 0.8 0.4 0 2
Carbohydrate* 13.4 22.7 27.2 16.9 68 74.6
Energy K cal 59 111 116 74 0 308
Calcium ** 10 45 17 14 139 80
Phosphorus ** 14 22 36 16 137 80
Iron ** 0.66 0.23 0.36 1.3 0 7.7
carotene ** 0 78 78 2743 0 2.4
Thiamin ** 0 0.05 0.05 0.08 0.028 0.07
Riboflavin ** 0 0.08 0.08 0.09 0.87 0.19
Niacin ** 0 0.5 0.5 0.09 4.8 0.7
Choline ** 321 0 0 0 0 0
* g/gm
** mg/gm
source - Nutritive value of foods , National Institute of
Nutrition, Hyderabad
 Essential Amino acid Pattern
Amino acid (g/100gm ) protein Mahua Wheat Soy Skim milk FAO
Isoleucine 7.91 3.8 4.7 5.6 2.8
Leucine 12.98 6.6 7 9.8 6.6
Lysine 4.67 2.5 6.3 8.2 5.8
Phenylalanine 6.4 4.5 4.6 4.8 0
Tyrosine 3.64 3 3.6 5 6.3
cystine 3.35 2.2 1.4 0.9 2.5
Methionine 1.8 1.7 1.4 2.6 0
Threonine 5.86 2.9 4.6 4.6 3.4
Valine 7.25 4.7 6.9 6.9 3.5
source- Jayshree et al
Mahua flowers have long been used in traditional medicine as a cure for a myriad of ills like for heart, bronchial and eye problem, to
treat TB, Asthma, blood disease, tonsillitis and to get rid of parasitical internal worm. Though the mahua flowers form a good source of nutrition
mostly people do not use them as it is mostly used to make liquor it carries a toboo.

From Mahua tribal people make some product for their consumption but mostly used for making beveragesInorder to remove the
taboo and generate employment to people non alcoholic products from mahua flowes are being produced by JFMC chandala in Gadchiroli forest
Division.

Non alcoholic products from Mahua.

.From the Mahua flowers certain non-alcoholic food products were made bored on the technology given by Prof. Bhootmange from
Lakshminarayan Institute of technology, Nagpur. The technology has been transferred to JFM committee Chandala and training has been imparted
to them. To link up the natural products from forest which tribal collect traditionally with market by value addition, Gadchiroli Forest Circle with the
involvement of Joint Forest Management Committee took up initiative of value addition of product there by adding to the value to the tribal life.
 While making the products enough care is taken to ensure quality and purity which is natural in the pure pockets of the country.The
products are Mahua Jam and Mahua Sharbat. The Nutritional facts are tested by Anacom lab and were certified.The sweet Jam and Sharbat are a
tribal treat straight from tribal land with open heart accept the product, taste the sweetness of myriad land of Gadchiroli.Currently 20 tribals are
involved in this product making apart from collect in lakh numbers spread all over the district. The little purchase of their product would help the
poorest of the poor.

Tribal women collecting Mahua Flowers Dried Mahua Flowers Practical session to JFM members

Mahua Sharbat Mahua Jam Visit of Shri. Praveen Pardeshi Pr.Sec .forests
The initial sale of Mahua jam
Promotion in exhibitions