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Herbs & Plants

Indigo

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Botanical Name : Indigofera tinctoria
Family: Fabaceae
Genus:     Indigofera
Species: tinctoria
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class:     Eudicots
Order:     Fabales

Synonyms: Pigmentum Indicum

Common name : Indigo or True indigo

Habitat:Native habitat of Indigofera tinctoria is unknown .But  it has been in cultivation worldwide for many centuries. Today most dye is synthetic, but natural dye from indigofera tinctoria is still available, marketed as natural coloring. The plant is also widely grown as a soil-improving groundcover.

Description:
Indigofera is a large genus of over 750 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Fabaceae.
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True indigo is a shrub one to two meters high. It may be an annual, biennial, or perennial, depending on the climate in which it is grown. It has light green pinnate leaves and sheafs of pink or violet flowers. The plant is a legume, so it is rotated into fields to improve the soil in the same way that other legume crops such as alfalfa and beans are.

A blue dyestuff is obtained from the processing of the plant’s leaves. They are soaked in water and fermented in order to convert the glycoside indican naturally present in the plant to the blue dye indigotin. The precipitate from the fermented leaf solution is mixed with a strong base such as lye,

It does not exist ready formed, but is produced during fermentation from another agent existing in the plant. This is called Indocan, and is yellow, amorphous, of a nauseous bitter taste with an acid reaction; readily soluble in water, alcohol and ether.

Medicinal Uses:
-Indigo was at one time much used in medicine, but now is rarely employed.

Several species of this group are used to alleviate pain. The herbs are generally regarded as an analgesic with anti-inflammatory activity, rather than an anodyne. Indigofera articulata (Khedaish in Arabic) was used for toothache, and Indigofera oblongifolia (hasr in Arabic) was used as an anti-inflammatory for insect stings, snakebites, and swellings.

Indigofera suffruticosa and Indigofera aspalthoides have also been used as anti-inflammatories.[4] A patent was granted for use of Indigofera arrecta extract to relieve ulcer pain.

The Maasai people of Kenya use parts of Indigofera brevicalyx and I. swaziensis as toothbrushes

Main Uses:
Several species, especially Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa, are used to produce the dye indigo. Colonial planters in the Caribbean grew indigo and transported its cultivation when they settled in the colony of South Carolina and North Carolina Where people of the Tuscarora confederacy adopted the dying process for head wraps and clothing. Exports of the crop did not expand until the mid-to late 18th century. When Eliza Lucas Pinckney and enslaved Africans successfully cultivated new strains near Charleston it became the second most important cash crop in the colony (after rice) before the American Revolution. It comprised more than one-third of all exports in value.

The chemical aniline, from which many important dyes are derived, was first synthesized from I. suffruticosa (syn. I. anil, whence the name aniline).

In Indonesia, the Sundanese use Indigofera tinctoria (known locally as tarum) as dye for batik.

It is a very well-known and highly important dye, millions of pounds being exported from India annually.

Known Hazards: It is said to produce nausea and vomiting.

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.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/i/indigo05.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigofera_tinctoria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigofera

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Herbs & Plants

Trifolium repens

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Botanical Name : Trifolium repens
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Trifolium
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Fabales

Common Name :white clover

Habitat : Trifolium repens native to Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. It has been widely introduced worldwide as a pasture crop, and is now also common in most grassy areas of North America and New Zealand. Also grown in spring and summer.

Description:
It is a herbaceous, perennial plant. It is low growing, with heads of whitish flowers, often with a tinge of pink or cream that may come on with the aging of the plant. The heads are generally 1.5–2 cm wide, and are at the end of 7 cm peduncles or flower stalks. The leaves, which by themselves form the symbol known as shamrock, are trifoliolate, smooth, elliptic to egg-shaped and long-petioled. The stems function as stolons, so white clover often forms mats, with the stems creeping as much as 18 cm a year, and rooting at the nodes.

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Culinary uses:
Besides making an excellent forage crop for livestock, clovers are a valuable survival food: they are high in proteins, widespread, and abundant. The fresh plants have been used for centuries as additives to salads and other meals consisting of leafy vegetables.

They are not easy for humans to digest raw, however, but this is easily fixed by boiling the harvested plants for 5–10 minutes. Dried flowerheads and seedpods can also be ground up into a nutritious flour and mixed with other foods, or can be steeped into a tisane. White clover flour is sometimes sprinkled onto cooked foods such as boiled rice.

When used in soups, the leaves are often harvested before the plant flowers. The roots are also edible, although they are most often cooked firsthand.

Medicinal uses:
The flower heads are the medicinally active parts.  When dry they have a honey-like fragrance and a slightly astringent taste.  An infusion is used to treat gastritis, enteritis, severe diarrhea and rheumatic pains.  It is also used as an inhalant for respiratory infections. Herbal doctors still employ preparations of white clover to ward off mumps.  An old fashioned remedy to cleanse the system. A blood purifier, especially in boils, ulcers and other skin diseases. A strong tea of white clover blossoms is very healing to sores when applied externally. Similar to red clover in use.  An infusion has been used in the treatment of coughs, colds, fevers and leucorrhea. A tincture of the leaves is applied as an ointment to gout. An infusion of the flowers has been used as an eyewash.

