Yesterday I rushed to market to buy Scent leaf, which is also known as" Ahunji" in ehugbo dialet.When I got there ,lo and behold, I couldn't see any to buy, Luckily to me ,a woman who has sold off the last one she came with to market said calmy " I can see you really need it,can you join me to my home garden so that I can get some for you?". I agreed to follow her because I needed to prepare pepper soup with it.
When we went there, she gave me a handful of it and she asked "what do you want to use this scent leaf for?". I told her that I use it in various dishes, such as Pepper soup; which has a strong medicinal uses, and is regularly eaten by people in restaurants and women that gave birth within a week. I also told her I like using it for cooking other foods such as Okra Soup,black soup etc.
She calmly smiled and told me that there are other benefits of scent leaf.
According to her, Scent leaf is likened to a traditional medicine used in our culture to treat various ailments and improve overall well-being such as improving digestion, boosting immunity, reducing stress, treatment of stomach aches, dysentery, diarrhoea and vomiting. She said that It can also help relief bloating,ability to lower blood sugar levels and repair damages in the body caused by smoking etc.
"Scent leaves can be used to stop stomach aches, dysentery, diarrhea, and vomiting etc.she said that it is an
effective weight loss tool by influencing taste, appetite, and burning fat more efficiently.
Scent leaf can consumed as tea by squeezing it with clean water,the extract can be consumed as tea. it can also be added in the preparation of dishes or consumed as supplement .
It can also be prepared for the treatment of infections, when the leaves are cooked together with ginger and garlic,the extract cures infections." she further explained calmly.
The methods involved in growing Scent leaf according to her run thus:
-- Firstly,the farmer must prepare the farmland or garden bed which involves clearing of grasses and softening the soil or making garden bed with hoe and matchet.
-- spread your scent leaf seeds on the softened soil by spreading it in form of making a nursery
-- Regular irrigation is very important at this point especially when we are in dry season when rainfall has ceased. With a constant irrigation,the seeds will start germinating or sprouting up after few days of planting or spraying the Scent leaf seeds. According to her,spreading of the seeds can be done anytime and anywhere if you have irrigation facility on your farm and must be ready to constantly irrigate the soil.
--Weeding and Application of Fertilizers can be applied at this moment to cause rapid growth because it adds nutrients to the soil. In my place, we likely substitute fertilizer with animal dung or compost manure which most times ensure quick plant growth and also act as natural pesticides because it kills pests.
--Harvesting and selling of the leaves can yield huge amount of money when they are sold at the market." she concluded.
Indeed I saw that Scent leaf has many health and economic benefits to man.