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Purple delight
THE DARK purple brinjal hails from Assam and Myanmar, but the earliest evidence of its cultivation is from 2000 BC in north-western India. The fruit, a berry, was common in Chinese cuisine by 300 AD, and the first written account of it anywhere comes from Chinese manuscripts of the 5th Century AD. Trade with Arabs introduced the Europeans to this fruit, and their initial reaction to it was mixed. The Spaniards, who eventually took it to the Americas, were familiar with it from the time of the Moors: they thought it was an aphrodisiac and called it "The Apple of Love". But 17th Century botanists were not so impressed. They feared that under its purple skin lurked chemicals that could cause insanity, hence the sobriquet "The Mad Apple".
The brinjal can be orange-red, dark purple, white, green and striped, as small as a grape or as big as a watermelon, and it is probably the only fruit with three equally well-known synonyms — the other two being "eggplant" and "aubergine". Anthocyanin pigment in the skin gives the fruit its familiar dark purple colour. The pigment is an antioxidant with anti-cancer properties. Homemakers and cooks all over the world will be glad to learn that it is not always their fault if the brinjal dishes just ooze like an oil pipeline. The truth is the brinjal has a greater capacity for absorbing oil than even potatoes. The fruit cells are normally full of air: cooking releases the air and the empty cells fill up with cooking oil.
Soon, the cell walls of the individual cells break down and they ooze oil slowly. This is one reason why it is difficult to cook brinjal in a way that is palatable as well as nutritious and calorie-lite. The other reason, let's face it, is that the brinjal is not very nutritious to begin with. 100 gm of the raw fruit will gladden the dieter's heart with its meagre ration of 26 calories, but there is little in it to make a nutritionist happy. One gram of protein and a little folic acid and potassium is, on the face of it, a paltry reward for what is really a mildly bitter oil sponge.
For what it's worth, the best cooking methods are steaming, grilling, broiling and baking. The brinjal plant is poisonous, and the fruit should never be eaten raw.
Like all members of the nightshade family, it contains the toxin solanine that can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, breathlessness and sweating. There is some evidence to suggest that a few osteoarthritis sufferers owe their illness to sensitivity to members of the nightshade family like the eggplant. Eliminating solanine from the diet is one way to find out if your osteoarthritis is due to food sensitivity. The brinjal has a modest cholesterol-lowering effect, and it is a folk remedy for piles and intestinal bleeding.
RAJIV. M
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