Mandeep Singh Azad
Baba Ramdev talks about medicinal values of many wild plants and trees and they proved to be very healthy and useful. But it is tough to believe that there is chicken whose meat can be used for treatment of heart disease.There is a wild chicken breed of India whose meat costs about 1,000-1,200 Rs/kg and has more medicinal and nutritive value which is difficult to find a single plant or herb. The name is Kadaknath which is only Black Meat Chicken Breed of India. The commonly available colours of Kadaknath are jet-black, penciled and golden. The bird is very popular among the Adiwasis mainly due to its adaptability to the local environment, disease resistance, tasty meat quality, texture and flavour. Though the flesh of this breed is black, it is considered not only a delicacy of distinctive taste, but also of medicinal value. This breed has almost been wiped out, due to a belief that its meat has aphrodisiac qualities, i.e it is believed by the tribal’s to increase sexual vigour.
What is Kadaknath?
Kadaknath is only Black Meat Chicken (B.M.C.) Breed of India. It is a native bird of Madhya Pradesh, reared mainly by the tribal communities of Bhil and Bhilala. The Kadaknath is, of course, not the only black chicken in the world. China has the Silkie chicken and Indonesia the Avam Cemani. Kadaknath is an important indigenous breed of poultry inhabitating vast areas of Western Madhya Pradesh mainly the Jhabua and Dhar Districts and adjoining areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan. But because of indiscriminate crossbreeding with RIR and other breeds the pure Kadaknath birds are very rarely available in Dhar and adjoining areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan. At present the Kadaknath birds are mainly available in Jhabua District of Western Madhya Pradesh.
Characteristics:
o Day-old chicks are bluish to black with irregular dark stripes over the back.
o Adult plumage varies from silver and gold-spangled to bluish-black without any spangling.
o The skin, beak, shanks, toes and soles of feet are slate like in colour. The comb, wattles and tongue are purple. Most of the internal organs show intense black colouration, which is pronounced in trachea, thoracic and abdominal air-sacs, gonads and at the base of the heart and mesentery.
o The blood is darker than normal. The black pigment is the result of melanin
deposition.
Medicinal properties:
o Kadaknath has special medicinal value in homeopathy and a particular nervous disorder.The tribal uses Kadaknath blood in the treatment of chronic disease in human beings and its meat as aphrodisiac (Believed to infuse vigor in Make). Experts says that Viagra or Sildenafil Citrate is basically a vasodilator designed for increasing blood flow to the heart and the melanin pigmant in Kadaknath does the same. Kadaknath chicken has a peculiar effectiveness in treating women’s discuss, sterility, Menoxenic (abnormal menstruation), habitual abortion. Kadaknath meat has high levels of vitamins B1,B2,B6,B12, C and E, niacin, protein , fat, calcium, phosphorus, iron, nicotinic acid etc.High levels of 18 essential amino acids as well as hormones that are required by the human body.
o The Central Food and Research Institute, Mysore, studied its medicinal qualities and found it suitable for cardiac patients as it increases blood supply to the heart.
Eggs:
The eggs are also an ideal nutrilive, especially for old people and high blood pressure victims, since the cholesterol content is lower rich in amino acids and higher than that of other kinds of birds. The eggs of Kadaknath chickens can be used effectively to treat severe headaches, headaches after giving birth, faintness, asthma and nephritis (acute or chronic inflammation of the kidney).
Now days with use of growth promoter hormones in poultry industry the demand for local Desi breeds have increased and people are ready to pay a handsome amount. Krishi Vigyan Kendra ,Reasi has taken the initiative for promotion of Kadaknath variety in Jammu. So that this chicken variety with so many medicinal values should be preserved and propagated in our hills and its health benefitted should be exploited. KVK, Reasi is also promoting other backyard poultry varieties with high egg laying ability among women farmers. So that a small but steady income comes in the hand rural women farmer round the year and it also helps in providing good protein diet in form of eggs and meat to their family.