Ram kand mool

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Kandmool is a Hindi word for all varieties of root vegetables, and we will be looking into a rare type of Kandmool that is making rounds on Instagram reels, puzzling every viewer as to what it is and, to many, the source of this cooling road-side snack. The University of Kolhapur used DNA fingerprinting to identify this plant in 2002 and concluded it is a variety of agave Americana [2]. The agave Americana is one ram kand mool several types of agaves used for distillation.

When fermented, it produces a drink called Pulque. In the tequila-producing regions of Mexico, these agaves are called Mezcales and the high-alcohol product of agave distillation is called Mezcal [3]. Finding the Ram kand mool of the Ram Kand Mool Root The enigma of ram kand mool had intrigued ethnobotanist Koppula Hemadri since 1994 when he began digging out roots to finally solve the mystery.

He opted for agave, although he admitted that he didn't find unquestionable evidence that it was the right answer. A botanist named Dr Ali Moulali paid a vendor selling ram kand mool Rs 1,000-2,000 in exchange for revealing the source of the snack around the same time as Dr Hemadri was conducting his research.

The man said it was Kitta Nara fibre, used for agave fibre. He explained that it wasn't the root but something that grew above ground [4].

Keeping the source of ram kand mool a secret is one of the key characteristics of the business. Attempts have been made to spy on vendors in Maharashtra but to no avail. Buying the product in bulk has never been accepted, and revealing any information about the source of the tubers is taboo.

Does Ram Kand Mool Have Any Benefits? In 2010, a team of botanists conducted DNA tests on a slice of tuber, which showed that it matched the DNA of agave by around 89 per cent. All the evidence pointed to agave until then, and the more scientists thought about it, the more sense it made. Agave contains a lot of alkaloids, which is why it's poisonous in large quantities, and that's why vendors only sell thin slices of it [5].

Alkaloids are ram kand mool chemical compounds that provide opportunities for drug discovery. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities on human health, including anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial, anti-microbial, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic, and antioxidative properties [6].

Their therapeutic properties are well known. In addition to tonics, creams, lotions, face and hair masks, compresses for skin problems with numerous impurities, as well as antiaging and discolouration products, alkaloids can also inhibit cellulitis formation.

The Legend of Ram Kand Mool Legends say that when Lord Ram, his wife Sita and brother Lakshman were exiled into the forest, the royal family used to live under thatch roofs and eat kandmool. Ramakand or Rama chandra kandmool are often sold by street vendors around pilgrimage sites. Vendors keep a tight lid on the source of this huge root fruit.

On A Final Note. To say ram kand mool have health benefits would be far-reaching. However, because there are several species of agave, some of which are very similar, scientists do not know for sure what the source of the popular street snack is. It could be Sislana or Americana or another foreign species. Wikipedia notes that the root of the shrub Maerua oblongifolia is the source of the ram kand mool snack but acknowledges that where it is either collected or obtained is kept secret and that there is some doubt among botanists as to whether the described plant is Maerua oblongifolia - in short, no one actually knows.

I distinctly remember the first time I had seen the Ram kand. It was a cold morning in January and I was visiting the Shani Shingnapur temple, Nasik. The vendor had neatly placed it on a cycle and was slicing it out for sale. After a while, once I was visually content, I went and spoke to the vendor. I was curious about this humongous-looking tuber ( It was almost 2 feet in height even though it was cut halfway through). As per the vendor, this root is called “Ramkand/Kandamool” because Lord Ram consumed this during his vanvas/ exile.

When I asked him about its origin, he mentioned it was obtained from the forest by the older members of the community who knew where it grew. Back then he was selling it at 4 super thin slices for 10 Rs.

Recently when I saw it the price was 30 Rs for 4 slices. https://www.aditiprabhu.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/25133027_2075066456058409_6120987115934187520_n.mp4 Also back in 2011, an article was published in the Pune Times of India stating that though Ram kandmool looks like a tuber.

