Clinacanthus nutans: A Review of the Medicinal Uses, Pharmacology and Phytochemistry

Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine

Volume 9, Issue 4, April 2016, Pages 402–409

Authors : Ariful Alam, Sahena Ferdosh,  Kashif Ghafoor, Abdul Hakim, Abdul Shukor Juraimi, Alfi Khatib, Zaidul I. Sarker.

Clinacanthus nutans Lindau is known as snake grass, sambung nyawa, etc,  belonging to the Acanthaceae family. This plant has diverse and potential medicinal uses in traditional herbal medicine for treating skin rashes, insects and snake bites, lesions caused by herpes simplex virus, diabetes, and gout in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and China.

Phytochemical investigations documented the varied contents of bioactive compounds from this plant namely flavonoids, glycosides, glycoglycerolipids, cerebrosides and monoacylmonogalatosylglycerol.

The pharmacological experiment proved that various types of extracts and pure compounds from this species exhibited a broad range of biological properties such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-diabetic activities. The findings of toxicity study showed that extracts from this plant did not show any toxicity thus it can be used as strong therapeutic agents for specific diseased conditions.

However, further experiments on chemical components and their mode of action showing biological activities are required to elucidate the complete phytochemical profile and assess to confirm their suitability for future drugs. This review summarizes the medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of this plant in order to explore its therapeutic potential and gaps necessitating for prospected research work.

C. nutans (Burm. f.) Landau. (a) whole plant; (b) leaves; (c) leaves with stem.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtm.2016.03.011

木瓜 风云 之 完结篇

续上回半粒木瓜被打入冷宫（冰箱），今天终于重见天日。

基于不浪费食物的原则下，¼粒木瓜被可妮下锅炒了。色香味都全了，就是甜了点。无奈！

既然改不掉木瓜的甜，索性将余下的¼粒木瓜煮木瓜糖水。加玉竹、杞子、红枣、百合、白糖，慢火褒2句钟。终于出了一锅可入口的甜木瓜汤了。

木瓜 风云

迈可种了棵木瓜树，结果累累。安妮煮了一大锅木瓜汤，迈可喝了午餐又晚餐，终于勉强给喝完。树上还有木瓜累累，难道要天天木瓜汤、炒木瓜、木瓜奶？

一粒给了米雪搅了木瓜奶。一粒给佳丽活生生吃了。半粒给王子煮了汤。

可妮吃腻了王子料理。王子不会变化，木瓜汤里只有木瓜。安妮说，不如加入党参、玉竹、杞子，好喝多了！

王子照样画葫芦，还加了猪肉，慢熬三句中钟。熬出来了，王子还是不爱喝，小王子把一碗饭给送完，可妮还是不爱喝。

太甜了。爱人褒的汤水甜到入肺 ！

Simplified Ongrizinal Stewed Daikon with Meatballs

This is a super easy dish to prepare.   The ingredients are available everywhere. 

As most self-taught-chefs are not familiar with the in-and-out of the beef at the meat counter section. Which part of the meat, fresh or not, cheap or expensive, with or without bone.  Thus, processed  meatballs are used to replace fresh beef.

First, the daikon is peeled and cut vertically about 1.5cm-thick-wheel.   Put into a claypot.

Add in 7-8 meatballs, to your liking.

Add 3-4 cloves of garlic, a spoonful of Chinese cooking wine, and black pepper powder.

Fill the water till full.

Shimmer for 3-4 hours. Turn off the gas stove before the water dries up.  

Pasar Borneo @ Seri Kembangan 2016

The Star : The Bread of Bengal - No It's Not

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

BY INTAN AMALINA MOHD ALI

THERE are three secrets to Benggali bread, better known as Roti Benggali.

First, pay close attention the next time you dunk your slice of the bread into your coffee, curry, mutton soup, half-boiled eggs or anything else.

After that necessary wait of a second or two for the bread to absorb the liquid, observe how your slice holds firm.

Repeat the experiment with most other kinds of bread and they will probably break apart soggily.

This is why.

Kicker: S. Mohamed Ismail, who set up Ismailia Bakery on Transfer Road, Penang

Many authentic recipes for the bread say that when the dough has risen to twice its volume after yeast is added, you have to pound it to squeeze out some of the carbon dioxide bubbles. This makes the dough dense again and it is why the bread is fluffy and yet stays firm enough after being dipped into gravy.

How much pounding to exert to make it fluffy yet dense is a trade secret, though.

The second secret is its name. Benggali bread does not come from Bengal. In fact, it has nothing to do with Bengal. It comes from Penang.

S. Mohamed Ismail, an Indian Muslim from Madras, India, started a bakery in George Town in 1928 to make this bread.

He was said to have formed a joint venture with his friends to start it up. He called it “panggali” bread.

