Bicol’s Weed Recipes
Winner National Best Paper Award
Pest Management Council, 2004
L.R Marcelino, A.I. Inocencio, C.C. Zaballa, and EC Paller
ABSTRACT
Tests were conducted at the Food Utilization Laboratory of the Bicol Integrated Agricultural Research Center, San Agustin, Pili, Camarines Sur to develop recipes of weed species commonly found in the area. Five weed recipes namely: Kulites or slender amaranth (Amaranthus viridis L.) express, gooseweed (Spenoclea zeylanica Gaertn.) noodles, pickled dayflower (Commelina benghalinsis L.), tossed Olasiman or Common Purslane (Portulaca Olarecea L.), and common Purslane croquette were developed and assessed by 50 employees of the Department of Agriculture RFU 5, for aroma, taste, odor anjavascript:void(0)d acceptability. Ninety-two percent of the evaluators like very much the taste of Kulites express. Kulites express has been commercialized and is now a part of the combo meal for the Department of Agriculture employees in the center.
INTRODUCTION
Weeds are plants that are ubiquitous components of agroecosystems and are considered out of place because of man’s desire to grow crops in this kinds of environment. However, Zimdahl (1999) pointed out that when we consider the natural community of plants, the introduced crops in fact turned out to be the ones that are out of place. Moreover, plants the are considered weeds in agroecosystems can be useful to man in other situations. They can serve as food or feed for animals; medicine; biological filters in aquatic environments; as sources of fertilizer, botanical pesticides and germplasm for domesticated plants; materials for roofing and cottage industry, for pest management and soil erosion control (Paller, 2004; Paller, 1999) Some of weed species commonly found in farms and around households are rich in vitamins and minerals as reported by the Food and Nutrition Institute (FNRI, 1980) and may be explored as cheap and readily available sources of these plant substances to enrich the Filipino diet.
The general objective of this study is to continuously explore and develop food products from weeds as cheap sources of minerals and vitamins and income generation in the Bicol Region. The specific objectives are (a) to create awareness on the importance of weeds as nutritious food and (b) to develop various weed products though food processing techniques.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Various tests were conducted at the Food Utilization Laboratory of the Bicol Integrated Agricultural Research (BIARC), San Agustin, Pili, Camarines Sur, to develop recipes of weed species commonly found in the area from March to July 2003. The promising recipes were assessed by 50 employees of the Department of Agriculture as to aroma, taste, odor, and general acceptability. Evaluation of the acceptability of the various food preparations was done at three different times namely: March, May, and July 2003.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Five promising wee food preparations finally came out of the various initial preparations. These were Kulites (Amaranthus viridis), express, gooseweed (Sphenoclea zeylanica) noodles, pickled dayflower (Commelina benghalinsis) and purslane (Portulaca oleracea) croquette. The description of these weed species in the various food preparations are found in Moody et al. (1984), and ingredients and detailed procedure in preparing the weed dishes are shown in Tables 1 and 5.
Kulites express was generally to the 50 employees of the Department of Agriculture at Pili, Camarines Sur who evaluated the dish (Table 6). Ninety-two percent of the evaluators liked very much the taste of this recipe. 82.0% its aroma and 50.0% its appearance. Eighty-two percent liked its texture.
Slender amaranth is more nutritious than malunggay (Moringa Oleifera) leaves, pechay and cabbage. Based on the nutritive content of Kulites and some common vegetables reported by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (1980), Paller and Villamayor (2003) estimated that slender amaranth had 1.5 times calcium and 2 times as much iron as malunggay leaves, a little more vitamin C and almost 2 times calcium and 3 times iron as pechay. It had 2 times as much vitamin A, 5 times as much calcium and 16 times as much iron as cabbage. Kulites leaves have been used in the preparation of a weed dish together with leaves of three lobe morning glory (Ipome triloba L.) common purslane (Portulaca olarecea) and white beans, pork or beef (Paller and Villamayor, 2003) The Kulites express has been introduced as part of the combo meal together with rice, fish or meat; an income generating project of the Food and Utilization Laboratory of BIARC. The laboratory prepares 25 bottles of Kulites express every week.
LITERATURE CITED
FOOD AND NUTRITION INSTITUTE. 1980. Food Component tables recommended for use in the Philippines. Handbook. 15th revision.
MOODY, K.C. MUNROE, R.T. LUBIGAN and E.C. PALLER. 1984 Major weeds of the Philippines Weed Science Soc. Phil. College, Laguna. 328p.
PALLER, E.C. and F.Q. VILLAMAYOR. 2003 Weed salads and main dishes Paper presented at the 34th Annual Scientific Conference of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines, May 6-9, 2003, Cebu Business Hotel, Cebu City.
PALLER, E.C. 2004. Weed Utilization. Proc. 35th Anniversary and Scientific Conference, Pest and Management Council of the Philippines, 328p.
PALLER E.C. 1999. Weed utilization: An emerging frontier in weed science. UP Endowment Professional Chair Lecture. UP Los Banos. 16p.
ZIMDAHL, RL. 1999. Fundamentals of weed science. Second edition. Academic Press, New York, 556p.
