The New Nation - Internet Edition

Jamayet Ali

Palong (spinach) is a small, erect, leafy, succulent, glabrous annual herb with alternate, petioled leaves or reduced or no stem, cultivated as a leaf vegetable all over the country. It is popular because of its adaptability to varying soil and climatic condition and high nutritional value. Palong is a cold season crop. It can be grown pure or as a mixed crop with peas, cabbage and comparatively longer-duration. It is sown during September-November. This vegetable prefers an average monthly temperature of 15-19 degree but the growth is good even at 10 to 15 degree. The cool and short days are ideally suited for putting out a good leafy growth. With the onset of long and hot days, it starts flowering and seeding. It prefers a rich, well-watered and friable soil and shady condition. When grown on sandy soils, it needs a substantial supply of humus and nitrogen The plant can thrive even on saline soils. Growth is however restricted on acidic soils.

The land is carefully prepared by ploughing three or four times, followed by planking. After the soil has been powdered and leveled, the field is divided into plots, and channels for irrigation are laid out. Palong is a shallow-rooted crop and needs ample moisture in the soil. It is a short-season crop and is ready for harvest in 6-8 weeks after sowing. Harvesting is done by cutting the stem just below the lower leaves. This may be done from the time the plants have 5-6 leaves till the seed-stems develop. Instead of removing the whole plant, only the larger leaves are cut an inch above the ground ; the plants continue to produce new foliage which is repeatedly cut. Thus, in all, 3-4 cuttings are taken before the plants begin to grow seed-stocks during the spring. Palong is used in soups and salads. The leaves are reported to be a raw material for the manufacture of chlorophyll. The lipids from leaves are reported to possess anti bacterial properties.

Analysis of the edible portion of palong gave: moisture, 90.8; mineral matter, 1.8; fibre, 0.6; calorie, 30; protein, 3.3; fat, 0.1; carbohydrates, 4 g. /100g; calcium, 98; oxalic acid, 658; magnesium, 84; potassium, 206; iron, 10.9; phosphorus, 21; sodium, 58.5; sulphur, 30; and chlorine, 54mg/100g. Other present in the leaves (dry basis) are: nickel, 0.42; manganese,9.61; molybdenum, 0.08; zinc, 13.53; and strontium, 0.077 mg/100 g. Cobalt (0.007-0.12 mg / 100 g.). Selenium and iodine ( 20.1µg. / 100g.) are also present. Palong is a good source of minerals, vitamin B complex, ascorbic acid and carotene (equivalent to vitamin A); it is also important natural source of vitamin K. The composition of vitamins in the leaves is as follows: vitamin A, 8,470 I.U; thiamine, 0.03; riboflavin, 0.07; nicotinic acid, 0.5; and ascorbic acid, 97mg./100g. Total content of folic acid in spinach is 0.12 mg./ 100g. (free folic acid, 0.05mg./100g.). The content of ascorbic acid is the highest during November-February and least in May. Palong losses as much as 60 per cent of its ascorbic acid when cooked, and 13-34 per cent when frozen and prepared. Amounts of carotene, available from raw and cooked Palong, are reported to be are 45 and 58 per cent respectively. Losses of carotene amount to 12.8 per cent on cooking. Retention iron from raw palong was reported to be 26 and from cooked palong 31 percent in normal young rats. The high content of oxalate in leaves poses a serious nutritional problem because the calcium in diet becomes almost unavailable. Palong (spinach), is therefore, not recommended in the diets of growing children, pregnant women and patients suffering from calcium deficiency. The oxalates can be eliminated by boiling the vegetable for 15 min. and rejecting the water. (Food Processes and Analyses, Mohammad Yunus, BARC Dhaka; Wealth of India, Raw Materials, Vol. X, 12-15)

Properties and Uses: the plant is sweet; cooling, laxative, alexipharmic; useful in diseases of the blood and the brain, asthma, leprosy, biliousness; causes "kapha" (Ayurveda). The leaves are cooling; emollient, wholesome, antipyretic, diuretic, maturant, laxative, digestible, anthelmintic; useful in urinary concretions, inflammation of the lungs and the bowels, sore throat, pain in the joints, thirst, lumbago, cold and sneezing; sore eyes, ringworm, scabies, leucoderma, arrest vomiting, biliousness, flatulence. The seeds are useful in fevers, leucorrhoea, urinary discharges, lumbago, diseases of the brain and of the heart (Yunani). The green plant is given for urinary calculi. The seeds are laxative and cooling; they are used in difficult breathing, inflammation of the liver, and in jaundice. (Indian Medicinal Plants, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, Vol. III, 2078-79)

Medicine: The seed is held by mohammadan medical writers to have cooling and laxative properties, and to be efficacious in difficulty of breathing and biliary derangements. The green plant is believed to act as a solvent for urinary calculi.(Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Watt, Vol. VI, Part-III)

Properties and Uses: green plant is eaten for urinary calculi, and used as a mild laxative, emollient, demulcent, diuretic and astringent. It is also useful in fevers, inflammations of the lungs and bowels. Juice of leaves are used as a gargle in sore throat. Seeds possess laxative and cooling properties, and are used in difficult breathing, inflammation of the liver and in jaundice.

(Medicinal Plants Bangladesh, Abdul Ghani, Second Edition, 388).