1. Introduction

Stavelikova (2008) quotes that taxonomical position of Allium sativum L. is Liliopsida (Class), Liliidae(Sub Class), Liliianae(Super Order), Amaryllidales (Order), Alliaceae (Family), Alliooideae (Sub-Family), Allieae (Tribe), Allium (Genus) (Takhtajan, 1997). According to N.I. Vavilov, Garlic cultivar was originated from Central Asiatic centre (Kochhar, 1995).

There is a curry called Pangal Chanam Eromba in the traditional recipe in Muslim kitchens. People of other communities used to expel the people from this community out from social functions because Muslims bear in their mouth the typical smell of Garlic. So, the present research was taken up to validate the positive claims by finding the individual/community plantation of garlic in their home gardens, agricultural fields and surrounding in respect of the community in the study. Ethno-botanical aspect/perception of the garlic entangled in the making of a traditional curry and mode of garlic plantation was to be written down.

2. Methodology

Muslim home gardens in their villages were searched to find their plantation of Garlic. Search was carried out in the villages and urban area in their home gardens, agricultural fields, Mosque Campus, in four districts i.e. Imphal East (Porompat, Jiribam, Yairipok Ningthounai, DM College campus), Chandel (Moreh, Chandel), Thoubal (Lilong, Irong, Sangaiyumpham), and Bishnupur (Kwakta). Face to face interview with 144 persons (94 Males: 50 Females) with the noting in the 70 questionnaires was carried out. This research has taken time from December, 2012 to December, 2014. Self memory of the recipe of Eromba curry was also to be recorded.

3. Results & Discussion

Garlic is found to be growing in the following places.

1. Front-yard/pots Garden: The plant is grown in the pots (Figure a). It is only a symbolic that the community people like this plant. At least 5-20 bulbs are grown in the pots or by inserting it in the soil.

Figure a. Pot Garlic

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2. Home Garden: It is commonly grown (Figure c) during the winter season. Every house would like to have a piece of land as home garden. The leaves are eaten raw by putting in the curry, traditional Singju, Iromba, thoiding Ashuba, etc. For Garlic plantation minimum area recorded were1ftx 1ft, 1ft x 2ft, 2ftx 5ft. .3ft x10ft, 3ft x 15 ft long, 3 ft x 20 ft long beds are prepared

3. Agriculture: Some people would like to take grow garlic (Figure c) for the requirements at homes, storage and for selling in the market. For this a large area is required. Garlic is produced more than requirements.

Figure b. Harvested Garlics

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Figure c. Garlic at Home Garden

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Figure d. Garlic at Agriculture field

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4. Mosque campus: These are grown by the occupants/residents of the Mosque for their requirements. Area maintained were 1 to 2ft x 3 to 5ft. Garlic is used for flavoring curry.

4. Record from Personal Memory & Personal Research

One day I heard my grandmother ordering one of my aunties “Chanam Erollu (Cook curry of Garlic (Allium sativum L.)”. My grandmother spoke Manipuri language, a Tibeto-Burman language family. That day I wondered how it could be possible to cook A. sativum L. alone. I was slightly emotional by thinking that the curry would be of unpalatable. After eating the curry of the day I thought it was not bad. Then I rushed to my grandmother for the question on the mode of preparation of the traditional curry. She told me that it was Eromba (traditional curry) preparation.

Pangal Chanam Eromba: It’s very simple to be prepared that 250 gm of garlic and 3-4 dry chilly (5-7cm long) are boiled in one liter of water. After boiling garlic and chilly, the whole stuff is pounded/crushed by a pestle to be macerated. Then, 50 gm fermented fish is fried and allowed to be macerated with a piece of Ginger. The pieces of onions are fried for a brief period in the mustard oil and later put it into the curry. The quantity of the oil is around 20 ml per liter water of the curry. The whole composition is put into the cooking pot to mix with fried onion. Then put a pinch of turmeric powder. The desired amount of hot water is adjusted so as to take the desired quantity of curry to make it sufficient for the enough number of persons. Salt is put proportionately. The curry is ready after 7 to 10 minutes of boiling. The quantity of the garlic in the curry can be adjusted for the required amount of the persons to eat. This is called Mathak Iromba (fried Pangal Chanam Eromba Curry).