It is not a tuber but a monocot as per DNA testing. It belongs to the Agave family. The article also mentioned that “Ram kand” is not recommended for human consumption and can prove to be poisonous. P.S. In case you wish to try it out. Just be careful. Reference: • https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/100/09/1277.pdf • www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fepaper.timesofindia.com%2FDefault%2FScripting%2FArticleWin.asp%3FFrom%3DArchive%26Source%3DPage%26Skin%3DTOINEW%26BaseHref%3DTOIPU%2F2011%2F05%2F11%26PageLabel%3D2%26EntityId%3DAr00202%26ViewMode%3DHTML&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFr7Haq_K7I7MXdaGkGpCH-JD56rQ • https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/100/09/1277.pdf
Ram Kand Mool, a drum-shaped tuber that has been sold as a hearty snack on Indian street corners for at least several decades remains a mystery to scientists, as no one can figure out what plant produces it.

Indian botanists developed an interest in ram kand mool in the 1980s, after trying and failing to find out the origins of the almost paper-thin snacks cut out of giant reddish tubers by street vendors. None of them were willing to reveal the plant that produced it, and those that did gave conflicting answers.

Some claimed that it was a root, others that it was the stem of a plant, but most either refused to answer or claimed that they bought the tubers from third parties and genuinely didn’t know the source. Stranger still was the fact that not even science could provide a clear answer to the botanists’ questions. Ram kand mool is often advertised as the only food source of Lord Ram when he was exiled to forests along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman, and vendors claim it can cool you down during the summer, quench both hunger and thirst, and provide all sorts of medicinal relief.

It is served with all sorts of seasonings, from chili and salt, to lime and sugar. It’s cut and ram kand mool as very thin slices ram kand mool of tubers that can reportedly weigh up to 300 kilograms. Read More » • Plufl - The World's First Dog Bed for Humans • Japanese Butcher Shop Makes People Wait Years for Its Delicious Beef Croquettes • Speech2Face - An AI That Can Guess What Someone Looks Like Just by Their Voice • Watch Inspirational 70-Year-Old Man Run 100-Meter race in Just 13.47 Seconds • Woman Allegedly Comes Back to Life During Her Own Funeral Ram Kand Mool: Does It Have Any Health Benefits?

Read About This 'Highly Secretive' Food Ram Kand Mool, a tuber, has been sold as a hearty snack on street corners in India for several decades, but scientists are not able to identify the plant that produces it. Read more here. You may have seen this tubular looking vegetable/snack with street food vendors, majorly in northern parts of India. Kandmool is a Hindi word for all varieties of root vegetables, and we will be looking into a rare type of Kandmool that is making rounds on Instagram reels, puzzling every viewer as to what it is and, to many, the source of this cooling road-side snack.

Some (vendors) said it was a root; others said it was a stem, but most refused to answer or said they bought the tubers from third parties and didn't know the source.

Yet even stranger was that science was unable to provide a clear answer to the botanists' questions. [image source: youtube] What Is Ram Kand Mool? Kandmool is vegetables that grow underground such as potatoes and sweet potatoes. Several Indian ascetics, rishis, and munis who lived in forests consumed these roots to sustain themselves. A scientific examination of this food item has revealed that it actually is a part of the Agave ram kand mool.

The botanists of India attempted to find out more information on this large, cylinder-shaped, brownish tuber in the 1980s. Still, it proved to be difficult. The University of Kolhapur used DNA fingerprinting to identify this plant in 2002 and concluded it is a variety of agave Americana.

The agave Americana is one of several types of agaves used for distillation. When fermented, it produces a drink called Pulque. In the tequila-producing regions of Mexico, these agaves are called Mezcales and the high-alcohol product of agave distillation is called Mezcal. Finding the Root of the Ram Kand Mool Root The enigma of ram kand mool had intrigued ethnobotanist Koppula Hemadri since 1994 when he began digging out roots to finally solve the mystery.

He opted for agave, although he admitted that he didn't find unquestionable evidence that it was the right answer.

A botanist named Dr Ali Moulali paid a vendor selling ram kand mool Rs 1,000-2,000 in exchange for revealing the source of the snack around the same time as Dr Hemadri was conducting his research. The man said it was Kitta Nara fibre, used for agave fibre. He explained that it wasn't the root but something that grew above ground.

Keeping the source of ram kand ram kand mool a secret is one of the key characteristics of the business. Attempts have been made to spy on vendors in Maharashtra but to no avail.

