Garudah is a Ruta angustifolia Pers, a shrub from the Rutaceae family.
Ruta 芸香 is a strongly scented evergreen shrub. There are some 40 species of rues, native to
the Mediterranean, Macronesia and southwest Asia. Extracts from rue had been used to treat
eyestrain, sore eyes, and as insect repellent.
It is also used internally as an antispasmodic, as a treatment for
menstrual problems, as an abortifacient, and as a sedative.
There are
about 8 to 40 species in the genus.
Among them are : R. angustifolia,
R. chalepensis, R. corsica, R. graveolens, R. montana.
The rue
used by local Malay, known as gerudah
is probably Ruta angustifolia (L.) Pers, the Egyptian rue 埃及芸香.
It’s common name may varied : garudah,
aruda, sadal etc. In Indonesia, it is known as inggu ( Sunda ), gogong minggu ( Jawa ), aruda. In Vietnam it is luru.
It can
also be Ruta graveolens, the common rue, also known as herb-of-grace. Some considered R. graveolens Pers as a synonym
for R.angustifolia auct. Some even treated R. angustifolia as a variety of R.
graveolens, or R. chalepensis.
Nevertheless,
both R. graveolens and R. angustifolia are native to the
Mediterranean region. Both leaves, which
are harvested for medical purpose, are bipinnate or tripinnate with blue-green
colour and strong distasteful odor. Flowers
are however delightfully yellow. It is incredibly
bitter, almost unpalatable. They has been used for medicinal and culinary
purposes since ancient times. It is
propagated by seeds and cuttings.
Gerudah contains limonene, cineole, methyl-nonylketon,
memodin, and rutin. The seeds contain kokusaginine and skimmianine.
No comments:
Post a Comment