Miracle Herbs

December 28th, 2008 by admin

Lavender is a Mediterranean mint, grown on a large scale in the French province of Provence. It is a short shrub with multiple stems topped with “spikes” of purple flowers used in perfumery, herbal medicine, and cooking.

This minty herb was the original scent used in aromatherapy. In 1937 the French chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse burned his hand while working in a perfume laboratory. Knowing “lavandula″ was used in medicine for treating burns and inflammation, he immersed his hand in a container of essence of lavender on his workbench. The burns healed quickly and completely, and the experience inspired Gattefosse to research the healing properties of other aromatic oils.

‘The essential oils of this soothing herb both stop the perception of pain and halt the inflammatory processes that cause pain. Regular exposure to lavender-based preparation, in aromatherapy or in cuisine, blunts chronic pain and improves inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, asthma, and chronic bronchitis.

If you find the scent of the herb intensely relaxing, there is good reason. Scientists at the University of Miami School of Medicine have found inhaling its essential oil alters brain wave patterns, shifting relaxing rhythms from the right brain to the left. British researchers have found that the herb specifically relieves feelings of anger and aggression and anxiety about the future.

Lavender encourages the secretion of bile from the gallbladder, making it easier to digest fats. People who have gallstones should avoid the herb, since it increases flow through the bile duct.

The herb is also mildly sedating. In laboratory studies with animals, the essential oils counter the anxiety-inducing effects of caffeine. This property makes the herb especially useful for people whose flatulence is worse under conditions of emotional duress or after drinking coffee.

The flavor of Lavandula leaves is too intense for cooking unless it added to a boiled dish. For a milder aroma, use the dried purple flowers. This herb adds flavor to bland dishes, such as white fish, potatoes, or shortbread, and balances the intense odors of mutton or game meats. Lavender also is a nice balance to the aromas of gorgonzola or Roquefort cheese. If fresh herb is not available, use dried lavender buds for cooking vegetables (but not for baking), not the buds preserved in oil.

December 28th, 2008 by admin

The endive (AHN-deev) is the slightly, bitter, moist, pale green leaves of the chicory plant that spout when its root is held in a root cellar. Discovered by accident by a Belgian farmer about 1850, this vegetable became popular in the nineteenth century when other vegetables were scarce in winter, and is now internationally acclaimed as a gourmet salad ingredient. Endives may be white or red, the red variety only now being introduced into U.S. markets.

Like other bitter greens, endives are nutritionally important for what they do rather than the nutrients they contain. Endives produce a special class of carbohydrates known as fructans, a group containing inulin (not to be confused with insulin) and oligofructoses.

These carbohydrates feed the symbiotic bacteria living in the intestine rather than the human body itself. They allow the healthy bacteria in the colon to produce short chain fatty acids that help prevent colon cancer, but they do not serve as a food source of pathogenic bacteria. The bacterial fermentation of fructans in the intestine changes its chemistry so that the human body absorbs calcium and magnesium much more readily from other foods, so much so that consuming endive and similar vegetables demonstrably builds stronger bones. These complex sugars also lower cholesterol and triglycerides.

Select endives that are smooth and white with yellow tips with leaves that are closed at the tips. Keep endives dry, and never cut or shred them until just before cooking or serving. The vitamin content of endive lasts about a week after harvest under refrigeration, provided the vegetable is not exposed to light.

When preparing this vegetable for salads, cut off about one-eighth inch (1/3 cm) from the stem end. Then, with a paring knife, cut a cone shape about one-half inch (1 cm) from the stem end.

Endive goes well in salads with raddichio, oakleaf lettuce, or red beets for the red ingredients and with arrugula, romaine lettuce, mâche, or Boston lettuce for the green ingredients. It can be prepared roasted like radicchio or in a variety of soups and side dishes.

December 28th, 2008 by admin

Sold in Chinese markets as Za Shi Tea and available in every herb store, hawthorn berries make a tart and refreshing tea with demonstrated medicinal properties. Traditional Asian medicine uses hawthorn to treat allergies and a condition roughly corresponding to a Western diagnosis of attention deficit disorder.

If you have angina or congestive heart failure, a daily glass of hawthorn tea can greatly enhance your health. Hawthorn is both extraordinarily safe and extraordinarily effective in treating various forms of heart disease, as was finally recognized by the American Heart Association in an article printed in its journal in May 2002. This herb contains a variety of flavonoids. Some increase blood flow through the coronary arteries. Some increase left ventricular pressure, making each heartbeat stronger. Some accelerate the heart rate-and some decelerate it. But the most important property of hawthorn is its ability to protect the heart from the effects of oxygen deprivation.

Heart cells, like many other tissues, are able to adapt to oxygen deprivation. They shift their energy production from pathways requiring the use of oxygen to pathways requiring the use of fatty acids. However, when their oxygen supply is restored they are sometimes damaged and sometimes destroyed.

When heart pain is induced by the failure of the heart muscle to pump blood, the neutrophils of the immune release a compound known as human neutrophil elastase (HNE), allowing the arteries to stretch back to a more normal size. The process of relaxing the artery, however, releases massive quantities of free radicals that disrupt the cholesterol coats of heart cells and interfere with the action of L-carnitine. At least one of the flavonoid compounds in hawthorn counteracts HNE.

Hawthorn has several other beneficial effects. Animal studies have found that hawthorn stimulates the liver to use LDL cholesterol to make bile salts, cholesterol salts that are flushed out of the liver into the stool. Other studies with laboratory animals have found that the hawthorn compound monoacetyl-vitexin rhamnoside relaxes the linings of the arteries, permitting greater blood flow, through a complicated chemical process. And at least one animal study suggests that hawthorn can prevent irreversible tissue damage during heart attack

Hawthorn is also helpful for people who have lupus. Hawthorn reduces fatigue caused by exercise or exertion by counteracting blood-clotting factor called canavanine that is overabundant in lupus patients. Hawthorn is especially useful when lupus is aggravated by certain foods in the diet, especially alfalfa sprouts.

There are very few precautions for the use of hawthorn. It is almost completely nontoxic. Like many other natural treatments for angina, however, it can cause diarrhea the first few days you take it.

The easiest way to make hawthorn tea is to use tea bags. Most blends emphasize hawthorn flowers rather than hawthorn berries. Sicilian Nights Tea combines hawthorn flowers with cherries, lemon peel, hibiscus, and rose hips for a sweet and sour combination. Blue Mountains Paradise Hawthorn Tea combines hawthorn and vanilla. Hawthorn berry teas are usually a little less expensive but not quite as cardioprotective. If you use hawthorn berries to make tea, you will probably want to add honey or stevia as a sweetener.