458 Handbook of herbs and spices
enhance the aroma of lesser rice varieties. They are also used to wrap food for
cooking, such as chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves, a Thai recipe (gai haw bai
toey), and are neatly folded into small baskets for filling with puddings and cakes.
Also in Thailand, country folk use the leaves to boil with water for drinking purposes,
adding refreshment. Dried leaves are available only in the form of herbal tea.
27.5 Functional properties......................................................................
Besides its culinary value, P. amaryllifolius is known in folk medicine for its healing
properties. The water extract of fresh leaves has a cooling effect and is excellent for
the treatment of internal inflammations, colds, coughs, and measles. A drink made by
boiling finely chopped fresh stem or root in water is also used to cure urinary infections.
The juice extracted from fresh leaves in combination with that of Aloe vera is used
to cure some skin diseases. The aromatic herbal tea of well-processed leaves has a
cardiotonic function. Additionally, similar to some tropical aromatic herbs, fresh
leaves of P. amaryllifolius possess repellent activity toward some household insects.
27.6 References.......................................................................................
BHATTACHARJEE P, KSHIRSAGAR A and SINGHAL R S (2005) Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of 2-
acetyl-1-pyrroline from Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb. Food Chem., 91 (2), 255–259.
BOWN D (2002) The Royal Horticultural Society New Encyclopedia of Herbs & Their Uses, Great
Britain, Dorling Kindersley Ltd.
BUTTERY R G, LING L C and JULIANO B O (1982) 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline: an important aroma component
of cooked rice. Chem. Ind., 958–959.
BUTTERY R G, JULIANO B O and LING L C (1983) Identification of rice aroma compound 2-acetyl-1-
pyrroline in pandan leaves. Chem. Ind. (London), (12), 478.
BUTTERY R G, LING L C and MON T R (1986) Quantitative analysis of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline in rice. J.
Agric. Food Chem., 34 (1), 112–114.
BUTTERY R G, TURNBAUGH J G and LING L C (1988) Contribution of volatiles to rice aroma. J. Agric.
Food Chem. 36 (5), 1006–1009.
BYRNE L T, GUEVARA B Q, PATALINGHUG W C, RECIO B V, UALAT C R and WHITE A H (1992) The x-ray crystal
structure of (±)-pandamarine, the major alkaloid of Pandanus amaryllifolius. Aust. J. Chem.,
45 (11), 1903–1908.
GANGOPADHYAY G, BANDYOPADHYAY T, MODAK B K, WONGPORNCHAI S and MUKHERJEE K K (2004)
Micropropagation of Indian pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.), a rich source of 2-acetyl-
1-pyrroline. Cur. Sci., 87 (11), 1589–1592.
JIANG J (1999) Volatile composition of pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius) in Shahidi F and
Ho C-T, Flavor and Chemistry of Ethnic Foods, Proceedings of a Meeting held during the 5th
Chemical Congress of North America, Cancun, Nov. 11–15, 1997, 105–109. New York, Kluwer
Academic/Plenum Publishers.
KATZER G (2001) Pandanus (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.) in Gernot Katzers Spice Pages, available
on the Internet (http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/generic_frame.html?Pand _ama.html).
LAKSANALAMAI V and ILANGANTILEKE S (1993) Comparison of aroma compound (2-acetyl-1-pyrroline)
in leaves from pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius) and Thai fragrant rice (Khao Dawk Mali-105).
Cereal Chem., 70 (4), 381–384.
LAOHAKUNJIT N and NOOMHORM A (2004) Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline
and volatile components from pandan leaves. Flavour Frag. J., 19 (3), 251–259.
LEE B L, SU J and ONG C N (2004) Monomeric C18 chromatographic method for the liquid chromatographic
determination of lipophilic antioxidants in plants. J. Chromatogr. A, 1048 (2), 263–267.
NEELWARNE B, RUDRAPPA T, NARAYAN M S and RAVISHANKAR G A (2004) Method and composition for
clonal propagation of Pandanus amaryllifolius. U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ., 8 pp.