Ora Marundu | After bath medicine for babies

Ora Marundu | After bath medicine for babies

Back after a break and time to get back to blogging. “Ora Marundu” is an age old herbal medicine practiced in Tamilnadu for general wellbeing of babies. It is orally administered for babies starting from 60 days till 3 years or more. I have listed out the benefits, translations and steps to prepare “Ora Marundu” in this post along with a video.

Youtube:https://youtu.be/jZL0rgFSYr8

Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/402931497902421961/

All the ingredients were purchased in “Dabba Chetty Shop”, Mylapore Chennai. I could not capture the one-time preparation of this medicine and hoping to do it whenever I get an opportunity.
This medicine can be consumed every alternative days or during oil bath days.

Benefits (For Babies)

Manjal  - Antiseptic

Vasambu – Immunity & Stomach ailments

Jathikkai – Good sleep

Kadukkai – Free bowel movement

Chitharathai – Prevents from common cold/cough

Masikai /maasikaai - Prevents the tongue from getting white.

Sukku - resistance to disease from bacteria

Parangi Pattai - Good for skin and helps in appetite

Tamil	English	Botanical Name
Manjal	Tumeric	Curcuma longa
Vasambu	Sweet Flag	Acorus Calamus
Jathikkai	Nutmeg	Myristica fragrans
Kadukkai		terminalia chebula
Chitharathai	Lesser Galangal	Alpinia Officinarum
Masikai /maasikaai	Nut gall / Gallnut	Terminalia chebula Retz
Sukku	Dry Ginger	Zingiber officinale
Parangi Pattai	China Root, Chinese Smilax	Smilax China
Ora Kal	Grinding stone

Recipe: Ora Marundu

One time Preparation duration :  Optional Step

Preparation duration :  3 days

Cooking duration: 20 minutes

Gas : Low Flame

Yields : more than 5 years

Daily Preparation duration

Preparation duration :  10 minutes

Drying of ingredients : 3 hours (depending on climatic conditions)

Ingredients (Refer Video)

Tumeric - 1

Vasambu – 1

Jathikkai - 1

Kadukkai – 1

Chitharathai - 1

Maasikkai - 1

Sukku (Dry ginger) - 1

Parangi Pattai - 1

One time preparation

Milk – just soak enough to boil

Water – just soak enough to boil

Milk to water proportion – 1 : 3

Daily preparation

Grinding stone – 1

Water – 20 ml (or dilute if needed)

Video One time Preparation (Not in video)

1.         Take a pressure cooker and add all ingredients (Tumeric,Vasambu,Jathikkai,Kadukkai,Chitharathai ,Maasikkai,Sukku (Dry ginger) ,Parangi Pattai).

2.       Add milk & water just enough to cover the ingredients. Milk to water proportion is 1:3

3.       Pressure cook for 1 whistle.

4.       Once the pressure is released, discard the liquid and take out the ingredients.

5.       Take a plain muslin cloth and dry the ingredients in shade. It would take a minimum on 3 days on a sunny day. The duration depends on the climate. You should not be able to feel any moisture in these ingredients. Some of them would dry up faster as the size of each of them changes.

6.       Store them in an airtight container

Daily Preparation (Refer Video)

7.         Clean the grinding stone before starting the process. Do not use any soap, just plain water is enough.

8.       Keep the water ready in the palaada or any cup which is used for feeding baby.

9.       Take each ingredient one by one and dip it in the water kept in paalada. Stroke for 20 times or as needed to form the paste. Once done, dip it back in the same water. Refer to my complete video for the step.

10.   Repeat the above step for all ingredients.

11.   Place the ingredients (in a muslin cloth again) under the shade for drying. This would take roughly 3hours or earlier. .

12.   Clean the grinding stone with plain water and place it under the shade.

13.   Once the ingredients are dried, place it in an airtight container.

Notes

1.       For the one-time preparation, instead of pressure cooker, we can boil them in the stove directly for 20 minutes.

2.       We used store-bought milk for one-time preparation

3.       For the daily preparation, water can be replaced with breast milk.

4.       For daily preparation, the number of strokes given in the video is an approximate amount.

5.       For daily preparation, adjust the number of strokes based on the baby needs. Eg: If there is cold, increase the number of strokes of chitharathai.  For constipation, increase the number of strokes of Kadukkai.

6.       You may ignore some of the ingredients, if you feel it is not needed. The ingredients mentioned are based on my personal experience and it is not compulsory to follow.