Trifolium repens has been used as minor folk medicine by the Cherokee, Iroquois, Mohegan and other Native American tribes for centuries.

The Cherokee, for instance, used an infusion of the plant to treat fevers as well as Bright’s disease. The Delaware and Algonkian natives used the same infusion, but as a treatment for coughing and the common cold.

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/Trifolium_repens
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_C.htm

https://s10.lite.msu.edu/res/msu/botonl/b_online/thome/band3/tafel_115_small.jpg

http://www.robsplants.com/plants/TrifoRepen

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Featured Healthy Tips

Boosting Of Energy

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Benjamin Franklin once wrote that nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes. But surely fatigue should be added to that list. After all, who has not felt dog-tired, sometimes for long stretches, at one time or another?

Researchers say fatigue is one of the most common symptoms experienced by adults in the general population, whether you live in the United States or elsewhere. As one fatigue researcher notes, “Feeling tired is so common as to be considered normal.” Not surprisingly, fatigue is also one of the most frequent complaints in doctors’ offices around the globe.

Often fatigue is to be expected: You’re recovering from the flu, or, like too many Americans, you haven’t been getting enough sleep lately. Maybe, like so many people, you’re simply trying to do too much, and the resulting stress — a major contributor to fatigue — is wearing you down. In these cases, regaining your energy may be as straightforward as getting some much-needed rest and taking time to relax — which your body and mind need to function at full capacity.

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You can fight fatigue with regular physical activity.

If you’re a baby boomer, your fatigue may be due to some of the physical changes that accompany aging, such as normal reductions in the amount of deep sleep or a decline in muscle mass. If you’re a menopausal woman, frequent hot flashes, which can disrupt the amount and quality of sleep, may also be contributing to your fatigue. While no one can turn back the clock, there are steps you can take to slow or even reverse some aspects of age-related fatigue.

But in some cases, fatigue is a sign that something is amiss, and should be brought to the attention of your doctor. For example, fatigue is one of the main symptoms of a number of conditions, including depression, congestive heart failure, anemia, hypothyroidism, and diabetes, all of which require medical attention. Often fatigue subsides when these conditions are treated. Whatever its cause, fatigue is telling you something important — that you need to rest and relax, perhaps, or that you should take better care of yourself, or (fortunately, less often) that you have a disease or condition that needs treatment. Fatigue, like death and taxes, may indeed be an inescapable part of life. But that doesn’t mean you have to take it lying down. This Special Health Report provides you with the latest information about fatigue and offers strategies to help you regain the physical and mental energy you need to enjoy life to its fullest.
Energy and fatigue

The word “energy” can mean many things. You might use it to describe the strength you need to take on a physical challenge and the endurance to keep it up for an extended period: running a marathon, biking uphill, sightseeing all day, weeding and planting in the garden, and so on.

But energy is not just about muscles. It’s also about the mind. When you’re mentally energetic, you’re alert, you’re “on,” you readily absorb information by reading and listening. Another aspect of mental energy is motivation — the drive to do things like read a book cover-to-cover in one sitting, initiate a new work project, or cram for an exam. You may have noticed that when you’re really absorbed in an activity, you feel more energetic than when you are only half-interested in it. Motivation can be a powerful force in overcoming fatigue.

When you lack energy, you feel physically weak, mentally dull, or both. Effort of any sort can tire you out quickly. This absence of energy is often referred to as fatigue, and it’s a common phenomenon that has been viewed differently over the years (see “Changing views of fatigue,” below). Fatigue has physical, mental, and emotional components. Your muscles might ache. You might have trouble concentrating or need to read a passage over three times before you understand it. You might also feel unmotivated or bored.

Is it simply that you need more sleep? Sometimes when you lack energy you also feel sleepy. Sleepiness is specifically the urge to go to sleep. Most people need roughly eight hours of sleep a night. Some people can get by with less; some need more. Sleepiness can also be induced by medications that have a sedative effect on the brain (see “Medications”).

But lack of energy is not just sleepiness: It’s physical (weariness or weakness), emotional (lack of motivation or boredom), and mental (lack of concentration and sharpness). You can lack energy or feel fatigued without being sleepy, and you can also be full of energy and sleepy. Most people have had times when they’ve been able to override the urge to sleep with a surge of physical, mental, or emotional energy. But sleep and energy are related. No matter how energetic you are, you can’t override sleepiness indefinitely. Eventually, lack of sleep will sap your energy and lead to fatigue .

You probably know that getting enough sleep is important to your health and well-being. But the quality of the sleep you get also has a big effect on how you feel during the day.

If sleep time isn’t a good time for you, talk to your doctor or healthcare professional about your options.

You may click to see:–Fatigue & Low Energy

Exhaust All The Time

Sources:http://www.healthline.com/sw/hr-sr-boosting-your-energy

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