Month: July 2007

Categories
Positive thinking

Shedding Light On Ourselves

Parts That Don’t Want To Heal
In almost every case, we know what is best for us in our lives, from the relationships we create to the food we eat. Still, somewhat mysteriously, it is often difficult to make the right choices for ourselves. We find ourselves hanging out with someone who leaves us feeling drained or choosing to eat fast food over a salad. We go through phases where we stop doing yoga or taking vitamins, even though we feel so much better when we do. Often we have no idea why we continue to make the less enlightened choice, but it is important that we inquire into ourselves to find out.

When we choose that which is not best for us, the truth can be that there is a deep seated part of us that does not want to heal. We may say it’s because we don’t have the time or the energy or the resources, but the real truth is that when we don’t take care of ourselves we are falling prey to self-sabotage. Self-sabotage happens unconsciously, which is why it’s so difficult to see that we are doing it. The important thing to realize is that this very part of us that resists our healing is the part that most needs our attention and love. Even as it appears to be working against us, if we can simply bring it into the light of our consciousness, it can become our greatest ally. It carries the information we need to move to the next level in our healing process.

When we recognize that we are not making healthy choices, we might even say out loud, “I am not taking care of myself.” Sometimes this is the jolt we need to wake up to what is actually happening. Next we can sit ourselves down in meditation, with a journal, or with a trusted friend to explore the matter more thoroughly. Just shining the light of our awareness on the source of our resistance is sometimes enough to dispel its power. At other times, further effort is required. Either way, we need not fear these parts that do not want to heal. We only need to take them under our wing and bring them with us into the light.

Source:Daily Om

Categories
Herbs & Plants

Rough Chaff

Biological Name: Achyranthes aspera
Family: Amarantaceae
Other Names: Rough Chaff Tree, Prickly Chaff Flower, Apamarga, Apamara, Adharajhada, Aghada, Aghata, Antisha, Apamarga, Apamargamu, Apang, Atkumah, Chirchira, Duk.-Agari, Kadaladi, Katalati, Kharamanjari, Khare-vazhun, Kune-la- mon, Kutri, Latjira, Nayuruvi, Pan- dhara-aghada, Safed hedo, Shiru-kidaladi, Uttaraene, Uttaranee
Scientific Name: Achyranthes aspera var. perphyristachya Hook F.
Family: Amaranthaceae
English Name: Prickly Chaff-flower.
Hindi Name: Chirchita, Latjira, Onga.
Habitat: Sub-tropical Himalays from Kishwar tio Sikkim and Khasi hill to Bihar, Konkan, Nilgiris, and Travancore hills.

Flowering & Fruiting: Aug.-Dec.

Parts Used: leaves, seeds and root.

Description: This small herb found all over India. It grows as wasteland herb every where. Since time immemorial, it is in use as folk medicine. It holds a reputed position as medicinal herb in different systems of medicine in India.It is an erect and stiff annual herb. It has numerous branches ,almost round the slightly ribbed stem,light green or light pink in colour and covered with short,stiff and little rough hair.The leaves of the plant are simple egg shaped and green . The flowers are small and faced downwards.Its seeds and dried plants are available with grocers and dealers of Raw herbal drugs all over India.The leaves are testless but assume a mild bitter taste after cooking.They have soft cellulose.

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Constituents:
Plant yields achyranthine. The fruit contains a large percentage of alkaline ash containing potash. It has an important constituents of alkaline mrdicine which is very useful in counteracting acidity.

Traditional Medicinal Uses: According to Ayurveda, it is bitter, pungent, heating, laxative, stomachic, carminative and useful in treatment of vomiting, bronchitis, heart disease, piles, itching abdominal pains, ascites, dyspepsia, dysentery, blood diseases etc.

Ayurvedic Preparation: Apamarga Taila, Agnimukha etc

Remedies:
Astringent, alterative and antiperiodic, antibilious, diuretic, expectorant, purgative.

Uses and Dosage:

For Renal Dropsies

Make a decoction by adding 2 oz. of the plant to 1.5 pints of water. Boil for 20 – 30 minutes. Strain. This is a good diuretic. Useful for renal dropsies.

Dose: one to two ounces of the mixture two or three times daily.

For stomach ache and bowel complaints, piles, boils, skin eruptions etc.

Use the leaf juice.

For diarrhea and dysentery

A decoction of powdered leaves with honey or sugar candy is useful in the early stages of diarrhea and dysentery.

For Fevers:

Grind fresh leaves into a paste. Mix it with jaggery or black pepper and garlic. Form it into pills. This is a good antiperiodic especially in quartan fevers.

