30th Issue Vol. 4 No.

03 ISSN 2094-1765 March 2011

Growing the
Nutritious
Malunggay
Malunggay or botanically known
as Moringa, is a fast-growing
tropical, medium-sized woody
tree cultivated for its nutritious
leaves and edible immature pods.

This wonderful herb could

provide the boost in energy,
nutrition and health most people
in the 3rd world is seeking, aside
from its unique medicinal
properties. Loaded with nutrients,
vitamins and amino acids, it can
replenish your body and provide
what you need to get through a
hectic weekday or active
weekend.

It is also proven to reduce blood

pressure and assures a good
night sleep. This is due to the
fact that Malunggay is well-
documented to detoxifying and
purify water inside your body,
attaching itself to harmful material
and bacteria, and allowing them
to be expelled as waste. It
produces long-lasting energy
without hyperactivity... a nerve
system at rest... a blood system
not under pressure...a gland and
hormone system in balance.

Other health benefits identified by

people who use Moringa continue
this same pattern: immune
system strengthened, skin
condition restored, blood pressure
controlled, headaches and
migraines handled, diabetes
sugar level managed,

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inflammations and arthritis pains reduced, tumors restricted and ulcers healed.

Furthermore, Moringa is loaded with nutrients. Each ounce of Moringa contains seven times
the Vitamin C found in oranges, four times the Vitamin A of carrots, three times the iron of
spinach, four times as much calcium as milk and three times the potassium of bananas.

One of the best attributes of Moringa is that it is also quite tasty and a welcome addition to your
kitchen. The leaves, pods and flowers of this versatile tree are all edible, each with its own
flavor. They can be served fresh with meals, or be reduced to powder and used as a food
supplement.
Moringa is easy to grow. It thrives mainly in semi-arid, tropical and subtropical areas. It loves
full sun, and thrives in any type of soil, preferably sandy soil, even in unfertile soil. It is the
world’s most useful tree, as every part can be used as food or possess beneficial properties.

Moringa is grown in home gardens and as living fences. Locally, Moringa is commonly grown
for its leaves, which are used in soup.

The tree is usually planted by stem cuttings during the rainy season. During that time, 3-4 foot
long stems are planted in the soil. Stem cuttings quickly root and develop new shoots and later
grows into trees. The tree also response well to pruning, wherein it produces more branches.
Seeds also germinates and develop into trees. With its many useful properties, Malunggay is
now processed commercially into various products in the food and pharmaceutical industry.

The Gabi or Taro Plant

Taro or Gabi is the corms and
tubers the Colocasia esculenta
plant, which belongs to the
Araceae family. It is one of the
most widely cultivated root crop in
Asia.

Taro is native to southeast Asia. It

is a perennial, tropical plant
primarily grown as a root vegetable
for its edible starchy corm, and as a
leaf vegetable and is considered a
staple in African, Oceanic and
Asian cultures. It is believed to have
been one of the earliest cultivated
plants. Colocasia is thought to have
originated in the Indo-Malayan
region, perhaps in eastern India and Bangladesh, and have spread eastward into Southeast
Asia, eastern Asia, and the Pacific islands; westward to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean;
and then southward and westward from there into East Africa and West Africa, from whence it
spread to the Caribbean and Americas. It is known by many local names and often referred to
as 'elephant ears' when grown as an ornamental plant.

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 Taro can be grown in
paddy fields or in
upland situations
where watering is
supplied by rainfall or
by supplemental
irrigation. Like most
root crops, taro do
well on deep, moist or
even swampy soils
where the annual
rainfall exceeds 250
cm. The crop attains
maturity within six to
nine months of
planting. For better
storage, the crop is
harvested after the
leaves turn yellow.

The plant is inedible when raw and considered toxic due to the presence of calcium oxalate
crystals, typically as raphides. The toxin is minimized by cooking, especially with a pinch of
baking soda. It can also be reduced by steeping taro roots in cold water overnight. Calcium
oxalate is highly insoluble and contributes to kidney stones. It has been recommended to take
milk or other calcium rich foods with Taro Taro leaves also must be handled with care due to
toxicity of the leaves, but are completely safe after cooking.