Buying the product in bulk has never been accepted, and revealing any information about the source of the tubers is taboo. Does Ram Kand Mool Have Any Benefits? In 2010, a team of botanists conducted DNA tests on a slice of tuber, which showed that it matched the DNA of agave by around 89 per cent. All the evidence pointed to agave until then, and the more scientists thought about it, the more sense it made. Agave contains a lot of alkaloids, which is why it's poisonous in large quantities, and that's why vendors only sell thin slices of it.

Alkaloids are important chemical compounds that provide opportunities for drug discovery. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities on human health, including anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial, anti-microbial, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic, and antioxidative properties.

Their therapeutic properties are well known. In addition to tonics, creams, lotions, face and hair masks, compresses for skin problems with numerous impurities, as well as antiaging and ram kand mool products, alkaloids can also inhibit cellulitis formation. The Legend of Ram Kand Mool Legends say that when Lord Ram, his wife Sita and brother Lakshman were exiled into the forest, the royal family used to live under thatch roofs and ram kand mool kandmool. Ramakand or Rama chandra kandmool are often sold by street vendors around pilgrimage sites.

Vendors keep a tight lid on the source of this huge root fruit. Conclusion. To say ram kand mool have health benefits would be far-reaching. However, because there are several species of agave, some of which are very similar, scientists do not know for sure what the source of the popular street snack is. It could be Sislana or Americana or another foreign species.

Wikipedia notes that the root of the shrub Maerua oblongifolia is the ram kand mool of the ram kand mool snack but acknowledges that where it is either collected or obtained is kept secret and that there is some doubt among botanists as to whether the described plant is Maerua oblongifolia - in short, no one actually knows.
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44900 As Per 7th CPC PM Kisan 11th Installment: Government Likely to Transfer Rs 2000 to Farmers’ Account on This Date Mahindra Collaborates with Jammu & Kashmir Bank to Provide Affordable Loans for its Farm Equipment • • Agripedia Ram Kand Moool There is a legend that when Lord Ram was exiled to forests along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman, the royal family used to live under a thatch roof and ram kand mool to feed on kandmool.

A few of my friends said ,very often, street vendors around places of pilgrimage, were seen selling the so-called Ramakand or Rama chandra kandmool. My encounter with Ram Kand Mool is quite accidental. I saw it at Dharward. I went to Dharward Agricultural University on September 22,2017, along with Ram kand mool, Managing Editor of Krishi Jagran, to attend the Agriculture Fair organized by the University.

When we were moving around the campus, watching the exhibits, we saw a small crowd near the main gate of the campus. We became curious to know what was happening there. When we along with Mr.Thippe Swamy, our Dharward District Coordinator took a place among the crowd.We saw a man in an old tracksuit and T –shirt sitting behind a drum. We astonished to find that it was not a real drum, but an edible tuber that he was selling to the people who were anxiously waiting for their turn.

It was very interesting to see that with his sharp knife he was cutting skin thin slices with utmost care and selling three pieces for rupees ten. The tuber is brown in colour and its flesh is light brown.

Only 1/10 th of the portion was sold that timebut he had a reasonably good collection in his box. He was enjoying the sales and loudly announcing that it is Ram kand mool, that was the health food of Rama, Lakashmana and Sita during their exile (vanvasa). Ram Kand Mool Fruit We also decided to taste it and Thippe Swamy paid for that. We tasted it to feel the sweet, cool piece that remembered me a taste familiar to the sap of coconut wood that oozes out when we cut the matured tree.

The size of the tuber, its taste and unknown nature made me to inquire further. The result was very interesting. It’s a very rareimpressive delicious root rarely available in the hills of Sree sailam and in Chitrakoot and Kamadgiri Parvat. It is reported that the drum like root with brown thin skin and fleshy inside is nutritive, thirst fulfilling and good to health.

There is a legend that when Lord Ram was exiled to forests along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman, the royal family used to live under a thatch roof and used to feed on kandmool.

A few of my friends said ,very often, street vendors around places of pilgrimage, were seen selling the so-called Ramakand or Rama chandra kandmool. The source of this huge root-fruit is the best-kept secret by the vendors.

Scientific examination of this food-item has revealed it to actually be a part of the Agave plant. In 1980's, the botanists of India, try to find out more information on this large, cylinder-shaped, brownish tuber.

