Year: 2020

Indonesian Bay (Serai Kayu): Nature’s gift

English Name: Indonesian Bay

Malay Name: Serai Kayu

Scientific Name : Syzygium polyanthum

This tree is well suited to be grown in Malaysian with our tropical weather.  It can group over 5m tall but you can manage the height by pruning it throughout its life span.  Once establish, it doesn’t need to be watered  as with our climate, it can survive with just our normal rainfalls.  It is a relatively fast grower and its branches spreads out making it a nice tree for providing some shade once it grows tall.  However, as I use a good amount of the leaves, I keep the height growth controlled as I prune it about every 3 months or so.  With good soil, it doesn’t require any fertilizers though as a normal practice at the farm, we fertilize them twice a year

The main purpose of these tree is for the leaves.  The leaves can be either eaten fresh or most often, the older leaves are dried.  The dried leaves are often used as a flavoring or taste enhancer in many dishes all over the world.  It can be used in soups and sauces as well as a herb for roasting various proteins like chicken and beef.  You can also turn the dried leaves into a tea – I tend to crush the leaves first before making my tea.

Many studies have been performed on the therapeutical benefits of the leaves.  It is well known that high blood pressure is considered the “silent killer”.  One study done headed by our local researcher at Dr. Wan Amir Nizam of the Health Science Medical Laboratory, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Kelantan, found that there was a lower rate of high blood pressure amongst a group of Kelantanese who consumed it daily as ulam.  He also found that for people who had high blood pressure, they only had to take low doses of high blood pressure medication.  The lab studies done on 2 types of rats, one with normally high blood pressure and one species that had normal high blood pressure, found that the blood pressure went down for the rats with high blood pressure but there was no effect on the normal blood pressure rats.  They concluded that these leaves are safe to be eaten by people of normal blood pressure.  They also found that this leaf is a popular ulam for many Kelantanese and he proposed that this is why there is a lower rate of people with high blood pressure in Kelantan as compared with other states at 13.9% in 2014.

Apart from high blood pressure, the leaves have traditionally be used in therapy for diarrhea, diabetes and ulcer.  The stems, flowers and fruits also have other uses in traditional therapy.

Many may wonder what it tastes like?  It has a citrusy taste with a slight “kelat” taste.  I haven’t found an English word that gives the meaning of “kelat” but it is the taste that is present in unripen bananas.  However, when you use it in cooked dishes, this taste is not present.  I guess it is the citrus taste that led it to be name serai as Malaysian knows the lemony taste from the lemongrass or serai in Bahasa Malaysia.

To make it available for my consumption when I don’t have any fresh leaves handy, I have dehydrated crushed leaves.  I will select the older leaves for this but not ones that have turned yellow or brown.   In this form, I can use it as a herbal condiment or make a tea drink – either hot or cold.  To make the tea, I find it best to use either just boiled water or my preference is to brew the tea in a claypot.  I use a dehydrator as this ensures the maximum nutrients remain while the water evaporates and prevents contaminants.  It also results in dried still-green leaves instead of turning brown as when it is air-fried or dried in the sun.

As for me, I take this gift from nature and consume it regularly in many ways.