The Drumstick Tree

On the 16th October 2009 I came across a very interesting article on the murunga tree, also known as the drumstick tree, at http://badusure.com/murunga and submitted the following comment and, since then, it’s been “awaiting  moderation” – whatever that means!

I have a rather interesting childhood memory which I recount here for whatever it’s worth.
 

I remember that back in the 1940s, poultry in  large areas of Sri Lanka, (then Ceylon) including Kandy where I was raised, were affected by an epidemic which, I guess, could best be described as a form of bird flu. Infected chickens would cough violently, be unable to eat and die in a day or  two. My maternal grandmother treated our sick birds with an ayurvedic medicine made of the bark of the murunga tree ground up into a paste with ginger and garlic. She made little pellets of the stuff and hand fed them to the birds as soon as they began to show symptoms of the disease. I did some hand feeding too and nearly all of the treated chickens survived. I might add that not only does Murunga grow well in Sri Lanka and other Asian countries, they do well in Australia too! Just at this time of the year murunga trees in Australia bear fruit and friends who have trees in Queensland tell me they are laden..

Footnote: I reckon I should have substituted force fed for hand fed.