Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Malunggay: The tree of life....almost

I was a bit confused last Sabbath about the Malunggay tree being the Horseradish vegetable. I tried researching and apparently, Horseradish is a different plant. It seems my hunch wash right afterall...there is no way that our beloved malunggay is the horseradish. I tried researching some more and apparently, I was also wrong. The malungay that grows almost everywhere in this country of ours, is in fact called the horseradish tree. It could be used as a substitute for horseradish and therefore can be used to make wasabi and kim chi. I also found out a few interesting things about this plant.
1. It can grow almost anywhere, except in freezing lands.
2. It needs little maintenance since it loves the sun and warm weather.
3. All parts of the plant can be used in some way, from food to textile dyes and even poison.
4. Its nutritional value is so high [leaves] that it is one of the answers to malnutrition in third world countries.
5. Its leaves don't lose its nutrients even of dried and ground to powder.
6. Its seeds can be roasted like nuts and is believed to be a virility drug.
7. The plant can be used in water filtration and is a cheap alternative for mechanical filtration.
That's not all, in some countries its used to feed livestock. Personally, I'd rather eat the plant myself than feed it to livestock. In the tagalog region, only the leaves are known to be edible, in the ilocano region however, even the fruit is eaten. The fruit is usually peeled, cut to 3 inch sticks, and cooked in dinengdeng with other vegetables. The leaves are boiled and eaten as a salad in the morning.
After I found out that you can grind the dried leaves to powder, I realized it can be stored indefinitely as survival food. Just add boiling water and you have a soup. Nice huh?
If it wasn't for the Varona's, I would never have known that malunggay, a commonly ignored vegetable tree, could be the answer to our health problems. Mabuhay ang Malunggay!

9 comments:

  1. hahah..correct!! what's lacking is that we should pass out forms to make malunggay as the national tree!haha..thanks kuya mike!!

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  2. cge.. I'll run for congress next election... you run for senator and kuya mike can run for president of the country para mapapalitan natin ang narra at gawing malunggay... wahahaha...

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  3. haha..tama..bulok naman ang narra eh...di pwdeng kainin...puro tibay lang..hahah..pwede pa sana ang niyog..at least pwedeng kainin...ang dami kayang Pilipinong naggutom tapos di man lang nila naisip un..hahah

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  4. mukhang nakakahalata ako ah... puro pagkain nasa isip mo... gutom ka ba boy? hahahaha...

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  5. ndi namn....pero kelngan ehh..required sa course..haha.tama bang dito nag-usap? pasensya na kuya mike..hahaha

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  6. Magtanim na tayo ng malunggay sa mga bakanteng lote. saka palibutan natin mga bahay natin ng malunggay.

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  7. that wouldn't work dito sa amin, unless we moved to a better neighborhood... wala kaming makukuhang malunggay kapag nagtanim kami... uunahan kami ng mga walang magawang tambay dito... yung duhat nga dito samin, we planned on sharing it with some people sa PAC kaso one sabbath pag-uwi namin, nakita namin na wala nang bunga yung puno...

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