Flemingia procumbens Roxb.-Kujjee(कुज्जी)

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stara1982 March 10, 2019 Uncategorized

Family:Fabaceae
Synonyms: Flemingia vestita,  Maughania vestita, M. procumbens
Common Name: Soh-Phlong
Local Name: Kujjee कुज्जी)

Kujjee is a herbaceous  annual to perennial plant of Western Himalayas commonly seen growing on mountains slopes between  an altitudinal range of 1700 to 3000m. It grows best in well drained sunny to  partially shady habitat.Being the member of Fabaceae  it has nodules in the roots for establishing   symbiotic relationship with  soil bacteria Rhizobium leguminosarum .  These bacteria in association with roots help to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Which is utilized by plant itself and vegetation found  nearby to Kujjee. Thus,  .Kujjee  is a good source of nitrogen. so can be grown along with main crops to enhance soil fertility. Kujjee  propogate through seeds in natural habitat.

kujjee growing in natural habitat

          Kujjee bears very attractive and pleasant smelling flowers during the months of May-July.  As plants of kujjee are present in large numbers, so these get very easily noticed because of their attractive purple flowers on mountain slopes.  So this plant has been noticed and appreciated mostly by trekkers who are usually outsiders.  Kujjee has  soft, fleshy, tuberous root which  is sweet and juicy. 

 It is with an agreeable nut-like flavourcan be eaten both raw and cooked  Local people, especially the shepherds who stay out of their homes for months together along with their sheep flocks, dig out the tubers, clean and wash these and then prepare as a vegetable.  Sometimes, they just roast the tubers on burning fire and eat. So this also serves as a very good emergency food.

Close up of kujjee apical parts

.Kujjeeis harvested from the wild for local personal  use as a food and a medicine. This wild herb is cultivated and sold in local market  in some Indian states   (the hills of Assam and Meghalaya) 1,6. Thus, Kujjee  has wider potential for  use as a cultivated vegetable, so it need to brought under human cultivation in  hills of Western Himalayas too.

Kujjee plant:

Trailing herbs upto 1 m long. 

Branches covered with short, grey hairs.

Leaves digitately 3-foliolate; leaflets ovate-obovate, 1.2-5 * 1-4.5 cm, obtuse, cuspidate, long in 3-6 flowered racemose heads; peduncles overtopping the leaves. 

kujjee with tubers

         .

Flowers deep purple, very attractive and fragrant.Bracts oblong, roundish, cuspidate, silky-hairy. 

Pods oblong, included, sub cylindrical, 1-seeded.

kujjee with flowers

Kujjee  is in flowering and fruiting from July-October. So to ensure its sustainable harvesting  edible roots should be harvested  by habitat rotation in winter season when flowering and fruiting is over. 

Edible uses:

Tubers are edible and fondly eaten by villagers.  These are cleaned, peeled to remove the outside skin, boiled and prepared like a vegetable. These tubers are also roasted in fire. The skin is then peeled off and is eaten with salt. These taste somewhat like potatoes. Kujjee tubers can also be stuffed like potatoes in kachauri, parantha.


Raw tubers of kujjee

Vegetable of kujjee tubers can be prepared by following recipe.

Ingredients:

Kujjee tubers, 1 kg; mustard oil, 3-4 table spoons; coriander powder 1 table spoon; fenugreek powder, ½ table spoon; cumin seed, 1 tea spoon;  turmeric powder, 1/2 table spoon; red chillies, 2-3; medium sized chopped onions, 2-4; garlic, 4-5 cloves; ginger paste, ½ table spoon; 1 cup amount chopped green coriander leaves and salt according to taste.


Boiled and peeled Kujjee tubers cut into small pieces

Method:

For preparing sabji, the tubers are first boiled and brown peel is taken off. Then these are cut into small pieces and fried in hot oil along with spice listed before in sequence, as is done with potatoes. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with chapatis. 

Ready to serve kujjee vegetable.

.

Kachuri:

Ingredient:

Kujjee tubers, 1 kg; wheat flour, 7-8 cup amount; yeast, 5-10 g; mustard oil, 1/2 liter; fenugreek powder, 1/2 table spoon; cumin seed, 1 tea spoon;  turmeric powder, 1-3 table spoon; red chilies; 10-15; grated ginger , 250 g; , Chopped green coriander, tirmir (Zanthoxylum armatum), mint (Mentha piperita) and curry (Murraya koeingii) leaves, 2-3 cup amount and salt according to taste.

