Tamil Nadu varsity to help Australia extract drumstick oil

Tag : Vegetable Cooking Oil

Tamil Nadu varsity to help Australia extract drumstick oil
Coimbatore | July 10, 2008 1:35:06 PM IST

The ubiquitous 'murungai', the popular vegetable known asdrumstick, will now be used for biofuel extraction on an industrialscale.
The Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) here has signed amemorandum of understanding with the Western Australian AgricultureAuthority (WAAA) to develop high-yield varieties of murungai, knownas Moringa oleifera in the plant world, for biofuel production.
TNAU produces two series of murungai seeds, which it distributes tofarmers for commercial farming.
A team of TNAU scientists will identify a murungai genotype thatwill be frost and high-salinity resistant and have higher oilcontent.
WAAA biofuel projects manager Henery Brockman said murungai wouldbe cultivated over a million hectares of saline land in Australiawith TNAU assistance.
Australia is already the largest cultivator of sandalwood, anIndian shrub which has become rare over the years in south India.
TNAU vice-chancellor C. Ramasamy said the university would also setup a facility that would produce up to 1,000 liters of biodiesel inthree years.
A nutritious vegetable and popular for its succulent marrow andseed, murungai is a must in sambar, the tasty lentil dish that goeswith south Indian dishes idli and dosai.
The slender murungai tree has drooping branches and grows toapproximately 10 metres in height. Every part of it is used asfood, with its seeds yielding oil that can be used for cooking,making cosmetics, and lubrication.
India is the largest producer of drumstick with an annualproduction of 1.1 to 1.3 million tonnes grown over 38,000 hectares.Andhra Pradesh leads with 15,665 hectares under murungaicultivation, compared to 7,408 hectares in Tamil Nadu.papri/ank/dg
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