The corms are roasted, baked or boiled and the natural sugars give a sweet nutty flavor. The
starch is easily digestible and grains are fine and small and often used for baby food. The
leaves are a good source of vitamins A and C and contain more protein than the corms.

In the Philippines, a popular recipe for taro is laing which originates from the Bicol region in
Southern Luzon. The dish's main ingredients are taro stem and leaf cooked in coconut milk,
salted with fermented shrimp or fish bagoong. It is also heavily spiced with red siling labuyo.
Another dish where taro finds common use in the Filipino kitchen is the Philippine national stew,
called sinigang. The sour stew is made with pork and beef, shrimp, or fish. Peeled and diced
taro is a basic ingredient of pork sinigang and in ginataan, a coconut milk and taro desert recipe
mixed with sago and jackfruit.

The Cassava
The cassava, or kamoteng kahoy (Manihot esculenta) is a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae
family that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its
edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrate.

The root is long and tapered, with a firm homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind. The
flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish; it breaks like a carrot, and darkens quickly upon exposure
to the air. For this reason, the skinned root must be kept under water until it is ready to be
cooking|cooked. The root's flavor spoils in a day or so, even if kept unskinned and under

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refrigeration, which is a problem for supermarkets. A solution is usually to freeze it or seal it in
wax.
The cassava plant gives the highest
yield of food energy per cultivated
area per day among crop plants,
except possibly for sugarcane.
Cassava roots are very rich in
starch, and contain significant
amounts of calcium (50 mg/100g),
phosphorus (40 mg/100g) and
vitamin C (25 mg/100g). However,
they are poor in protein and other
nutrients. In contrast, cassava
leaves are a good source of protein
if supplemented with the amino acid
methionine.

Cassava is now extensively

cultivated as an annual crop. It is a
prolific crop that can grow in poor
soil and is drought tolerant. It is the
one of the most important food
plants in the tropics and the third
largest source of carbohydrates for
human food in the world.

The roots and leaves contain

cyanogenic glucosides, which offer a
protection against some herbivores,
but also make the plant toxic to
humans if consumed without prior
treatment, such as leaching and drying. In particular, the varieties known as "bitter cassava"
contain significant amounts of cyanide, with the "sweet cassava" less toxic. It is a unique aspect
of human beings to be able to process toxic plants into a form that makes them edible.

Cassava is the source of flour called tapioca, as well as is used for breads, and alcoholic
beverages. The leaves also can be treated and eaten. However, cassava is a poor source of
protein and reliance on cassava as a staple food is associated with the disease kwashiorkor.

Cassava is a very hardy plant. It tolerates drought better than most other crops, and can grow
well in very poor, acidic soils through its symbiotic relationship with soil fungi (mycorrhizae)

Cassava typically is grown by small-scale farmers using traditional methods, and often on land
not suitable for other crops. Cassava is propagated by cutting a mature stem into sections of
approximately 15 centimeters and planting these prior to the wet season. These plantings
require adequate moisture during the first two to three months, but subsequently are drought
resistant. The roots are harvestable after six to twelve months and can be harvested any time in
the following two years, providing farmers with a remarkable amount of flexibility.

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Cassava is harvested by hand by raising the lower part of stem and pulling the roots out of the
ground, then removing them from the base of the plant. The upper parts of the stems with the
leaves are plucked off before harvest.

Roots deteriorate within three to four days after harvesting and thus are either consumed
immediately or processed into a form with better storage qualities.

Cassava roots are very rich in starch, and contain significant amounts of calcium, phosphorus, ,
and vitamin C. However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients. Cassava roots are cooked
in various ways. The soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and can replace boiled potatoes in
many uses: as an accompaniment for meat dishes, or made into purées, dumplings, soups,
stews, gravies, and so forth. Deep fried (after boiling or steaming), it can replace fried potatoes,
with a distinctive flavor.

Cassava also is used to make alcoholic beverages.

