Lemon Grass as Backyard Plant
I’ve been seeing Lemon grass since I was a kid (now I’m @40) in our backyard. I thought lemon grass is just an ordinary plant that we burned everytime we saw it growing. It’s irritating in the eyes to see plants that we thought useless. It does not even have flowers to beautify our surroundings. But things has changed when I heard about the health benefits it brings in our body.
The first time I heard about lemon grass as an alternative medicine was when I saw my wife boiling a water with the lemon grass in it. And because the boiling water mist is a scented lemony and is soothing to the head, I asked what is it all about and the rest is history.
Origin of Lemon Grass
Cymbopogon Ciatrus (Lemongrass / Lemon Grass) is a genus of about 55 species of grasses, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Old World and Oceania. It is a tall perennial grass. Common names include lemon grass, lemongrass, barbed wire grass, silky heads, citronella grass,cha de Dartigalongue, fever grass, Hierba Luisa or Gavati Chaha amongst many others.
Depending on where you are situated, here are the following names for lemon grass:
Camel’s Hay, Citronella, Geranium Grass, Cochin Grass, Sereh (powder); French: herbe de citron; German: Zitronengras; Italian: erba di limone; Spanish: hierba de limon; Indian: bhustrina, sera; Indonesian: sere, sereh; Lao: bai mak nao; Malay: serai; Sinhalese: sera
Thai: takrai
Historians are saying that lemon Grass is a native plant or shall I say originated in India. However, Lemon grass is now known to be a versatile grass plant in the Philippines. Lemon grass is widely used as a herb in Asian cuisine because of its citrus flavor and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. In fact there has been numerous restaurants across Asia and America named after Lemon grass – a testament of its popularity especially in our modern era where people becoming health conscious and therefore looking for an alternative healthy foods with health benefits.
Lemon grass as food ingredients
I like the taste of the fish soup boiled in lemon grass with ginger. But lemon grass is commonly used in teas, soups, and curries. Lemongrass is also very much suitable for poultry, fish, and seafood. In many countries of all continents often used as a tea especially now that it is scientifically known to have healing properties. What is so unique abouty Lemon Grass is that it produces oil that is effective as a pesticide and a preservative, and research shows that it has anti-fungal properties.
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Lemon Grass as Citronella Insect Repellent
Lemon grass can grow up to 2 meters high and has red base stems but its leaves are green. And because it is considered as a Citronella Grass or scientifically known as Cymbopogon nardus and Cymbopogon winterianus, these are species used for the production of citronella oil, which is used in soaps, as an insect repellent in insect sprays and candles, and also in aromatherapy, which is famous in Bintan Island, Indonesia. Citronella is a versatile plant that even the principal chemical constituents of citronella, geraniol and citronellol, are antiseptics, hence their use in household disinfectants and soaps. Besides oil production, citronella grass is also used for culinary purposes, in tea and as a flavoring.
Lemon Grass as Pesticide and Preservative
When my daughter was 3rd year high school, they were given a project to produce an Off-Lotion from known medicinal plants. And with the information available in the internet, they were able make used of Lemon Grass as a source and produce what was required of them. Lemon Grass indeed is a God-given plant we can use in many ways.
Hence, the Lemon grass oil extract can be used as a pesticide and preservative. The oil extract is put on the ancient palm-leaf manuscripts found in India as a preservative. It is used at the Oriental Research Institute Mysore, the French Institute of Pondicherry, the Association for the Preservation of the Saint Thomas Christian Heritage in Kerala and many other manuscript collections in India. The lemon grass oil also injects natural fluidity into the brittle palm leaves and the hydrophobic nature of the oil keeps the manuscripts dry so that the text is not lost to decay due to humidity.
Lemon grass features in Indonesian, Malaysian, Sri Lankan and Indian cooking and is widely used in savoury dishes and meat, poultry, seafood and vegetable curries. It harmonizes well with coconut milk, especially with chicken or seafood, and there are countless Thai and Sri Lankan recipes exploiting this combination. The stems are also used in teas or used in pickles and in flavouring marinades.
Lemon grass Preparation and Storage
Depending on what you want to do with Lemon grass, you many actually cut it into pieces at a length you think convenient for you in using it. If using fresh lemon grass, use only the lower bulbous portion of the stem. It can be pounded and used whole or cut in slices. When using the ground powder (sereh) use one teaspoon as an equal to one stalk of fresh. It is advisable to soak dried sliced lemon grass for two hours before using. When wrapped in a paper bag, lemon grass stems can last 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. The stems can also be frozen for several months. Always wrap and store separately, as lemon grass will impart its flavour to other foods.
Lemon grass as Cymbopogon flexuosus and Cymbopogon citratus
East-Indian Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon flexuosus), also called Cochin Grass or Malabar Grass which is native to Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Burma,and Thailand while the West-Indian lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), also known as serai in Malay, is assumed to 
have its origins in Malaysia. Indonesian people used to called it serai too or sereh. While both can be used interchangeably, C. citratus is more suited for cooking. In India C. citratus is used both as a medical herb and in perfumes. Cymbopogon citratus is consumed as a tea for anxiety in Brazilian folk medicine, but a study in humans found no effect. The tea caused a recurrence of contact dermatitis in one case.
Lemon Grass is also known as “Gavati Chaha in the Marathi language” which means gavat to grass; chaha to tea, and is used as an addition to tea, and in preparations like ‘kadha’ which is a traditional herbal ‘soup’ used against coughs, colds, etc. It has medicinal properties and is used extensively in ancient Indian Ayurvedic medicines. It is supposed to help with relieving cough and nasal congestion.
Lemon Grass as Cancer Disease Prevention and Cure
Lemongrass has anti-cancer properties. It was in 2006, a research team from the Ben Gurion University in Israel found that lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) caused apoptosis (programmed cell death) in cancer cells. Through in vitro studies, the researchers examined the effect of citral, a molecule found in lemon grass, on both normal and cancerous cells. Using concentrations of citral equivalent to the quantity in a cup of tea (one gram of lemon grass in hot water), the researchers observed that citral induces programmed cell death in the cancerous cells, while the normal cells were left unharmed.
Propagation and Cultivation of Lemon Grass
Interestingly lemon grass today is no longer an ordinary plant particularly in South East Asia. In fact, in the Philippines alone, there has been hectares of lands Lemon Grass are planted and being cultivated for harvest after five months.
Lemon grass is described as a perennial tufted grass with long, sharp-edged blades. It grows in dense clumps in tropical or subtropical climates. Propagation is by dividing the root clump. The plants last three to four years and are harvested every three to five months. It is grown throughout Southeast Asia, Southern India, Sri Lanka, Central Africa, Brazil, Guatemala, the US and the West Indies.