For dropsies such as ascites, anasarca

Mix the ashes from the roots of the herb with water and jaggery. This is said to cure dropsies such as ascites, anasarca etc.

For Cough:

A pinch of the root-powder with a pinch of pepper powder and honey is a remedy for cough.

For bites of poisonous insects, wasps, bees etc

Rub the leaves into a paste with water. Apply this into the affected area.

Grind the flowering spikes of the seeds into a paste with water. Apply externally to the affected region for bites of poisonous snakes and reptiles.

Asthma: Rough chaff is benefically used to treat asthma. According to the Ayurvedic method, the leaves of the plant should be plucked in pitch darkness. As because the presence of light destorys the curative effect on them.After that they are ground with two grams of ground paper on a stone. Six pills can be made by the preparation and should be dried in a dark room on that night . Asthma patient has to take one pill with water on the ninth night of the second half of the lunar month, and continue to follow the procedure for six days up to new moon day.

Spleen enlargement: The herb is specific for the spleen enlargement. The powder of the whole plant is used twice daily with a little bitten yogard (curd).

Easy delivery:Rough chaff seeds are very useful in facilitating easy and painless delivery.The seeds are ground well with lillte water to form a fine past, and applied on the navel, pubis and vulva.

Cholera: The powdered root of the herb, mixed with water gives good result in cholera.

Renal dropsy: The decoction of the plant is beneficial in renal dropsy as its use increases the secretion and discharge of urine.The decoction is made by boiling the plant in water for half an hour . About 30 to 50 gms. of strained mixture should be taken twice daily.

Stomach disorders: Juice of rough chaff leaves are very useful for curing stomach ache,bowel complaints and piles.

Diarrhoea and dysentery: A decoction of the powdered leaves ,mixed with honey or sugar candy is useful in the early stage of these diseases.

Menstruation: A decoction of the herb is very useful in treating abnormal or excessive menstruation.

Eye problems: A paste of the roots of the herb with water can be applied beneficially in opthalmia opacity of the cornea.

Skin problems:Rough chaff leaves are useful in cuts and wounds from sharp knives or blades .Juice of a few leaves is used to soak the wound. A leaf is wrapped and bandaged over the wounds.It heals withen a day or two. with a single application.

For syphilitic sores:

Extract fresh juice from the leaves. Thicken the juice by evaporating by exposing to the sun. Mix it with a little opium. Apply to primary syphilitic sores.

Miscellaneous:

Payasam or Kheer made of seeds in milk is a good remedy for brain diseases.

An Infusion of the root is a mild astringent useful in bowel complaints.

Seeds are used as an expectorant, or mixed with rice water for bleeding hemorrhoids.

Seed soaked in buttermilk during the night and ground into an emulsion the next morning is a cure for biliousness.

Apply Leaf juice applied to skin for overexposure to the sun. Leaves or seeds are used for poisonous animal bites.

Safety precautions:
Do not use while pregnant. Taken in large doses, it (especially the leaf juice) induces abortion or labor pains. No other information available.

Other Uses:
Useful for reclamation of wastelands.
Leaf is consumed as potherb.
Seeds rich in protein, cooked and eaten.
Used in religious ceremonies in India.

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.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/CropFactSheets/onga.html
http://www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-Med/_Herbs/h125.htm

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Categories
News on Health & Science

New Cure For Brain Cancer

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A new molecule extracted from frogs could be a potential remedy for brain cancer.

Frogs’ eggs contain molecules with special cancer curing properties.
Some of the best drugs that we have were found in nature. Conventional wisdom suggests that nature is still the best place to look for drugs to fight even serious diseases. The only problem is we do not know quite where to look. Large forests have been a natural choice, but the living world extends beyond plants. How many will look in frogs’ eggs?

Twenty years ago, Alfacell Corporation, a small drug discovery company in New Jersey, extracted a type of molecule called ribonuclease from frogs’ eggs. This is now in clinical trials as a treatment for cancer. Recently, another form of the molecule — called Amphiminase — has been found to be even better in treating cancer, particularly difficult forms of it like brain cancer. It has a special property of recognising and attacking only cancer cells, suggesting that it could be non-toxic. “This is a very exciting molecule,” says Ravi Acharya, professor of biochemistry at the University of Bath in the UK.

Acharya, along with scientists at the Alfacell Corporation, recently synthesised this molecule in the laboratory and studied its structure and chemical properties in detail. It belongs to a class of molecules called ribonucleases, so called because they chop up another class of molecules called ribonucleic acid (RNA). RNA is vital to protein synthesis, and hence to the survival of any cell. When RNA needs to be used, the cell smothers the ribonucleases with other molecules and stops them from functioning, thus leaving the RNA free to do its job.

