Amla (Indian gooseberry)

Amla, or Indian gooseberry, is a pale green fruit from India with lots of vitamin C. Very sour and astringent; mostly sold as powder, juice or pickled.

What is amla? Ganesha’s bitter pearl

If you think a chilled Californian orange is the best vitamin C fruit on earth, ancient Ayurvedic masters would laugh out loud. The small, hard, pale green amla berry (Phyllanthus emblica, also called amalaki or Indian gooseberry) is, in the Sanskrit tradition, a symbol of long life. Biting into a fresh amla takes a straight face: it’s intensely sour, bitter, harsh on the finish and so astringent it leaves your mouth dry – almost five different tastes in a single berry. In Ayurveda, it’s exactly this harshness that earns the fruit its reputation.

What’s in it: vitamin C bound to tannins

It sounds almost impossible: free vitamin C in plants is very sensitive to heat (it starts to break down at around 40°C). Amla, though, survives long stewing in Indian kitchens:

• Heat-resistant vitamin C: Amla holds large stores of ascorbic acid (about **eight to ten times** as much as a lemon), tightly bound to bitter gallotannins and other tannins. So the vitamin stays largely stable even with long, intense cooking – for example when amla is cooked into chyawanprash paste in Ayurveda.

What studies look at: hair and blood fats

Amla and hair

Traditional Asian beauty revolves around one thing: thick, glossy, dark hair. Researchers link oxidative stress to hair greying, because it affects the pigment cells (melanocytes) in the hair follicle. Amla powder contains antioxidant plant compounds and traces of iron and copper. Some men with hereditary hair loss (androgenetic alopecia) massage amla paste into the scalp in the hope that it blocks the enzyme 5-alpha reductase. Claims that amla repairs keratin, widens the blood vessels in the scalp or regrows hair aren’t backed by solid studies in people.

Blood fats

In double-blind randomised controlled trials, cardiologists compared a standardised amla extract directly with statins (prescription drugs for high cholesterol) in people with very high blood fats. In several of these trials, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides were lower and HDL was higher after the amla extract – in some cases comparable to the statin. These were concentrated extracts, not the fruit. Never stop or swap prescribed medication without talking to your doctor.

Good to know: chyawanprash

Fresh, sour amla is almost impossible to find in Europe. What you usually buy is a sandy-brown, dusty, bitter powder. Never take it by the dry spoonful – you’ll choke on the sour, sandy texture. The traditional Indian way to eat amla is chyawanprash: a thick, almost black, very sticky and sweet Ayurvedic jam in which amla (the main ingredient) is cooked slowly for days with golden ghee, raw honey, nearly 40 roots and herbs, black pepper and cardamom. In India, it’s traditionally eaten by the spoonful before breakfast.