In Tamil, “panggali” means shareholder or kin.

Over time, people forgot that it was “panggali” bread.

Somewhere along the market penetration process, the vibrant and multiracial fabric of pre-Independence society in Penang fell in love with this bread and they decided to make life easier for everyone by simply calling it Benggali bread.

Here is the final secret.

Mohamed Ismail’s wife was S.M. Shaharom Bee, the youngest sister of S.M. Zainul Abidin (1898-1969), who founded Umno with a few friends in 1946 when he was 48 years old. He became the party’s permanent chairman in 1948.

Zainul Abidin taught for 20 years at Penang Free School before becoming the headmaster of Francis Light School. He taught Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj and former Penang Chief Minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu too.

He was a teacher, scoutmaster, headmaster, politician and writer.

He became Penang’s Southwest Member of Parliament (Balik Pulau today) in 1955 in the first Malayan Parliament elections after the Tunku invited him to contest.

The Tunku offered him the post of Education Minister, but he declined because it was said he did not want to leave Penang.

Being brother-in-law to the owner of one of the most popular bakeries in town must have been good in one way or another. Zainul Abidin was already 30 when Benggali bread first hit the streets of Penang, but all trace of this connection seems to have gone missing.

Could loaves of freshly baked Benggali bread with mutton curry been the regular fare in those long-ago Umno meetings during the struggle for Independence?

This bread is still baked in that same colonial shop house in Transfer Road. Many parts of the original architecture are still evident inside despite the commercial ovens and stainless steel racks.

The bread recipe remains largely intact, but the blood ties of Mohamed Ismail to Benggali bread is long gone.

The company name went from being British Malaya Bakery to Malaya Bakery to Ismalia Bakery before it closed down for nearly 10 years.

In 2007, a new group of bakers reopened the same premises with the name Maliia Bakery.

Its chief executive officer M. Kumaresan Mariadas said that since the takeover almost a decade ago, the current management has introduced a variety of Benggali bread but their customers would always opt for the original version.

“Between 2012 to 2013, we introduced wholemeal, chocolate and charcoal Benggali bread but the classic white one is still the most popular.

“Customers occasionally try the other flavours but they always go back to the classic,” he added.

He said that outside of Penang, the company distributes to Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

Benggali bread was sold on bicycles and carts in the old days, but Maliia Bakery now has a fleet of 20 food trucks and numerous vendors on motorcycles throughout Malaysia.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/08/31/the-bread-of-bengal-no-its-not/

The Star : The Birthplace of White Coffee

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

BY IVAN LOH

THERE is nothing quite as relaxing as sitting in a kopitiam in laid-back Ipoh, drinking the city’s famous white coffee and thinking of old times.

Sin Yoon Loong Coffee Shop at Jalan Bandar Timah would be the place to do that. It is now 79 years old and still going strong. It’s also the place where white coffee was born.

Since opening its doors in 1937, the coffeeshop has been a popular eatery as the place is packed to the brim daily with locals and tourists during the weekends.

Sin Yoon Loong was opened by Wong Poh Chew and his brother Poh Ting, who had wanted nothing more than to serve the best cuppa in town.

Both went through many trials and errors before they managed to create the perfect white coffee recipe, which is now a household name throughout the country.

Aside from the white coffee, the shop is also famed for its Chinese-style steamed sponge cakes and other local Chinese fare.

Sin Yoon Loong is now manned by 59-year-old K.M. Wong, a third-­generation member of the Wong clan, who said business was better now than when it first started.

“When the shop first opened in 1937, I was told by my parents that it was not so popular. It was just another kopitiam with the usual crowd and regular faces,” he said.

“Since the whole white coffee fad broke out all over town some three decades ago, everyone has been trying to look for the best white coffee in town.”

K.M. said he had good memories of the coffeeshop from his childhood days as it was located in a “happening” area.

“This area used to have a good nightlife scene. There were lots of things to eat with all the roadside stalls and we were also operating at night. It was quite happening back then.

“The local city council then stopped the roadside stalls from operating due to cleanliness issues and the area became quiet, which affected our business,” he said.

“Since then, we have only operated during the day.”

K.M. noted modestly that business at the coffeeshop was okay.

“The economy is still very slow. Business is all right and certainly better than the earlier days when it started,” he said.

Having been born in 1957, the same year the country became independent, K.M. said he had no idea what really occurred then as he was still a baby.

“My parents spoke little about life after our independence. I guess everything was just normal. They also did not talk about the war or the Japanese Occupation.

“All I can remember is going home after school to drop our schoolbags before running to the Ipoh Padang to play football with my friends, including the Malay, Tamil and Punjabi kids,” he said.

“We even shared our money to buy a football whenever we broke one. There was no such thing as racism then, unlike now.”

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/08/31/the-birthplace-of-white-coffee/