Lomba: The best garnish for Manipuri cuisine Yongchak iromba

Dr N Irabanta Singh *

Yongchaak Iromba with garnishing such as Lomba , fadigom, hawaithrak mathon :: Pix - Pinky Hodam

Introduction and botany of Lomba: Lomba (Botanical name- Elsholtzia blanda, Family- Laminaceae) is an annual herb upto 50cm tall with strong lemony fragrance, stems are erect, sometimes purple-red, densely covered with white velvet hairy, much branched at base.

Leaf stalks are 2-5mm, densely white velvet hairy. Leaves are ovate to oblong, above white hairy, below velvet-hairy, yellowish glandular, margine-sawtoothed. Tiny lilac or white flowers are borne in spikes at branch ends, which are cylinder, compact, 1-4.5 cm long, 0.8-1 cm wide.

Axis is densely white hairy, bracts linear, upto 3.5mm, densely white hairy.

Flower- stalks are about 1mm, densely white hairy. Calyx is tubular, upto 4m in fruit, tip recurved, densely gray woolly hairy outside, teeth nearly equal, slightly closed in fruit.

Flowers are funnel shaped, about 3mm, hairy, glandular outside, obscurely hairy annulate inside; upper lip oblong, notched fringed with hairs; lateral lobes of lower lip less than half as wide as middle lobe. Nutlets are 4, oblong, about 0.7mm, sparsely brown hairy. Flowering period-October to December.

Distribution: It occurs in Myanmar, Java and Sumantra, central and eastern Himalaya from Nepal to Sikkim, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and other North-Eastern States. It is also found in distributed forest or mountain valleys at 400-600m altitude. Lomba is cultivated in N.E India in large scale.

Uses: It may be used as preservative or medicinal purposes.

Preservative – Lomba is used in seasoning food in N.E India. Medicinal purposes- Traditionally, the aerial parts of Lomba are used for the treatment of fever, cholera, skin diseases and inflammation. Its tender leaf paste with common salt is applied to old wounds of cattle to clear pus and maggot. The Chinese medicinal uses of Lomba include dysentery, nephritis, hepatitis, pharyngritis and acute enteritis.

Chemical analysis of essential oils: Geranyl acetate was found to be major constituent (71%). Twenty eight other components were also characterized in the oil linalool (5.27%), geraniol (3.77%), (E)- a-ocimene (2.96%), a- Caryophyllene (1.75%), a- bergamotene (1.70%), (Z)-a- ocimene (1.38%), acetophenone (1.13%) and linalyl acetate (1.11%) being the next most abundant compounds (Bestmann etal, 1992).

Further, the essential oils from the aerial parts of Lomba revealed a total of 25 compounds, representing 82.8 % and 87.9 % of the oil, were identified. The main compounds were geranial (43.5% to 48.8%), neral (31.7% to 34.7%), E-isocitral (1,2% to 0.1%) and Caryophyllene Oxide (1.6% to 0.7%). The two cultivator of Elsholtzia blanda (purple and greenish) have the potential to compete with commercial citral oils obtained from lemon grass (Cymbopogon flexuous) (Rana et al, 2012).

Economics of Lomba: The aerial parts of Lomba ( Inflorescence along with flowers, leaves and branches) are harvested during December to March and sales at the Khwairamband bazaar as well as Khurai bazaar @ Rs. 10 per bundle at the beginning of the season. But during March-April, the sales rate is slightly reduced to @Rs 20 per 3 bundle. Large scale sale of harvested Lomba are not found at the Khwairamband and Khurai bazaars.

Discussion: For Yongchak iromba, the main skin of the whole bean is scrapped out with the help of Yongkhot- a special instrument looks like tongue cleaner, potato (best by local various red potato- aber chaibi), red chillies, broad bean (Vicia faba) are boiled.

After proper oiling, the Yongchak beans would still have another film of skin. We have to remove this skin also and it would be fine if the pulp of this are used for iromba.

The whole lots are meshed together in a sauce of red chilly paste, salt and roasted ngari (fermented fish) or fermented soyabeans for vegetarians by pouring suitable amount of hot water. It can be eaten or served best by garnishing with lomba (Elsholtzia blanda) (The Sangai Express, December 2, 2017). Those who bought Lomba during the season are kept in every Meitei/Meetei house holds for off season use as garnish for Yongchak iromba.

Conclusion: The unique flavour in Yongchak after garnishing with Lomba is due to its high citral oil content (lemon type smell).