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Herbs & Plants

Amaranthus retroflexus

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Botanical Name : Amaranthus retroflexus
Family: Amaranthaceae
Genus: Amaranthus
Species: A. retroflexus
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Caryophyllales

Common Names : Red-root Amaranth, Redroot Pigweed, Red Rooted Pigweed, Common Amaranth, and common tumble weed

Habitat :Amaranthus retroflexus is native to the tropical Americas but it is widespread as an introduced species on most continents in a great number of habitats.

Description:
True to its name, it forms a tumbleweed.  This is an erect annual herb reaching a maximum height near 3 meters. The leaves are nearly 15 centimeters long on large individuals, the ones higher on the stem having a lance shape and those lower on the plant diamond or oval in shape. The plant is monoecious, with individuals bearing both male and female flowers. The inflorescence is a large, dense cluster of flowers interspersed with spiny green bracts. The fruit is a capsule less than 2 millimeters long with a “lid” which opens to reveal a tiny black seed.

You may click to see the pictures  of  Amaranthus retroflexus

 

Edible Uses:
This plant is eaten as a vegetable in different places of the world. No species of genus Amaranthus are known to be poisonous, but the leaves contain oxalic acid and may contain nitrates if grown in nitrate-rich soils, so the water should be discarded after boiling.

Amaranthus retroflexus was used for a multitude of food and medicinal purposes by many Native American groups.

Amaranthus retroflexus is used in the Indian state of Kerala to prepare a popular dish known as thoran by combining the finely cut leaves with grated coconut, chilies, garlic, turmeric and other ingredients.

Medicinal Uses:
The leaves have been used to stop internal hemorrhaging, diarrhea, and excessive menstrual flow. An infusion has been used to treat hoarseness.  The stems have treated ulcers and profuse menstrual flows.  In a wash, the flowers, leaves, and roots have been used as an astringent for wounds and sores, and used as a mouthwash for canker sores and sore gums.

Other Uses:
Use as fodder…When fed to cattle and pigs in large amounts over several days, this plant might be harmful by causing nephrotoxicity

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranthus_retroflexus
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_RST.htm

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Herbs & Plants

Colutea orientalis

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Botanical Name ;Colutea orientalis
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Colutea
Species: C. orientalis
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Fabales

Common Name ; Red Flowered Bladder,bladder senna

Habitat ;Colutea orientalis is  native to Europe and Asia.

Description:
It is a deciduous, grey-leafed, bushy shrub that grows to a height of up to 2 m (6 ft). It bears clusters of small yellow and coppery-red flowers in summer, followed by green seed pods. Colutea x media is a hybrid between C. orientalis and C. arborescens.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

Medicinal Uses:
Leaves have a purging quality, but afterwards have a binding effect.  It is corrected with caraway seed, aniseed, or ginger and a dram taken in wine, ale or broth, on an empty stomach comforts and cleanses the stomach and purges phlegm from the head and brain, lungs, heart, liver and spleen.  From Culpeper: “It strengthens the senses, procures mirth, and is good in chronic agues.” Modern practice uses Cassia angustifolia as the variety instead.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colutea_orientalis
http://www.robsplants.com/plants/ColutOrien
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_RST.htm

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Herbs & Plants

Smilax lanceolata

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Botanical Name : Smilax lanceolata
Family: Smilacaceae (greenbriers)
Synonyms: S. lanceolata, S. domingensis
Common Name: greenbrier,Red China Root

Habitat :Grows in southeastern U. S., mostly on the Coastal Plain.  Usually found in floodplain forests.

Description:
High-climbing woody vine. Stems green, round in cross-section, with few or no prickles, usually with many short side branches. Leaves thin, leathery, evergreen, ovate to lance-ovate, acute to acuminate, base rounded or cuneate, 2.5-5 cm (1-2 in) long. Inflorescence umbels in numerous leaf axils. Flowers numerous, small, greenish. Fruits black, 1-3 seeded, 5-7 mm (0.2-0.3 in) in diamete

 

CLICK TO SEE THE PICTURE
LEAVES: evergreen, lance-shaped, 2 to 5 inches long, 3/4 to 2 inches wide; deep green shiny upper surface, often variegated, green lower surface; 5 veins, rarely 7; young leaves may have minute blunt teeth along margins

FLOWER: April to July; jasmine-like odor

FRUIT: matures in second year, 1/4 inch, blackish-red berry, 2 seeds

FORM: dark-greenish or reddish brown, splotched with gray; few internode spines, never on fruiting canes, spines at nodes