In many countries, significant research has begun to evaluate the use of cassava as an ethanol
biofuel. In China, dried tapioca are used among other industrial applications as raw material for
the production of consumable alcohol and emerging non-grain feedstock of ethanol fuel, which
is a form of renewable energy to substitute petrol (gasoline).

Cassava sometimes is used for medicinal purposes. The bitter variety of Manihot root is used to
treat diarrhea and malaria. The leaves are used to treat hypertension, headache, and pain.

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Cubans commonly use cassava to treat irritable bowel syndrome; the paste is eaten in excess
during treatment.

In the Philippines, cassava is mainly prepared as a dessert, . It is also steamed and eaten plain.
Sometimes it is steamed and eaten with grated coconut. The most popular dessert is the
cassava cake/pie, which uses grated cassava, sugar, coconut milk, and coconut cream. The
leaves are also cooked and eaten. Cassava is now processed into cassava flour which is used
in as an ingredient in food processing or in industrial products.

The Useful Guava

The Guava is probably the
most important tree in the
backyard, and also the most
familiar and popular fruit
among children in the
province. Locally known as
bayabas, and scientifically
known as Psidium guajava, it
belongs to the Myrtaceae
plant family. It is a source of
readily available fruit, a
souring agent in fish
sinigang, and a source of
medicine for stomach ache,
diarrhea and wounds.

The genus name came from

the Greek word psidon,
meaning pomegranate. The
specific epithet was derived
from the Spanish name
“guajava”. It is a shrub to a
small tree with numerous
branches, about 8 meters or
taller. The bark is thin,
scaly, and flaking. The
young branches are 4-
angled. The leaves are
opposite, ovate, oblong to
elliptic, to 5 cm. long with
entire margins and
prominent lateral veins.
Flowers are white, with 5
petals and numerous
stamens. The fruit is a
globose or pear-shaped
berry, yellow when ripe, with
seeds that are small and
many.

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 It is indigenous to tropical America and
was introduced to the Philippines during
the early Spanish period. A hardy plant
that grows even in poor soil, and can
withstand prolonged flooding. Various
cultivars are recently introduced which
bears extra large fruits.

The fruit is a good source of vitamin C and

also a favorite dessert or snack among
children and adults alike. The strong
wood and branches is used to make sling
shots (tirador) among Tagalog children.

Guava has a lot pest and diseases. One

is the oriental fruit fly which lays eggs in
the ripe fruits, hatching into larvae and
bores into the fruit, causing it to
prematurely ripe. A secondary infection of
fungus causes blackening and drying of
fruits. The leaves are also attacked by
aphids and white flies during summer.

Guavas are easily propagated from

seeds, though it can also be propagated
through marcotting, grafting and from root
divisions..

The Kamias

Kamias, or scientifically known as

Averrhoa balimbi belongs to the
Oxalidaceae plant family and is a popular
souring agent in fish sinigang. Kamias
occurs in the cultivated and semi-
cultivated state throughout the Philippines.
It was introduced from tropical America,
and is now pantropic in distribution.

Kamias is a small tree, growing from 5 to

12 meters in height. The leaves are
pinnate and 20 to 60 centimeters long,
with hairy rachis and leaflets. The
panicles, where flowers and fruits arise,
grows from the trunk and larger branches.
The flowers are about 1.5 centimeters
long, and are somewhat fragrant. The fruit is sub-cylindric or with 5, obscure, broad, rounded,
longitudinal lobes, green, acidic, edible and about 4 centimeters long.

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The fruit is used to remove stains from clothing and also for washing the hands. It is much used
as a seasoning (in fish sinigang) and is made into sweets, including jam, and is used in making
pickles.

The Kamias leaves have

many medicinal value. It
was recorded that the
leaves are used by the
Malays externally as a
paste applied hot to itches;
and internally, fresh or
fermented, for syphilis; or,
in the form of infusion, as a
protective medicine after
childbirth. Decoction of the
leaves is given in Java for
inflammation of the
rectum. The Japanese
also apply a paste of them
for mumps, rheumatism,
and pimples. They use an
infusion of the flowers for
coughs and thrust.