It was a challenge for them. They asked public help to identify this huge roots. But all their efforts went ram kand mool vain. About 10 years ago, the University of Kolhapur resorted to DNA fingerprinting to identify this plant and came up with the conclusion that it is a variety of Agave americana. Agave americana is one of the several agaves used for distillation. After fermentation, it produces ram kand mool drink called Pulque.

In the tequila-producing regions of Mexico, this type of agaves called Mezcales. The high-alcohol product of agave distillation is called Mezcal. The anatomical study shows the plant is a typical monocotyledonous vascular bundle arrangement. But this only added to the confusion, as monocots have adventitious roots and not a tap root system.

Therefore to find out the source, the plant material was obtained from one of the vendors from Jyothiba hill temple at Wadi Ratnagiri, Kolhapur District, Maharashtra. Slices of approximately 4.5 inches radius and 2–3 mm breadth were purchased and brought to the laboratory. DNA was extracted from these slices using the protocol described by Doyle and Doyle and its purity was checked on agarose gel.

For identification of the plant species, the plastid locus for maturasek(matk) was selected. The plastid and mitochondrial DNA have been viewed as the most appropriate regions to sequence for species identification in plants and animals respectively. The similarity search showed 89% identity with the partial sequence of the plastid locus maturase of Agave sisalana. Further to confirm the identification, plants of Agave were visited and their leaves enclosing the rosette and juvenile inflorescence were excised, which exposed the core of the rosette.

This core is soft and of similar dimension to that of the Ramkand being sold. Even though the source of obtained plant material was identified as A. sisalana on the basis of percentage of identity, it is possible that other species of Agave are also being processed and used for the same purpose.

It is obvious that there are several factors in the identification of a species, but getting the field of possibilities narrowed to this extent can also help in identification of such cryptic plants. Ram Kand Mool is a research material for our agriculture scientists and has to find out what are the nutrients and medicines hiding in it. Show your support to Agri-Journalism Dear patron, thank you for being our reader. Readers like you are an inspiration for us to move Agri Journalism forward.

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A vendor was cutting slices off what looked like the trunk of a tree on his push-cart.

This was in Bengaluru, the city in the south Indian state of Karnataka where I live. The core was a creamy white ram kand mool the skin a brownish-orange.

He cut horizontally, in circles, with the precision ram kand mool a surgeon, so thin that I could see through the pieces. “It’s a root. It can grow five feet deep and 300kg,” he explained, in response to my shock. He sources it, he said, from the neighbouring state of Kerala, from people who “get it from the forests.” He hasn’t seen anybody extract the root, but has seen the tree it comes from. “It’s like a climber.

It gives flowers. It grows near the sea. It’s called Bhoochakara Gadda in south Ram kand mool and Ram Kand Mool up north.” Can a root be this massive? Especially the root of a climber or vine?

Before I could ask Google, my snack was ready. It was seasoned with salt, chili powder, and lime; my husband’s had sugar and lime. It was crunchy, juicy, and refreshing, but had no taste of its own. That night, Ram kand mool googled Bhoochakara Gadda. There wasn’t much. Wikipedia identified the scientific name of the plant as Maerua oblongifolia, but had no photos of it. Ram kand mool oblongifolia is a low, woody, undershrub found in India, Pakistan, parts of Africa, and Saudi Arabia, whose tubers are sold as snacks and used as a stimulant in the ancient medicine system ram kand mool Siddha, I read.

Research papers showed its leaves and flowers but not the root. So I decided to dig in. Most online sources cite Maerua oblongifolia, pictured here, as the source of the snack, likely inaccurately.

Courtesy Dr. MS Rathore I contacted a wood scientist, a professor of food science, and a Siddha practitioner, each from my state. They hadn’t seen the tree.

I pivoted my search to another state in the south, Andhra Pradesh. I called up its tribal department, but got no leads. Then my messages to the head of the biodiversity board were met with silence. I spoke to a botany researcher who had studied the tree, only to learn he had never seen it in person. Soon enough, I’d learn that my idle curiosity was, in fact, a mystery that has baffled and, at times, infuriated botanists for decades. This snack has been widely sold on the streets for decades—from the city of Haridwar in the north to Pune in the west and in several places in the south—and yet, somehow, no one seems to know what it is.