There is second procedure of preparing Makha Iromba (without fried Eromba curry) of the same preparation. The whole preparations are completed without frying into the mustard oil in the second procedure. The whole ingredients (garlic, chilly, onion) are boiled in one and half liter of water. The whole stuff is pounded along with the fried fermented fish after thorough boiling. The desired amount of water and garlic is adjusted as per the persons per family members to be eating the curry.

My grandmother told me it was useful to eat the Chanam - Eromba preparation once a year. I asked “what was useful aspect of eating Chanam Eromba”. She replied “it gives us energy/it purifies blood/and it is a germicide (mahik shibani)”. My mother could read only Arabic language since the language was to read religious script. She has not gone to modern schools. Even-though, she used to talk about energy (pangal- thouna), blood (Ee) and germs (mahik). She wanted to say the garlic was medicinal. This can be called traditional science/perception of food/medicinal plants. This can be termed community/ethnic study of Botany. That is how Ethno-botany was conceptualized. This is the area where we are co-related with modern science. Garlic is food additive (Prafulla et al., 2011; Rahman et al. 2012). Kemper (2000) overviewed the useful aspects of Garlic for human diseases treatment, it is to ward off evil spirit and recorded to be useful as anti-lipemic, anti-hypertensive, anti-atherosclerotic, spasmolytic, hepato-protective, hypo-glycemic, anti-thrombotic/anti-platelet, emmenagogue, aborti-facient, immune-stimulant, antiviral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, chemoprevention, anti-oxidant, anti-vampire, etc. The fumigation of stored products against insect pests with garlic essential oils could be considered as an integrated pest management (IPM) tactic without risk for consumers and the environment (Douiri et al.,2013). The sulfurous acid ester, trans-sulfurous acid allyl ester-3-allylsulfanyl-allyl ester 8 along with two known thio - sulfinates was isolated from the aqueous extract of garlic (Q Yang et al., 2003).

There is traditional home garden in every Pangal/Meitei-Panghal agricultural field from time immemorial. This is confirmed from the present survey that the community home gardens grow garlic. Every agricultural field maintains to grow garlic. Urban people would like to grow garlic in the pots. The residents particularly families of the Imam (one who leads prayer in the mosque) and Muajin(one who calls for the prayer at mosque) of the Mosques would like grow garlic in a piece of very small land not coming to the category of a home garden. A piece of land is always kept by community people for the cultivation/growth of garlic. Method of cultivation is so traditional. Informants informed that Garlic has been growing since the time of the King Naophangba (7^th century AD) during whose time the first Muslim ancestors arrived (Ahmed, 2011). Garlic is grown in the October - November month. And it is harvested in the month of February - March. The best time for cultivation is considered to be in October. The field is ploughed by country plough 3-4 times and two times by powered tractor & once by Kubota. If Kubota is not available, hand pounding of the hard and clump soil texture is done by using hammers (Takshu/Toushu). The bulbs are separated apart in its small single pieces. Each small part is inserted by using the first 3 fingers in to the soft soil. The breadth and length of the cultivation bed is around 3 ft wide x 15 ft long and may be less /more than that. But the size is adjusted as per the availability of the land area. The young shoots/leaves come up within 10 days of cultivation. Sprinkling of water is useful for quick leaf flush. Watering of the growing plants is also essential for quick growth. Manuring after 1 month with poultry manure is useful for good growth. Weeding out is very important. It is normally carried out after one month of the cultivation. Some notorious weeds are Gallinsoga parviflora, Cyperus rotundus, Cynodon dactylon, Alternanthera philoxeroides (Alligator weed), etc.

Garlic is harvested (Figure b) before raining, it takes place before last week of March to April. After the harvest, the seeds are sun-dried for around 3 - 5 days. The seeds are always reserved for the next year growth/cultivation. The storage of the harvested seeds is done at storage above 10 - 20 feet high from the ground level. The garlic is kept in the open but inside the house. These are kept on a Kharai (spreadsheet) made of bamboo Dendrocalamus sericeus Munro (Ui). The other mode for keeping Garlic is (1.) Around 30 - 40 garlic pseudo-stems are bundled together. (2) 20-30 garlic pseudo- stem are tied together to be bi-parted of the bundled so that it hangs on a bamboo already nailed/attached on the wall. The pseudo-stem is usually not cut.

Acknowledgement

The author is thankful to the community persons at urban and rural area in for their cooperation in the face to face interview. This scientific publication is dedicated to my late grandmother.

References

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