Method:

For preparing kachuri prepare dough of wheat, flour along with yeast. Allow to rest dough for 3-4 hour. Boil tardi tuber till these are soft. Mesh boiled tubers manually and add spices listed above. Mix well into fine paste. Roll dough already made into small disc  or round breadspread and stuff it with paste . Give a deep fry to the stuffed disc in hot mustered oil and take them out. Repeat this for whole dough and paste, now kachuri is ready to serve.

Parantha:

Ingredients:

Kujjee tubers, 1 kg; wheat flour, 7-8 cup amount ; mustard oil, 1/2 liter; fenugreek powder, 1/2 table spoon; cumin seed, 1 tea spoon;  turmeric powder, 1-3 table spoon; red chilies; 250 g; grated ginger , 250 g; ajwain (caraway seeds), 1 tea spoon; Chopped green coriander and curry (Murraya koeingii) leaves, 2-3 cup amount and salt according to taste.

Method:

Boiled tubers are meshed manually. Mix meshed tubers well with spices and make fine paste. This paste is now stuffed into the wheat flour dough and made into breadspread. Put oil on tawa (Flat fry pan) and cook both sides of stuffed breadspread by putting some oil. Repeat this process till whole paste and dough is over. Serve hot with pickle/butter/curd/chutney.

Food value:

 It is rich in iron and phosphorous. Contains more than 3 times the protein content of cassava. The root is also used as a source of starch1.

Seek professional advice before treating this plant medicinally.

Medicinal Uses:

.A decoction of the tuber is used as a vermifuge 2. The outer skin of the tuber is used 3.
Four isoflavones (genistein, formononetin, pseudobaptigenin and daidzein) have been isolated from the outer tissues of the tuber 2.
Genistein (an isoflavone found in the root peel) is known to have a wide spectrum of biological activities – oestrogenic. activity being one of its most remarkable properties that  might be useful for alleviating menopausal health concerns 4.

The tuber has been an indigenous vermifuge among the Khasis tribes, where raw tuber or the root peel is directly consumed for the treatment of soft-bodied intestinal worms.5

A Potential Future Food Crop:

Literature study shows that juicy tuber  of kujjee is a highly priced food among the Garo , Khasi and Jaintia tribes of Meghalaya, India. Being organic and rich in food value its demand as foodstuff has increased so much  in recent few years  that people has started its cultivativation as a  cash crop.  Now it is regularly available in the local markets of these states 6. Cultivation of  Kujjee as a food crop can also enrich field with nitrogen, so it is a good plant to be grown in mixed cropping.  Reports shows that growing kujjee as a mixed  crop was found to give better economic returns, mainly due to improved soil fertility with a net gain in nitrogen of up to 250 kg/ha/year 7.

References:

  1. Facciola, S. (1998). Cornocupia II. A Source Book of Edible Plants. Vista: Campong.
  2. http://proseanet.org/
  3. Gahlot, K., Lal, V. K., & Jha, S. (2011). Phytochemical and pharmacological potential of Flemingia Roxb. ex WT Aiton (Fabaceae). International Journal of Phytomedicine, 3(3), 294.
  4. Shailajan, S., Kumaria, S., Pednekar, S., Menon, S., Choudhury, H., & Matani, A. (2016). Estrogenic potential of Flemingia vestita Benth Tubers in ovariectomized rat model. Pharmacognosy Journal, 8 (1
  5. Van Valkenburg JL, Bunyapraphatsara N, eds. (2001). Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 12(2): Medicinal and Poisonous Plants 2. Backhuys Publisher, Leiden, The Netherlands. pp. 267–270. ISBN 978-90-5782-099-1.
  6. National Research Council (2002). Tropical Legumes: Resources for the Future. Books for Business/ The Minerva Group, Inc. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-0894991929 
  7. Gangwar AK, Ramakrishnan PS (1989). “Cultivation and use of lesser-known plants of food value by tribals in north-east India”. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 25 (2–3): 253–267. doi:10.1016/0167-8809(89)90056-X.

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