Medicinal Uses:
Chop and boil a small handful of roots in 3 cups of water to use as a pleasant tasting blood tonic and for fatigue, anemia, acidity, toxicity, rheumatism, and skin conditions.  Drink with milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg to strengthen and proliferate red blood cells.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/shrub/smsm.htm
http://www.rnr.lsu.edu/plantid/webtour/species/lancegbr/lancegbr.htm
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_RST.htm

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Categories
Health Problems & Solutions

Let’s Talk About Schizophrenia

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People sometimes change inexplicably in their late teens – they behave bizarrely, argue unnecessarily with everyone, imagine events, become suspicious or withdraw into a shell. This is actually a disease called schizophrenia and these forms are classic, delusional, paranoid and catanonic. The word itself means “split mind ” in Greek as it was confused with a multiple personality disorder by earlier physicians. Today, these two illnesses are classified separately.
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Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that is likely to affect one in 100 men and women (0.5-0.7 per cent respectively). It strikes people usually in their late teens and twenties. It is rare for schizophrenia to set in after the age of 40 and children are rarely diagnosed with it. They can, however, go on to develop it as adults if they have some other mental illness such as autism.

The onset of schizophrenia is so gradual that it mostly goes unrecognised and untreated, especially in developing countries with inadequate healthcare. In addition, people baulk at the idea of admitting they or a loved one is suffering from schizophrenia though no one has a problem saying they have an incurable chronic illness like diabetes or hypertension.

Schizophrenic patients may be delusional or hallucinate — that is see and hear things that are not real. Their speech may be disconnected, dressing and behaviour may be socially inappropriate and they may cry and laugh for no reason at all. Sometimes the person may be “catatonic” or unresponsive to any external stimulus.

Unreasonable behaviour and a quarrelsome nature may affect relations with friends, family and colleagues. The person may be unable to keep a job. Insomnia and morning drowsiness affect efficiency. The appetite may be poor.

The diagnosis of schizophrenia is difficult as the symptoms evolve gradually over a period of months or years. It is often difficult to pinpoint the exact date at which the changes were noticeable. The symptoms should be present for a month for schizophrenia to be suspected and remain for six months for the diagnosis to be established. The patient or a caretaker can report the symptoms. They should be substantiated by evaluation by a qualified medical professional.

PET scans also do not strictly conform to normal parameters. The brains in schizophrenics have smaller temporal and frontal lobes. The levels and ratios of certain brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and glutamine are altered.

The exact reason for these behaviour altering brain changes is not known. However, seven per cent of persons with schizophrenia have a family member who suffers from a similar disease. Many have been born to mothers who suffered several viral illnesses during pregnancy. Environmental factors also play a role — the incidence of the disease increases in persons who are financially insecure or from dysfunctional families with a history of childhood abuse.

Schizophrenics tend to gain weight because their lifestyle is sedentary. Patients also have a predilection for addiction — to tobacco products, alcohol and drugs like cannabis. They are often unwilling to check the addictions to control lifestyle diseases like diabetes or hypertension. Also, they do not adhere to diet modifications or medications needed to keep their disease in check; so this shortens lifespan. They eventually die 10-15 years earlier than their peers. They are also 15 per cent more likely to commit suicide.

Gone are the days when schizophrenics were locked up, immersed in cold baths or given electrical shock therapy. Today there are a plethora of drugs that can be used singly or in combination to control the symptoms of schizophrenia and help the person function fairly normally. These drugs act by correcting the enzyme and chemical imbalances in the brain. Response to medication may be slow and this may be frustrating for the patient as well as caregivers but medication can be increased only gradually to optimal levels. Drugs, combinations and dosages have to be individualised and vary from person to person.

The side effects of medication are weight gain, menstrual irregularities and drowsiness. Some people become very stiff and have abnormal smacking movements or grimaces but doctors are able to tackle this with other medications.

Rehabilitation is important. Once the symptoms are controlled, patients can function in society and even hold down jobs. They need to be trained to handle money and in personal care and hygiene. Medication needs to be continued even when the symptoms have disappeared. The involvement of the whole family helps as the person is then more likely to follow medical treatment and less likely to relapse.

People often ask for a “miracle drug” — a single tablet to treat all diseases. The only universal ingredient to improve health in all diseases (even mental problems) is physical exercise. So go take a walk.

