Latin names : Murraya koenegii, Bergera koenegii, Chalca koenegii French names : Feuille de curry, Caloupilé, Kaloupilé, Herbe-curry (shared name) Other English names: Curry tree, Curry plant Extracted from : Fresh leaves
Need to be efficient ? Curry leaf confers efficiency on the mental as well as spiritual aspect.
Pulling dirty tricks on each other at work ? A bit of Orange peel and curry leaf in a diffuser in order to create a team-spirit-governed atmosphere and make people want to work together.
Recall your memories of India and the local taste of its dishes with this essential oil. If curry leaf is not part of European and Amrican currys, though it is an essential component in Indian currys, it's because drying the leaf make it become a lot less tasty.
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The plant, its legends and its botany
Curry Leaf is a lovely small tree up to 6 meters high, which belongs to the family of Rutaceae (same family as Lemon, Lime or Mulilam).
Tropical and warm-loving, it is always green. It gives large fragrant imparipinnate leaves more than 30 centimetres long composed of 11 to 21 leaflets. Its flowers appear in large panicles. They are small, white and the petals are displayed in pretty bows. Its fruit, a drupe is edible except its toxic seed.
It is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine and traditional medicine throughout the East. Its applications in Ayurvedic medicine are so vast and varied that it is not possible to summarise it. It is interesting in many spheres and systems of the body. These range from teeth and hair to digestion and from the nervous system to the joints.
A somewhat surprising use of this tree is that of its branches to brush one's teeth. It is also widely used in the south of India to rub on one's hair to make it beautiful and long.
In the kitchen, its particular taste is most recognisable in massales. It is found in many curries, especially in southern India, but not in curry powders used in the West (powders used to make curries are made with the least effort possible though it takes a lot of effort and plenty of fresh ingredients to make a proper correct curry). Indeed, its taste and scent disappear quickly and you need relatively fresh curry leaves to make delicious dishes. It happens so often, unfortunately outside India. This adds to the difference between cooking Indian food here and eating local preparations.
A little tip for cooks: When curry leaves are used, one fries them with onions. It is very widely used in Tamil Nadu cuisine. Though it is mixed with very few ingredients, they prepare curry leaves with coriander.
By the way, ingesting curry leaves brings a lot of iron into the body.
Its strange name (Murraya koenegii) derives from two leading researchers. JA Murray was Charles Linné's student and he helped him publish his classification of the plant world. This classification is the most efficient one ever created as it is still valid today. Johann Gerhard König was also Charles Linné's pupil. His name is a true return to the origins of modern botany.
Murrayacinine, an alkaloid, is not found in the essential oil, which thus bears no contraindications within physiological dosage.
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Energetic properties
Helps to adapt to the surrounding environment. Reinforces any sort of efficiency (mental, spiritual) Takes part in sociability. Confers openness upwards. Makes one more aware of the fact that life animates the living and the form. Helps upper and lower brains to connect. Allows people to collaborate and to work together as one. Participates in balancing emotional body. Brings the energy of the sun ... especially into the stomach !
It varies a lot between species. We tend to make different chemotypes out of them all but the difference seems to be more complex than that. Batches show great variations depending on where they come from, in which conditions they were grown, harvested or distilled.
Yet, the following seems to be quite common :
Sesquiterpenes (b-caryophyllene, b-bisabolene, cadinene) Monoterpenes (b-phellandrene, a + b pinene, b-thujene)
No contraindication within physiological dosage. Keep children out of reach. Children and pregnant women: no contraindication within physiological dosage.
