Monday, March 31, 2008 @ 15:23

It's time for our Master of Plants, a fellow member of ME Club's BRANDON CHIA'S ONE MINUTE LESSON ON PLANTS.

This week's one minute lesson on plants is on Pandan, a plant that can be found in our school's herbs and spice garden.

The flowers of Pandan is very rare, and is propagated by cuttings. Pandan is widely used in the cooking of Southeast Asian dishes. The leaves are long, narrow and bladelike with woody aerial roots. The leaves are also used as a flavoring for desserts such as pandan cake and sweet beverages.

In Indonesian, Pandan is known as pandan wangi. The leaves of the plant have a repellent effect on cockroaches.

Click on this link to view a image on the Pandan plant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pandan_(screwpine)_leaves.JPG

How much do you know about Aloe Vera?
Here's a short introduction to it, many thanks to our member Brandon who spent his time researching!=)

Aloe vera is a species of Aloe, native to northern Africa. it is a stemless or very short-stemmed succulent plantgrowing to 80-100cm tall, spreading by offsets and root sprouts. The leaves are lanceolate, thick and fleshy, freen to grey-green, with serrated margin. The flowers are produced on a spike up to 90cm tall, each flower pendulous, with a yellow tubular corolla 2-3cm long.

Medicinal uses:
Aloe Vera has been used externally to treat various skin conditions such as cuts, burns and eczeme. it is alleged that sap from Aloe Vera eases pain and reduces inflammation. Evidence on the effects of Aloa Vera sap on wound healing.