The fruit on the otherhand,

is used as an astringent,
stomachic, and refrigerant.

The juice of the fruit made

into a syrup form a cooling
drink in fevers. It is
antiscorbutic. This syrup is
also used in some slight
cases of haemorrhage
from the bowels, stomach,
and internal haemorrhoids.
A conserve of the fruit is
used in Java for beriberi,
biliousness, and coughs.

The tree is usually propagated through seeds and permitted to grow in corners or sides of the
backyard. It is observed that other plants are prevented from growing near the tree, as it seems
that the tree roots exudes a poison that prevents growing of other plants around it.

The tree regularly produces fruits in its stem. It is seldom attacked by insects, though there are
ants living in the tree..

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 The Aromatic Pandan

The pandan mabango, fragrant screw-pine, or scientifically known as Pandanus odoratissimus.

It belongs to the Pandanaceae family. This pandan has been introduced into the Philippines
and is cultivated as an ornamental. It occurs in India, Persia and Arabia and is cultivated in
Malaya. It is usually planted in pots; and in this country does not grow over one meter. As far as
is known it has never flowered of fruited in the Philippines. In this country the leaves are cooked
with rice as a perfume, for they impart to it the smell of new rice. Its leaves are also used to
flavor ice cream and sherbets.

It is a much branched shrub to a small tree, about 6 meters tall, with numerous branch-like stilt
roots. Leaves are crowded towards the end of branches, leathery, stiff, becoming pendant at
the apex, swordlike, keeled, the margins and keel are lined with sharp, stiff spines. Male
spadices are to 10 cm long and fragrant. Female inflorescence is globose, to 5 cm in diameter.
Fruit is an oblong or globose syncarp, to 25 cm across.

The plant contains essential oil, bitter and aromatic; and is used as purgative and for leprosy.
The perfumed oil, called Kevda oil, is extracted from the floral bracts. The oil is considered as a
stimulant and antispasmodic and is used in headaches and rheumatism. The oil is
recommended for epilepsy, a powder made from the anthers and tops of the bracts; another
powder, made from the interior of the anthers, is inhaled or smoked as a cigarettes to cure sore

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throats. The root, brayed in milk is used internally in cases of sterility and threatened abortion. It
is also recommended for leprosy and smallpox. They also report that it is considered by
Mohammedan physicians to be cardiotonic, cephalic and aphrodisiac. The ashes of the wood
are said to promote the healing of wounds, and the seeds to strengthen the heart and liver. The
oil is valued as a perfume, and is used in India as a remedy for earache and suppuration of the
meatus. It has also antiseptic properties, comparable to those of Eucalyptus oil. It was reported
that the roots are diuretic, tonic and depurative. The oil now enters into the preparation of
cosmetics.

The plant usually prefer full sun to partial shade and prefers to live near water, rivers or streams.
It prefers sandy waterlogged soils.

Native to Ceylon and Malay Peninsula extending to the Philippines where it is common along
shandy beaches. Occasionally planted in big parks and gardens. It is propagated by seeds or
by suckers.

The Urban Gardener is an official

electronic publication (in PDF
Format) of the Plant Biotechnology
Project, Research & Development
Center, Rizal Technological
University, Boni Avenue,
Mandaluyong City, Philippines. It
is published monthly. For more
information, please inquire thru
email: rdc_rtu@yahoo.com or
plantbiotech_rtu@yahoo.com and
landline (+632) 534-8267 Local
135 or Fax (+632) 534-9710.

Edited by N.R. Bautista

© March 2011

The Plant Biotechnology Project

Committee is composed of:
Alexander B. Quilang,
Norberto R. Bautista, &
Jovita A. Anit.

Summer is a season of bountiful

harvest and there are lots of fruits
available like mangoes, melons,
watermelons, papaya, straberries,
pineapples, papaya, grapes and
others. It is also a season wherein
a lot of ornamental plants and trees
are in bloom – like boungainvilleas,
narra, golden shower, firetrees and
more. It is in these season that
folks prepare their thanks giving
festivities for a good harvest in the
year.

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