Bean curd, a magical tree species rich in nutrients

To count some of the magical tree species in the world, the tofu tree is definitely one of them, because the pectin extracted from its body can make a food similar to tofu, with very high edible value and nutrients.

What is Tofu Tree?

Tofu tree is also called smelly Vitex, which is a shrub belonging to Verbenaceae. Its leaves are single and opposite. The leaves are crushed and smelly. They are ovate, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic or obovate. The leaves are 8-13 cm long and 1.5-6 cm wide. The whole margin or irregular coarse teeth. umbels paniculate, terminal; calyx green, sometimes purplish, cup-shaped, apex 5-lobed, margin often lashed; corolla yellowish, often 4-lobed, outer pilose and glandular punctate; stamens 4, usually 2 long and 2 short; ovary superior, 4-loculed. Drupe globose to obovate, purple; seed 1000-grain weight ca. 17 g. The flowering period is 5-10 months. Born at an altitude of 2500 meters below the hillside, forest, forest edge, roadside, barren hills and shrubs, the most suitable for slightly acidic to acidic soil. Field planting grows better than mountain planting. God bean curd tree is a mangrove community, cold and heat afraid of drought.

What is the role of tofu trees?

Nutrient elements: the contents of crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, total sugar and ash in tofu leaves were 13.48%, 3.79%, 9.87%, 8.98% and 5.95%, respectively, and the pectin content was as high as 39.5%. There are 18 kinds of amino acids in the leaves of bean curd, and the content of amino acids per 100g leaves is as high as 10.81 g. The amino acids with higher content are semi-light amino acid, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine and phenylalanine. Tofu leaves contain many kinds of mineral elements, which are extremely rich in mineral elements. Each 100g tofu leaves contains 870mg calcium, 120mg phosphorus, 59.5mg iron and 2.07mg zinc. In addition, vitamin C 365.56mg and β-carotene 21.8mg per 100g fresh leaves.

Medicinal value: Tofu tree roots, stems, leaves can be used as medicine, bitter taste, non-toxic, with clearing away heat and detoxification, swelling hemostasis and other effects, can treat snake bites, nameless swelling poison, trauma bleeding, dysentery, burns and other diseases. The results showed that the extract of Tofu root inhibited significantly the rat toe swelling and prostaglandin E2 production induced by carrageenan, and had significant anti-inflammatory effect. The extract of Tofu root also enhanced the phagocytic function of macrophages and lymphocyte proliferation in experimental mice, and enhanced the non-specific immune function of the body. Tofu tree stem and leaf extracts have anti-fatigue and cholesterol lowering effects. Tofu tree decoction has a strong inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus, dysentery bacilli and other pathogenic bacteria.

Industrial value: pectin has good gelation and emulsification stability, widely used in food, textile, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. The pectin content of bean curd leaves is as high as 30%-40%, which is higher than that of pectin extracted from pectin raw materials at present. The esterification degree of pectin from bean curd leaves was 73%-78%, and the gel concentration degree was above 165. The two indexes were much higher than pectin extracted from pericarp, corn cattail and sunflower disk. Tofu tree is rich in pectin resources, high in pectin content and good in quality. It is a pectin extraction material with broad development prospects. Moreover, the peroxidase content in tofu leaves is 8 times that of horseradish, which is the raw material of peroxidase extraction at present, and has high chemical utilization value.

How to eat tofu trees

Tofu leaves can only be picked on the mountain.

First of all, remove all the leaves and wash them.

Rub the leaves with your hands for a long time until they turn into dregs, then fill them with clean water and filter

The filtered juice must not have any residue, otherwise it will not coagulate.

Supplement the equipment used for filtering, the filter hole must be very small

Take a bowl of boiling water and add a little toothpaste to stir well

Use chopsticks to quickly stir in the filtered leaf juice. During the stirring process, slowly pour the toothpaste solution into the mixture. After stirring evenly, wait for about seven to eight minutes and it will become the current jelly.

Finally finished, according to personal taste, adjust the ingredients can be eaten, recommended spices: monosodium glutamate, chicken essence, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, pepper

Value: Made from tofu leaves green, translucent gel "tofu" is a pollution-free, safe green health food, is a good summer, can be cold and fried. Tofu leaves as raw materials through grinding, dewatering, filtration, coagulation and other procedures can be processed into jelly, delicate and smooth taste, transparent and full meat, rich in nutrients.

Although the artificial cultivation of tofu tree is not widespread, but because of its magic and its economic benefits, the planting scale of tofu tree is also expanding step by step, if you are also interested in some novel things, you can choose to plant a tofu tree to understand it.

Although the artificial cultivation of tofu tree is not widespread, but because of its magic and its economic benefits, the planting scale of tofu tree is also expanding step by step, if you are also interested in some novel things, you can choose to plant a tofu tree to understand it.