I had a breakthrough a few months later when I came across a thesis paper by Dr. MS Rathore, who had propagated Maerua oblongifolia in the lab in 2011. He had seen the tree many times in the desert state of Rajasthan. “But I haven’t heard or seen anybody eating the root,” the scientist said over a call, sounding puzzled. “Its roots are sparse and inedible,” added Dr. NS Shekhawat, his thesis adviser and a retired professor of botany.

“Growing in dry regions, where will it have so much water to develop big roots and be fat and juicy? [The snack] can’t be Maerua oblongifolia.” The duo sent me photos of the tree, which did not match the description on Wikipedia.

And the roots in the photos were grown in a lab and too tiny to conclude anything. I spoke next to Dr. T Pullaiah, former president of The Indian Botanical Society. In his 2019 Encyclopaedia of World Medicinal Plants, he links this snack to Ipomoea d igitataa climber that grows a large tuberous root with a yellowish-brown coat.

He must have seen the root, I thought. “No. It was second-hand knowledge. We are professors, busy between teaching and administrative work, so we rely on existing literature to come to conclusions,” he explained.

So I made more calls, wrote more emails. And a new name came up that nullified all my research. The year was 1994. Ethnobotanist Dr. Koppula Hemadri was going around India “digging out roots” to confirm the origins of this snack.

He ended his search with agave. These are succulents that look like aloe vera but can grow up to 10 feet wide and twice as tall. Some have a stout stem topped with spiny leaves, like pineapples. Some appear stemless. “I tasted the base of agavethat’s attached to roots,” remarked Dr.

Hemadri, who’s now retired and lives in Andhra Pradesh. “It was starchy and a bit like that snack. But I did not pursue [the lead] after that.” Agave grows abundantly a few hours from Bengaluru, a city where the snack is a commonly sold. Courtesy Barkha Kumari In the same year, in the same state, botanist Dr.

Ali Moulali got closer: “I told a vendor I would pay him Rs1,000-2,000 ($13-27) more if he revealed the identity of the plant. He hesitated and said, ‘It’s the base of Kitta Nara.’ “ That’s what the fibre made from agave is locally called. The vendor also revealed that it wasn’t a root, but ram kand mool that grew just above the ground.

In the same period, flowering-plant taxonomist Dr. SR Yadav was encouraging his students in the western state of Maharashtra to scrutinise Ram Kand, which is the snack’s local name there. Two of his students—Dr. Mansingraj S Nimbalkar and Dr. Vinod B Shimpale, who were studying molecular biology and taxonomy—went on to provide the most scientific insight into this mystery. In 2010, after a long anatomical ram kand mool, they performed DNA barcoding on a slice of the snack and found it to match that of agave’s by 89 percent.

There are several species of agave, but the lab test narrowed it down to Agave Sisalana, a plant sometimes used to make a tequila-like drink. They did a field visit soon after and plucked out a Sisalana only to find mesh-like, shallow roots. Next, they chopped off its leaves and there it was: the fat, white, watery trunk familiar to millions of Indians from food carts. They ate a slice from it, and it was tasteless and crunchy just like Ram Kand. The findings were published in Current Science the following year.

It’s sold only in ultra-thin slices. Courtesy Mahesh M So why is there still doubt about the identity of this snack? “Which species of agave is it— Sisalana or Americana or any other?” Dr.

Shimpale says. “We can’t conclude until the vendors show the plant to us. They keep this as a business secret to create curiosity around it.” Yes, there is a pattern to what the vendors say: It’s a root; it’s medicinal; they get it from a forest 200 kilometers away or in Africa. They say the Hindu god Ram, and his wife and brother, subsisted on Ram Kand during their exile in the forests, and that Bhoochakara Gadda is a sweet-something growing underground.

Try to buy their stock in bulk and they’ll spare no more than a few slices. Probe them and they’ll cart away. “Forest officials in Maharashtra have tried to spy on them, but it was futile,” Dr. Nimbalkar recalls. Going on a hunch, I rang up a senior forest official in Karnataka, GS Yadav. “You need permission to remove or extract anything from any forest,” he says clearly. But agave doesn’t fully fit into the forest bracket.

