Thursday 2 April 2015

Growing Curry Leaves In My Herbal Garden & Its Medicinal Uses

I grew my first curry leaves plant from a baby plant dug out from my neighbour's garden. My neighbour had an old curry leaves tree and the ripen berries had dropped and germinated into many baby plants all around the foot of the tree. I remembered when I brought the baby plant into my garden, it was only about 4 inches tall.

I planted my curry leaves plant in a 9 inches pot because at that time, it was the only pot available. Besides this potted plant, now I have a few baby plants in my garden. I found one growing in a flower pot and some are all over the garden ground. These baby plants sprouted from seeds brought through bird's dropping.

Scientific name for curry leaves plant is Murraya Koenigii and it belongs to the Rutaceae family. It is a tropical plant and is a very common plant found in most homes in Malaysia.
Curry leaves plant is an herb. It is a culinary plant, its leaves are used as an ingredient in cooking in Malaysia and neighbouring countries. The leaves have a nice fragrant and when used in cooking, they add aroma and flavour to the dishes especially in curry dishes. Curry leaves are also being used in many Chinese dishes.

Curry leaves plant is an evergreen plant and can be grown in the ground and in pots. When it is grown in the ground, it can grow into a small tree. This plant needs full sunlight. It grows well in normal garden soil with good water drainage. If it is placed in the shade, it must have bright light and with warm environment. If it is grown in pots, it needs to be fertilized regularly, about once a month.
Curry leaves plant is grown for its leaves. As the young plant grows, pinch off the top or young shoots to encourage more branches to grow for increased leaves quantity. The leaves are small leaflets found along the stalks. Pluck the leaves stalks from the stem and the leaves are best used when they are fresh.

When the plant is matured, it will bear white to beige flowers. After the flowers, it will form berries. The berries will grow from green to dark red to dark purple colour. I was told that the berries are edible but the seeds are poisonous. I only use the leaves for cooking and do not used the berries.

Once the plant starts to bloom, the leaves quantity and quanlities will be reduced. To ensure the quanlity and quantity of the leaves, the tops with the flowering buds are to be cut off.

Propagation is through seeds or stem cuttings. The curry leaves plants in my garden are from seeds. I have not tried propagation through stem cuttings.

Common pests of curry leaves plants are the mealy bugs, scales, aphids and spider mites. If I see the plant affected by pest, I usually cut off the infected branch or branches. Sometimes I even have to cut it bald if the problem is serious. After some time, new shoots will grow from the stems.

Benefits and Medicinal Uses
  • Curry leaves are found to be high in antioxidant, anti-inflammation, vitamins and powerful healing compound.
  • Curry leaves are widely and commonly used in mostly Indian, Chinese, Malay and other races' curry dishes and also non-curry dishes.
  • Besides being used in cooking, it is also commonly used in traditional medicines.
  • Curry leaves are claimed to be able to control diabetes especially type 2 diabete, heart diseases, infections, inflammation, cholesterol, protects colon and improve memory.
And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and with power.
Then Jesus went around doing good and
healing all who were oppressed by the devil,
for God was with Him.
(Acts 10:38, New Living Translation-NLT)

26 comments:

  1. Thanks for the sharing. Did not know curry leaves have so many benefits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think there are still more benefits not listed.

      Delete
  2. I didn't know curry leaves had so many benefits either.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love to eat the curry leaves and I wiill chew on them and swallow them too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I should try chewing on them too, for its benefits.

      Delete
  4. How wonderful that the leaves have so many good qualities.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too must try to use it to benefit from these leaves.

      Delete
  5. What I love about our plants is that they don't only make food taste better, they also have medicinal uses. Nice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's the wonder of creation by our Creator!

      Delete
  6. Herbal garden is not popular here but it a gfreat idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am beginning to appreciate having a herbal garden.

      Delete
  7. So nice to learn about this, Nancy, and your photos are lovely. Happy Easter to you. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Linda. Happy Easter to you too.

      Delete
  8. What an interesting and useful post, Nancy.
    Thanks for let me know about the benefits and medicinal uses of the curry leaves, I did not know about all those benefits.
    The green leaves are beautiful too.

    Thanks for your nice comment on my current post. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wonder what time it is there? Because I have been gone all day, and am very late commenting! I never knew where curry came from! LEAVES! But is is a yellow powder in the cans at our stores!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Ginny, the curry powder is not the same as these curry leaves.

      Delete
  10. Sometimes, will use it to do cooking...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Sharon, and the restaurants use them a lot in their dishes.

      Delete
  11. Curry leaves.. I like the smell... add to some dishes also very heong... plant more, Nancy.. when I want, I go to your place and pluck pluck!! hahahaa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure Claire, you are most welcome to pluck as much as you can! hahaha

      Delete
  12. Nancy, I also have a curry plant at home. It has flowered a few ties and I discovered 2 baby plants! It is very handy to have curry plant to use for cooking curry.

    ReplyDelete

Your visits and encouraging comments are greatly appreciated. Please leave me your name and blog link for me to visit you. Thank you.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...