When Amphiminase enters a cancer cell, or any cell, it wrecks the protein synthesis machinery by inactivating the RNA. However, it enters only the cancer cells because they are coated with sugar molecules that Amphiminase recognises. The interesting and useful fact is that it crosses the blood-brain barrier and goes inside the brain. Cancer of the brain has been particularly resistant to treatment with drugs because most molecules do not cross the blood-brain barrier.

The drug has been found very promising in pre-clinical trials. Yet, from pre-clinical trials to the market is a long way. The first compound that Alfacell isolated is now in different stages of clinical trials for treating different kinds of cancer. Ribonucleases are a good candidate for drug companies. Alok Srivastava, president of Nidaan, an anti-cancer start-up at the University of California, San Francisco, says, “Since it destroys the RNA, it can be effective in many kinds of cancers.”

Sources:The Telegraph (Kolkata,India)

Categories
Herbs & Plants

Picrorhiza

Family: Scrophulariaceae
Botanical name: Picrorhiza Kurrora
Common names: Kutki, Katuka
English Name: Gentian
Indian Name: Kutki
Habitat :Alpine grassland and gravelly areas at elevations of 3600 – 4400 metres in W Sichuan, S Xizang and NW Yunnan. Picrorhiza is a creeping plant native to the mountains of India, Nepal, Tibet and Pakistan.

Also known as Kharbagehindi, the plant consists of long leaves and five-lobed flowers, which are pale blue or reddish-blue in color. The largest part of the plant is the rhizome, which can grow as long as 10 inches. The rhizome is used medicinally. It is small hairy perennial herb with woody rhizomes. It has small white or pale bluish purple flower in cylindrical spikes.
It is hardy to zone 0. It is in flower from July to August, and the seeds ripen from August to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs).

picrorhiza-2.jpgpicrorhiza-3.jpgpicrorhiza.jpg
The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil.

Propagation
Seed – It is likely that the best way of propagating from seed is to sow it as soon as it is ripe, preferably in a cold frame or greenhouse. If this is not possible, sow the seed in late winter or early spring in a greenhouse. Prick out the seedlings as soon as they are large enough to handle and plant out in the summer. Division of the rhizome in the autumn or spring.

Medicinal Uses:
Picrorhiza contains a number of active ingredients, including acetophenone derivatives (which have antiasthmatic properties), iridioids and cucurbitacins (which are extremely bitter). In traditional Chinese medicine, picrorhiza has been used to treat everything from hyperemia and dysentery to jaundice, hemorrhoids, epilepsy and carbuncles. Scientific tests have found the compounds in picrorhiza to stimulate the immune system, fight bacteria and protect the liver from toxic substances.
The dried rhizomes of the plants constitute the drug.

It has a cooling effect and is used as a cardiotonic, antipyretic, anthelmintic and laxative. It is also used to alleviate stomachache, and is believed to promote appetite. Kutki is useful in ‘Kapha’, billow fever, urinary discharge, hiccup, blood troubles, burning sensations, leucoderma, and jaundice.

Protective and therapeutic effects against liver damage have been shown by many investigators in diverse models of liver injury in animals. The crude extract as well as the active principles have been shown to protect the liver from injury due to carbon tetrachloride, paracetamol, galactosamine and alcohol. Marked bile- promoting action has been shown in dogs. The general pharmacology of the plant has been well studied. Anti-inflammatory action and reduction in mast cell degranplation have also been demonstrated.
The standard ayurvedic references describe its usefulness as a laxative, liver-stimulant, improving lactation, appetite stimulant, febrifuge and as beneficial in bronchial asthma. The plant and its formulations are widely used in therapy of epidemic jaundice. Clinical studies including double-blind trials have been carried out with the root powder of the plant in patients with viral hepatitis with significant improvement in symptoms like anorexia, nausea and vomiting. There was a concurrent improvement in liver functions. Open trials in bronchial asthma have given encouraging prophylactic response with prolonged administration.