It grows widely in India, on roadsides, along railway tracks, as fencing. However, it may not be so healthy.

“Agave has lots of alkaloids. It can be poisonous if eaten in large quantities. Maybe that’s why they sell thin slices,” Dr. Yadav, now retired, warns. I felt increasingly ram kand mool that agave was the answer until Dr. Chenna Kesava Reddy Sangati, an assistant professor of nutrition & technology in Bengaluru, dubbed it “impossible.” He has researched agave extensively in order to produce an alcoholic beverage from its Albomarginata variety.

“I have eaten Bhoochakara Gadda. It has a smoother mouthfeel, is softer to bite, and is not very sweet,” he says. “Whereas this agave is highly sweet, astringent, fibrous, and hard to bite.” Dr. Chenna Kesava Reddy Sangati shows the insides of the trunk of Agave Albomerginata. He says this snack can’t be related to agave. Courtesy Dr. Chenna Kesava Reddy Sangati In April, the second wave of coronavirus in India had set in.

Crowds on the street had thinned, push-carts were fewer, and the vendor I had first met was gone. “He has gone to his village,” a man who sells watermelons on the same street told me. But he passed on the vendor’s contact number. Fearing another lockdown, the vendor had returned to the northern state of Jharkhand. The pandemic was killing his business and he wanted to know from me when things will be normal. What could I say? We shifted the topic and he came clean easily: “It’s a stem … I sell it year-round … I have seen the plant only in photos, on the phone.” Oh!

“Will you give me the phone number of the person you source Bhoochakara Gadda from?” I asked. He went silent. “Ask anything but this, please. Nobody will tell you anything. This is how this business is,” he told me, getting irritated by the minute. Then he ram kand mool down. “I’ve been eating this for years. It cools the body. Customers say it’s good for diabetes. It’s not illegal, I know.” The vendors smear red coloring on the sides ram kand mool preserve the white interior.

Courtesy Barkha Kumari After questioning my motives for calling him, he agreed to look at photos of the plants that experts were debating. “None,” he replied. I was gutted but called back to thank him. Ram kand mool then he said, “Photo number 3. That’s the plant.” It was Agave Sisalana. He okayed Photo number 2 as well, which was Agave Americana. There was no word on Photo No.

1, Maerua oblongifolia. “They cut the leaves and rub red color on the trunk to preserve its white color,” he explained. So is this an agave snack, after all? I will wait for the final word, as Dr. MS Shekhawat, another botanist from Rajasthan, has assured me that after the pandemic is over, he will go into the field, uproot, slice, and taste a sample of each likely candidate, and resolve the mystery once and for all. Gastro Obscura covers the world’s most wondrous food and drink. Sign up for our email, delivered twice a week.

aoc-full-screen aoc-heart-solid aoc-compass aoc-flipboard aoc-globe aoc-pocket aoc-share aoc-cancel aoc-video aoc-building aoc-clock aoc-clipboard aoc-help aoc-arrow-right aoc-arrow-left aoc-ticket aoc-place-entry aoc-facebook aoc-instagram aoc-reddit aoc-rss aoc-twitter aoc-accommodation aoc-activity-level aoc-add-a-photo aoc-add-box aoc-add-shape aoc-arrow-forward aoc-been-here aoc-chat-bubbles aoc-close aoc-expand-more aoc-expand-less aoc-forum-flag aoc-group-size aoc-heart-outline aoc-heart-solid aoc-home aoc-important aoc-knife-fork aoc-library-books aoc-link aoc-list-circle-bullets aoc-list aoc-location-add aoc-location aoc-mail aoc-map aoc-menu aoc-more-horizontal aoc-my-location aoc-near-me aoc-notifications-alert aoc-notifications-mentions aoc-notifications-muted aoc-notifications-tracking aoc-open-in-new aoc-pencil aoc-person aoc-pinned aoc-plane-takeoff aoc-plane passport-plane aoc-print aoc-reply aoc-search aoc-shuffle aoc-star aoc-subject aoc-trip-style aoc-unpinned aoc-send aoc-phone aoc-apps aoc-lock aoc-verifiedIndian botanists developed an interest in ram kand mool in the 1980s, after trying and failing to find out the origins of the almost paper-thin snacks cut out of giant reddish tubers by street vendors.

