Cassia Tora-A medicinal Herbas well as food during Monsoon.

The cassia Tora is a lesser known Vegetable& fruit species generally found in Kerala during monsoon season. Generally this is a beautiful plant comes& goes ignored by people without knowing about either it's food value or Medicinal value.Cassia Tora depicted in the picture has a common name Coffee Casia also. This is a weed found throughout the monsoon season.it is an annual Herb with many wonderful properties.This plant grows to height of 30 to 100 cm.This plant has Pinnate leaves and yellow colored flowers. While in most of the places it Is ignored& destroyed ,in some places It is usedas a leaf vegetable. The medicinal value should be considered and it used as a votable for preparing a dish called Toran in Kerala. Being seasonal plant not noticed popularly the people of of Kerala are at loss tommissawonderful plant with medicinal value as well as food value during Monsoon. The medicinal values are briefly narrated below: 1) it helps to maintain good Cholesterol in the body ie HDL cholesterol.It also helps to Cure liver ,Kidney,Intestinal and Vision.For example it can be used to treat constipation& remove heat from Liver. 2) it ia a remedy for skin diseases such as ringworm by applying the paste of their seeds While the tender leaves can be used for preparing the dish called Toran the drynseeds can be used as Coffee substitute. The Thoran is to be prepared in the same waynas any other Thoran is made by using the tender leaves boiled in water and using Small onion,dal,chilly& salt. It is considered as poor man's food in some parts of Kerala where it is used.it is said that while sitting at without much work in monsoon ,this plant is used for food by making Thoran. But the fact is that those who ignore this plant as poor man's food are not aware of it's medicinal value & nutritional value .The richness to help Good cholesterol is a wonderful benefit that could be derived from the use Of this plants leaves as food. The Nutritional values are as under: Protien- 0.7gm Fat. 2gm fiber. 0.9gm Carbohydrate 1.4gm Energy. 17k Cal In view of what is narrated above the Cassia Tora plant should be made use of during monsoon in Kerala especially ton include it in the family menu of vegetarian food.Cheap and freely available almost everywhere in Kerala. But Please do not search for it among vegetables in the shops. SreedharanMundanat 5th May 2015