The dried rhizome is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiperiodic, cathartic (in large doses), cholagogue, laxative (in smaller doses), stomachic and bitter tonic. The root contains a number of very bitter glucosides including kutkin and picrorhizin. It also contains apocynin, which is powerfully anti-inflammatory and reduces platelet aggregation. In trials, the rhizome was shown to boost the immune system and to have a specific action against the parasie Leishmania donovani, which causes the tropical parasitic disease called leishmaniasis. The rhizome has a very beneficial effect upon the liver and digestive system and is used in the treatment of a wide range of conditions including fevers, constipation, dyspepsia and jaundice. It is also often used in the treatment of scorpion stings and snake bites There is also some evidence that the rhizome can be of help in the treatment of bronchial asthma and a number of auto-immune diseases such as psoriasis and vitiligo, whilst it has also been shown to reduce blood cholesterol levels and reduce coagulation time. The rhizome is gathered in the autumn and dried for later use.
Historical or traditional use (may or may not be supported by scientific studies)
The bitter rhizomes of picrorhiza have been used for thousands of years in India to treat people with indigestion.1 It is also used to treat people with constipation due to insufficient digestive secretion and for fever due to all manner of infections.2

The major constituents in picrorhiza are the glycosides picroside I, kutkoside, androsin, and apocynin. They have been shown in animal studies to be antiallergic, to inhibit platelet-activating factor (an important pro-inflammatory molecule), and to decrease joint inflammation. According to test tube and animal studies, picrorhiza has antioxidant actions, particularly in the liver. Picroliv (a commercial mixture containing picroside I and kutkoside) has been shown to have an immunostimulating effect in hamsters, helping to prevent infections. Picrorhiza increases bile production in the liver, according to rat studies. It has also been shown to protect animals from damage by several potent liver toxins, offering protection as good as or better than silymarin (the flavonoids found in milk thistle).However, it does not have the amount of human research as silymarin. Picrorhiza has also shown to reduce formation of liver cancer due to chemical exposures in animal studies.

Human studies on this plant are not prolific. A series of cases of acute viral hepatitis in India were reportedly treated successfully by a combination of picrorhiza with a variety of minerals. A number of similar reports have appeared in Indian literature over the years. No double-blind clinical trials have yet been published, however.

Two preliminary trials suggest that picrorhiza may improve breathing in asthma patients and reduce the severity of asthma. Although, a follow-up double-blind trial did not confirm these earlier trials.

A preliminary trial conducted in India found a small benefit for people with arthritis (primarily rheumatoid arthritis).

Picrorhiza in combination with the drug methoxsalen was found in a preliminary trial to hasten recovery in people with vitiligo faster than those receiving methoxsalen and sun exposure alone.

Cirrhosis of liver:Its root is given in powdered form for the adult patients in Ayurveda.A teaspoonful of powder ,mixed with an equal amount of honey is adminstered thrice daily.

Stomach disorders:In case of attendant constipation ,the dose should be doubled and taken with a cup of worm water three to four times daily.It stimulates the liver and produce more biles, the secretion of which relieves congestion of the liver and the tissues which starts functioning again.

Jaundice: Picrorhiza is one of the useful drugs considered beneficial in Ayurveda for treating Jaundice.One or two spoonful of powder mixed with turpeth (nisoth) and the same should be adminstered twice daily with hot water.

Ascites: It is beneficial in the treatment of Ascites, a disease characterised by the accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity of the abdomen. The herb should be boiled in water and the decoction , if taken by the patient for 21 days regularl, with fresh decoction each day can induce four to five motios on an average.\

Dyspepsia: Picrorhiza is also beneficial in the treatment of dyspepsia. It strengthens the stomach and promotes its action.It improves appetite and stimulates the secretion of the gastric juices.

Constipation: The herb is particularly very useful for constipation.It induces active movement of the bowels and serves as a mild purgative too.

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

Miracles of Herbs

http://www.garrysun.com/kutki.html

http://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/2147008.html#Traditional-Use

Categories
News on Health & Science

Pumpkin may treat diabetics

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The common vegetable Pumpkin will now be more tastier than ever as Chinese scientists have claimed that it can “drastically” reduce the need for daily insulin injections for millions of diabetic patients worldwide.

Scientists have discovered a compound in pumpkin that has been known to promote the regeneration of damaged insulin-producing beta cells in diabetic rats, thereby improving the level of insulin in their blood.

Laboratory data showed that diabetic rats that had been fed pumpkin extract had only five per cent less plasma insulin and eight per cent fewer insulin-positive cells than normal healthy rats, according to a research paper published this week in the US-based Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

The researchers fed 12 diabetic rats and 12 normal rats either a normal diet or a diet supplemented with pumpkin extract for 30 days.

On average, the rats receiving the pumpkin supplements experienced a 36 per cent increase in plasma insulin compared to the untreated rats, Professor Xia Tao, the paper’s lead author and a teacher at Shanghai‘s East China Normal University said.

However, Xia, a professor at the College of Life Science, emphasised that further research was needed to evaluate the effects in human beings.

“But I tend to believe pumpkin extract could also promote regeneration of pancreatic beta cells in humans,” he was quoted as saying by China Daily

Source:The Times Of India

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