JOIN USCastro loved miracle plant from India
What Fidel Castro loved most from India was ‘moringa’ or drumsticks, or ‘nuggekai’, as it is called in Kannada. In May 2015, when he had just recovered from a long illness, his first public meeting was a discussion on drumsticks.
He called the plant the “miracle” from India, and credited it for his recovery. He had got his aides to bring him drumstick seeds from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and had them cultivated for his daily diet after being told they are good for stomach ailments.
In the last four years, a number of moringa trees have come up on Castro’s residential compound on the outskirts of Havana.
After a long battle with a mysterious stomach ailment that was rumored to be cancer, his interest in moringa went up even further. In October 2012, the official Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina, quoted Castro praising the properties of moringa.
Moringa, “originally from India, is the only plant that has every kind of amino acid. With proper planting and management, its green-leaf production can exceed 300 tonnes per hectare in a year. It has dozens of medicinal properties,” Castro said in an article posted at the Cubadebate website, in response to a reader.
“Its effects on the digestive system are very good, apart from its high protein qualities, but people should not eat more than 30 grams a day, depending on intestinal motility,” he said.
“Some people can handle more. I know some who consume more in the form of tea, with excellent results due to its sedative qualities, which are helpful for rest.”
Che factor
It was Che Guevara, the iconic figure of the Cuban revolution, who brought drumsticks to Cuba from Brazil in the 1960s. It was cultivated only on a small patch of land in Cuba.
Castro took it up as his pet farming activity. He once called up the founder of Cuba’s Finlay Instituto, Concepcion Campa Huergo, suggesting that Cubans should go to India, study moringa cultivation, and bring its seeds back.
He wanted Cuba to invest heavily in moringa. Acres of moringa were planted under a China-Cuba Moringa oleifera science and technology cooperation centre, with research facilities in Yunnan, China and Havana.
The Cuban Biotechnology Institute, famous for its research and medical innovation, is said to have been focusing on the anti-cancer benefits of moringa for the last five years.