None of them were willing to reveal the plant that produced it, and those that did gave conflicting answers. Some claimed that it was a root, others that it was the stem of a plant, but most either refused to answer or claimed that they bought the tubers from third parties and genuinely didn’t know the source. Stranger still was the fact that not even science could provide a clear answer to the botanists’ questions. Ram kand mool is often advertised as the only food source of Lord Ram when he was exiled to forests along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman, and vendors claim it can cool you down during the summer, quench both hunger and thirst, and provide all sorts of medicinal relief.

It is served with all sorts of seasonings, from chili and salt, to lime and sugar. It’s cut and served as very thin slices out of tubers that can reportedly weigh up to 300 kilograms. Photo: Kailash Mohankar/Wikimedia Commons Writing for Atlas Obscura, Indian journalist and food blogger Bartha Kumari tackled the mystery that is ram kand mool, from the early attempts of botanists to reveal its source, to present day. Apparently, they only started making some headway in 1994, when intrigued ethnobotanist Dr.

Koppula Hemadri started going around India digging out roots in an attempt to finally solve the enigma of ram kand mool. His search ended with agave, but he himself admitted that he did not find irrefutable proof that this was the right answer.

At around the same time that Dr. Hemadri was conducting his research, botanist Dr. Ali Moulali tried paying a ram kand mool vendor Rs1,000-2,000 to reveal the source of the snack.

After hesitating, the man said that it was the base of Kitta Nara, the name used to describe agave fiber. Interestingly, he added that it wasn’t the root, but something that grew above ground. A real breakthrough in the botanists’ quest to solve the mystery of ram kand mool came in 2010, when a team of ram kand mool conducted DNA tests on a slice of tuber, which ram kand mool that it matched the DNA of agave by 89 percent. Whatever evidence had been gathered until then pointed at agave, and the more scientists thought about it, the more sense it made.

Agave contains lots of alkaloids, so it’s poisonous in large quantities, and that may be why vendors only sell it in thin slices. In 2011, narrowed down the source of ram kand mool to Agave Sisalana, one of several species of agave, by chopping off the leaves to reveal a large, white tuber-like stem similar to that sold by street vendors. A paper on this significant finding was published in the Current Science journal that same year.

Only that is not the end of the story… Because there are several species of agave, some very similar to each other, scientists can’t figure out exactly what the source of the popular street snack is. It could be Sislana or Americana, or some other foreign species. “We can’t conclude until the vendors show the plant to us.

They keep this as a business secret to create curiosity around it,” Dr. Vinod B. Shimpale, co-author of the aforementioned 2011 study, admits. Some scientists aren’t even convinced that the tubers are from the agave plant.

Dr. Chenna Kesava Reddy Sangati, an assistant professor of nutrition & technology in Bengaluru, who has studied agave extensively, is sure that ram kand mool is not made from agave. He claims the alleged source of the snack is highly sweet, astringent, fibrous, and hard to bite, whereas the snack itself “has a smoother mouthfeel, is softer to bite, and is not very sweet”.

Something doesn’t add up. Wikipedia describes the root of the shrub Maerua oblongifolia as the source of the ram kand mool snack, but acknowledges that “the ram kand mool is brought to the shops in a very secretive manner, in that where it is either collected or obtained is kept secret,” and that “there are doubts amongst botanists as ram kand mool whether the described plant is Maerua oblongifolia”. In short, no one actually knows.

Keeping the source of ram kand mool a secret is a key characteristic of the business. Forest officials in Maharashtra have tried spying on vendors, to no avail, buying the product in bulk is never accepted, and revealing any sort of real information or contact information regarding the source of the tubers is considered taboo.

“Ask anything but this, please. Nobody will tell you anything. This is how this business is,” one vendor told Bartha Kumari when she asked him to reveal his ram kand mool source. • Plufl - The World's First Dog Bed for Humans • Japanese Butcher Shop Makes People Wait Years for Its Delicious Beef Croquettes • Speech2Face - An AI That Can Guess What Someone Looks Like Just by Their Voice • Watch Inspirational 70-Year-Old Man Run 100-Meter race in Just 13.47 Seconds • Woman Allegedly Comes Back to Life During Her Own Funeral