Thursday, January 23, 2014

White Magic

I know I disappeared from this space long back. But its never too late to start again, right?! Here is a beautiful blossom from my garden...

Did you know that you could make a beatiful and healthy drink from the blue variety of the same flower? Check it out here...



For the past so many years, we have been growing this creeper plant and most of the times, it grows and 'over flows' into our neighbor's garden and we are forced to trim it down.

Around here,this plant is grown for aesthetic purpose. Until I saw read about this beverage, I never even imagined it could be used in a recipe!!

This flower is know by the following names...

Botanical name - Clitoria ternatea and belong to the Fabaceae family.
English names - Butterfly pea, Cordon pea, blue pea,mussel shell climber, pigeon wings, etc
Tamil - Sangi pu / Asngu pushpam
Malayalam - Shanku Pushpam
Hinid- Aparajit
Bengali - Aparajita
Kannada- Nagar Hedi
Sanskrit - Vishadoshagni

This is said to be used in Ayurvedic medicine! It is also used a coloring agent - a natural food color / dye in Thailand and other Asian countries.

This flower got the name -  Clitoria ternatea, as it resembles the female body part and is hence used to treat infertility, sexual ailments, menstrual problems, gonorrhea etc.



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