Retiring to an orchard/garden in the middle of nowhere wasn’t my boyhood dream, but it’s working out OK for me. (Certainly I’d be stressed to live in U.S.A. knowing that a huge majority of the white males I run into would have idiotic political opinions.)
We have a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants and flowers in our orchard and garden here. It’s a pleasant place — the hoopoe birds are still knocking on my window. I’ve been trying to make sense of the flora by finding the scientific and English names as well as the Thai names. Bai Ya-Nang (Tiliacora triandra) is sold on Ebay and Amazon, but I see no English common name except ‘Yanang.’ It isn’t sold in the markets here, but may be present in old gardens. (Though disappearing as young’uns can’t remember why Grandma planted those bushes.)
Bai Ya Nang is a rejuvenating agent valuable for its anti-bacterial, anti-malarial, anti-cancer, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidant, anti-fever, and alcohol detoxification properties. It may help prevent hyperglycemia. It may be useful as an antibiotic against some strains of multi-resistant bacteria (e.g. tuberculosis). Bai Ya-Nang infusion has been observed to enhance spatial learning and learning flexibility in mice.
I help my wife pound the Yanang leaves to a paste; water is added to make an infusion. Normally pandan leaves would also be infused. We have pandan trees in our orchard, but using them would be too time-consuming so my wife substitutes ground jasmine blossoms in her Yanang water recipe! (My wife has great intuition for cooking, etc. She talks to the old women about old lore, but also studies articles on the 'Net.) Add a pinch of brown sugar and chill. Delicious! And very helpful to health if my wife (and the Internet) are to be believed.
We’ll keep drinking Yanang water for another month or so, then, since variety is key even for medicinals, switch to other healthy special foods from our orchard.