Source : The Telegraph ( Kolkata, India)

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Categories
Herbs & Plants

Hieracium venosum

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Botanical Name : Hieracium venosum
Family: Asteraceae – Aster family
Genus : Hieracium L. – hawkweed
Species: Hieracium venosum L. – rattlesnakeweed
Kingdom : Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Asterales

Synonyms:: Hieracium venosum L.

Common Names:Rattlesnake Weed, Hawkweed, Bloodwort, Snake plantain.

Habitat: The species venosum is common in the Northern and Eastern States, and through Canada; selecting dry hill sides with a light soil, and also pine woods.

Description:
Natural Order, Compositae. The genus hieracium embraces several species, all of which have heads of many yellow flowers; flowers all perfect, and all ligulate, (as in dandelion;) leaves alternate, and the entire herb yielding a little milky juice.  Stem one to two feet high, rising almost naked above, or with but one or two glaucous leaves, smooth, dark-brown, and forking above into a loose and spreading corymb. Root-leaves obovate or oblong, scarcely petioled, nearly entire, thin and pale, smooth and purplish underneath, veins distinctly purple, and the midrib sometimes hairy. Heads small, each with about twenty flowers, with the involucre cylindrical and scarcely imbricated; peduncles very slender. May to July.
click & see the pictures.

This genus is closely allied to the genus Nabalus. Some of its species are quite hairy; and one of them (H. longipilum. has its leaves thickly covered with straight bristles half an inch in length. The H. gronovi is more common southward, and is quite hairy in all its parts. The roots and leaves of venosum have been used in medicine. When fresh, the leaves are acrid and excoriating, and will often remove warts; but they lose this property on being dried, and are then (with the roots) simply bitter and astringent.

Medicinal  Uses:
The roots and leaves are stimulating and astringent, moderately permanent, and quite positive in action. They arouse a full outward circulation; and may be used to advantage when the surface is cold and sluggish, and there is hemorrhage from any internal organ. Hence they are useful in uterine hemorrhage, excessive menstruation, bleeding piles, and spitting of blood. They are not so drying as often to prove constipating, but act much like (though milder than) the bark of myrica. Like myrica, they may be used in chronic diarrhea, aphthous sores, nasal catarrh, nasal polypus, and as an injection in foul leucorrhea and rather insensitive forms of prolapsus. It exerts that peculiar influence in stimulating and consolidating the assimilative apparatus, that can be used to good effect in the treatment of those forms of scrofula which are associated with persistent watery looseness of the bowels. Drank freely in warm decoction, and the leaves at the same time applied as a fomentation, the plant is reputed to be of much service in arousing the circulation and nervous system, and casting out the virus of serpents. One ounce of the roots, or an ounce and a half of the leaves, will form a quart of infusion; or they may be added to relaxant alterants in the preparation of sirups. The milky juice of these plants, and their resemblance in other respects to the narcotic genus lactuca, have caused them to be suspected of poisonous properties; but I have not seen any just grounds for such a suspicion, and think them deserving of full investigation.

When fresh, the leaves are acrid and excoriating, and will often remove warts; but they lose this property on being dried, and are then (with the roots) simply bitter and astringent.  The roots and leaves are stimulating and astringent, moderately permanent, and quite positive in action. They arouse a full outward circulation; and may be used to advantage when the surface is cold and sluggish, and there is hemorrhage from any internal organ. They are useful in uterine hemorrhage, excessive menstruation, bleeding piles, and spitting of blood. They are not so drying as often to prove constipating, but act much like (though milder than) the bark of myrica. Like myrica, they may be used in chronic diarrhea, aphthous sores, nasal catarrh, nasal polypus, and as an injection in foul leucorrhea and rather insensitive forms of prolapsus. It exerts that peculiar influence in stimulating and consolidating the assimilative apparatus, that can be used to good effect in the treatment of those forms of scrofula which are associated with persistent watery looseness of the bowels. Drank freely in warm decoction, and the leaves at the same time applied as a fomentation, the plant is reputed to be of much service in arousing the circulation and nervous system, and casting out the virus of serpents. One ounce of the roots, or an ounce and a half of the leaves, will form a quart of infusion; or they may be added to relaxant alterants in the preparation of syrups. The purple veined-leaves of rattlesnake weed are unmistakable.
Cherokee used the root tea with Mitchella for bowel disorders

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/cook/HIERACIUM_VENOSUM.htm
http://www.cumauriceriver.org/botany/hive.html
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_RST.htm

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HIVE

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