Makhana Health Benefits

Anupama March 18, 2016

Makhana is a nutritious dry fruit known as Fox Nut (Euryale ferox).

It is a good source of carbohydrate, protein and minerals. Some
researches has found, it is superior to other common dry fruits
such as almond, walnut, cashew nut in terms of sugar, proteins,
ascorbic acid and phenol content. It is good source of essential
amino acids. In Ayurveda, Makhana is used to treat variety of
diseases. It is given to treat beriberi, dysentery, debility and as a
general health tonic. It improves fertility.

General Information

Scientific Classification
The botanical name of Makhana is Euryale ferox. It is commonly
called Fox nut, Gorgon nut, Prickly water lily. It belongs to plant
family Nymphaeaceae. Below is given taxonomical classification
of plant.

1. Kingdom: Plantae Plants

2. Subkingdom: Tracheobionta Vascular plants
3. Superdivision: Spermatophyta Seed plants
4. Division: Magnoliophyta Flowering plants
5. Class: Magnoliopsida Dicotyledons
6. Subclass: Magnoliidae
7. Order: Nymphaeales
8. Family: Nymphaeaceae Water-lily family
9. Genus: Euryale Salisb. euryale P
10. Species: Euryale ferox Salisb. euryale
Makhana is wrongly equated with Taalmakhana. Taalmakhana
(Asteracantha longifolia), also known as Kokilaaksha, Kokilaakshi,
Ikshura, Ikshuraka, Kaakekshu, Kshurak, Bhikshu belongs pant
family Acanthaceae.
Part(s) used for medicinal purpose: seeds
Plant type: aquatic.
Distribution: tropical and subtropical regions of south-east and
East Asia. In India, it is extensively cultivated in Darbhanga,
Madhubani, Samastipur and Saharsa districts and partly in the
Muzaffarpur, Champaran and Purnea districts.
Habitat: Shallow water bodies.
Makhana is an aquatic cash crop and in India, it is mainly
cultivated in Bihar.
Vernacular names/Synonyms
1. Latin name: Euryale ferox
2. English: Fox nut, Gorgon nut, Prickly water lily.
3. Ayurvedic: Makhaann, Paaniyaphala,
4. Padma-bijaabha, Ankalodya
5. Unani: Makhaanaa
6. Hindi: Makhana
7. Bengali: Makhana
8. Telugu: Mellunipadmamu
9. Oriya: Kuntapadamu

How Makhana is Prepared from

the seeds?
Euryale ferox is a stem less, prickly, aquatic herb. Its leaves are
big, oblong, orbicular corrugated about 6-100 cm in diameter and
floats like plate on water surface. The leaves are reddish green
above, purple below. The leaves, fruits all are densely spinous.
The flowers are solitary, submerged, and epigynous. Ovary is
inferior, multi carpellary. It develops into a spongy berry like fruit
which is densely prickly, the size of an orange, and contains 30-40
pea size seeds with hard black seed coat and a mucilaginous aril.
The pulpy aril keeps the fruit floating for a few days. After this it
finally settle down to the bottom.

The processing of Makhana involves following steps

Collecting the fruits: The sunken fruits are collected from the
pond manually with the help of a horn shaped split bamboo
contrivance and floating fruits are collected by nets.
Cleaning and Washing: These are cleaned and washed. They
are thoroughly sun-dried in the morning between 8-11 am so that
the moisture content reaches around 25-30 percent. Water is
sprinkled to keep the seeds fresh and moisture content optimum.
Storage and grading: The seeds thus prepared are graded
according to size and stored.
Preheating and tempering: The seeds of same size are heated
with continuous stirring over fire for approximately 6 minutes
followed by storing them in open baskets approximately for two
days.
Roasting: These seeds are again heated in an open pan over fire.
Popping: When a crackling sound is heard 5-7 seeds are taken
and kept on a hard surface. These are then hit with a wooden
hammer. There is steam pressure inside the seed so hitting
breaks the seed coat and the kernel pops out in expanded from.
Removal of seed coat and polishing: Seed coats are then
removed manually. These popped kernels are known as Makhana.
These are polished by rubbing it against baskets made of bamboo
splits without any delay to avoid absorption of moisture.

Grading and packing: Grading is done on the basis of size and

whiteness. Popped, polished and graded product is finally packed
in polyethylene or lined gunny bags.
Final product: The final product obtained by above is the dry
fruit Makhana.

Makhana Nutrition
Makhana has high nutritional value. It contain higher amino acid
(89-93%). The calorific value of raw Makhana is 362 kcal/100gm
and 328 kcal/100gm for popped Makhana. It contains minerals
(0.5%) with traces of carotene (1.4 mg). it is does not contain
cholesterol.

The nutritional value of Makhana is given below (g/100g):

1. Moisture: 12.8
2. Carbohydrate: 76.9
3. Proteins: 9.7
4. Fat: 0.1
5. Total minerals: 0.5
6. Calcium: 0.02
7. Phosphorus: 0.9
8. Iron: 0.0014

Health Benefits of Makhana / Fox

Nut
Makhana is a very nutritive dry fruit. It is a tonic and improves
general health condition. It is rich in Vitamin B1 (thiamine) and
used to treat nutritional disorder beriberi characterized by
impairment of the nerves and heart.

Makhana / Fox nut / Euryale ferox / Gorgon nut, offers several

health benefits and some of them are given below.

1. It is low in fat (0.4 %) and does not cause gain in weight.

2. It is a good source of carbohydrate, macro and micro-
nutrients.
3. It is rich in calcium (0.0344 to 0.0392 %) and phosphorus
(0.0775 to 0.0899 %).
4. It is rich in protein (11-12 %), calcium and minerals.
5. It contains more essential amino acids than milk, mutton, or
pulses.
6. It is tonic for spleen.
7. It helps in Vitamin B1 deficiency.
8. It is cooling in nature.
9. It is especially useful in vitiation of Pitta (bile disorders).
10. It cures Pitta-vikar, Rakt-vikar, and burning sensation.
11. It is Virya vardhak. It helps in spermatogenesis.
12. It is given to treat Pradar, uterus weakness, impotency and
sperm discharge.
13. It improves chances of conception.
14. Eating Makhana Post-delivery helps to cure weakness.
15. Deficiency of various vitamins and mineral results in horrible
nightmare. Makhana cures nightmares due to richness in B
vitamin, macro and micronutrients.
16. It is boon for reproductive health.
Makhana is alterative, antidiabetic, analgesic, aphrodisiac and
astringent in action. It is useful in diarrhea, erectile dysfunction,
female infertility, impotence, kidney disorders, leucorrhoea, and
vaginal discharge. It is easy to digest and can be eaten by
everyone. It can be enjoyed as fried salted snack (Namkeen),
kheer or curry. Since they are cool in potency and increases
Kapha / phlegm, so people with tendency for Kapha should take
Makhana cautiously.