Hyderabad: ‘Tati munjal’ or ice apples, despite being overshadowed by their more colourful summer counterpart, the mango, remain a popular summer fruit among city dwellers, who bank on it for a variety of health benefits.
Fruit enthusiasts said that ice apples not only boost the immune system, but also contain anti-ageing properties, benefit the skin, hydrate the body, assist in weight loss and improve liver health.
These white jelly-like fruits are mostly sold by vendors along popular roads and in residential areas. Many peel the shell and sell it in a ready-to-eat form at Rs 50- Rs 70 per dozen. Vendors selling ice apples can be spotted near the Ashoknagar bridge, Musheerabad main road, Bhoiguda road, the Mettuguda-Tarnaka stretch, Attapur, Film nagar, Ayyappa Society 100-feet road, Mehdipatnam, the Bowenpally-Suchitra stretch, Malakpet, Dilsukhnagar-Hayatnagar stretch, and the Nagole-Uppal stretch.
Vendors that Deccan Chronicle spoke to said that they come from surrounding areas of the city to sell the ice apples daily.
Kotrothu Manjula and her husband Bichhulu, residents of Bohangiri, visit the city daily in their auto trolley, carrying along a huge load of ice apples.
Manjula said, “We sell around 1,000 fruits a day each as we both set up individual stalls. There are many like us coming to the city to sell the fruit. There are plenty of trees in Telangana.”
