The Bambangan (Mangifera pajang K. Family: Anacardiaceae) fruit is grown extensively in Malaysia and other parts of the Far East. In other parts of the world it is called the Mammy Apple or Abricot. It is a wild type of mango with a curiously brown skin, yellow-orange pulp and a very pungent smell. It is usually prepared as a pickle or served with fish. The Iban peoples of Sarawak eat it too as a fruit. The volatile constituents have been identified using vacuum distillation with extraction into dichloromethane.

The volatiles are mainly monoterpene hydrocarbons and esters with α-pinene (67%) and α-phellandrene (11%) as the two most abundant components (Wong and Siew, 1994).

As with many mango species there is a high isoflavanone content- mainly daidzein (8.3 -8.7 mg/100g) and genistein (0.4-0.6 mg/100g) (Khoo and Ismail, 2008). The antioxidant activity has also been determined (Bakar et al., 2009; Ibrahim et al., 2010).

The kernel extract has recently been examined for its anticancer properties especially in promoting apoptosis in a breast cancer cell line (Bakar et al., 2010).

References

Bakar, M.F.A., Mohamad, M., Rahmat, A., Burr, S.A., Fry, J.R. (2010) Cytotoxicity, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis in breast cancer cell lines exposed to an extract of the seed kernel of Mangifera pajang (bambangan). Food & Chemical Toxicol. 48 (6) pp. 1688-1697
Bakar, M.F.A., Mohamed, M., Rahmat, A., Fry, J. (2009) Phytochemicals and antioxidant activity of different parts of bambangan (Mangifera pajang) and tarap (Artocarpus odoratissimus). Food Chem., 113(2) pp. 479-483
Ibrahim, M., Nagendra Prasad, K., Ismail, A..,Azlan, A. and Abd Hamid, A. Physiochemical composition and antioxidant activities of underutilized Mangifera pajang fruit. Afr. J. Biotechnol., 9(28) pp. 4392-4397
Khoo, H.E. Ismail, A, (2008) Determination of Daidzein and Genistein Contents in Mangifera Fruit. Mal. J. Nutr. 14(2) pp.189 – 198,
Wong, K.C. Siew, S.S. (1994) Volatile components of the fruits of bambangan (mangifera panjang kostermans) and binjai (mangifera caesia jack). Flav. Fragrance J. 9(4) pp. 173-178