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Herbs & Plants

Carapichea ipecacuanha

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Botanical Name : Carapichea ipecacuanha
Family: Rubiaceae
Subfamily: Rubioideae
Tribe: Psychotrieae
Genus: Carapichea
Species: C. ipecacuanha
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Gentianales

Synonyms:
*Callicocca ipecacuanha
*Cephaelis ipecacuanha
*Evea ipecacuanha
*Psychotria ipecacuanha
*Uragoga ipecacuanha

Common Name: Ipecac, Its common name, ipecacuanha

Habitat: Carapichea ipecacuanha is native to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil. is derived from the Tupi ipega’kwãi, or “road-side sick-making plant”.
Description:
Carapichea ipecacuanha is an evergreen Shrub growing to 0.5 m (1ft 8in) by 0.5 m (1ft 8in) at a medium rate. It has a slender stem which grows partly underground and is often procumbent at the base, the lower portion being knotted.

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Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in very acid soils.

It can grow in full shade (deep woodland) or semi-shade (light woodland). It prefers moist soil.

Cultivation:
Prefers a minimum temperature in the range of 15 – 18 degree centigrade . Prefers a well-drained humus-rich soil and a shady position. Plants need ample moisture and humidity if they are to thrive.

Propagation:
Seed – Greenwood cuttings in a sandy compost. Root cuttings.

Medicinal Uses:
The roots of ipecac contain a number of medically active constituents including isoquinoline alkaloids, tannins and glycosides. They have a violently irritant action, stimulating the gastric and bronchial systems, lowering fevers and preventing cyst formation in amoebic dysentery. The roots are used internally in the treatment of coughs, bronchitis, whooping cough and amoebic dysentery. One of the surest of emetics, even moderate doses will induce vomiting until the contents of the stomach have been voided making it especially useful in the treatment of drug overdoses. It is used in a syrup to induce vomiting in children who have ingested toxins. Smaller doses are strongly expectorant and it is a common ingredient in patent cough medicines. The plant needs to be used with caution since excess causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea. The roots are harvested, usually when about 3 years old and the plants are in flower, and are dried for later use. The plants are replanted after partial removal of the roots. The plant is used in homeopathy in the treatment of nausea.
Known Hazards: The plant can be toxic in doses larger than recommended for medicinal use.

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

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carapichea_ipecacuanha
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Carapichea+ipecacuanha

Categories
Herbs & Plants

Prunus cocomilia

Botanical Name : Prunus cocomilia
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Prunus
Species: P. cocomilia
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Rosales

Synonyms: P. pseudoarmeniaca Heldr. & Sartori

Common Name: Italian plum

Habitat : Prunus cocomilia is native to Albania, Croatia, Greece, southern Italy (including Sicily), Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and western Turkey. It grows on hedgerows in the mountains of N. Italy and the Balkans.

Description:
Prunus cocomilia is a deciduous Shrub growing to 5 m (16ft 5in).It is in flower in April. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects.Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
Cultivation:
Thrives in a well-drained moisture-retentive loamy soil. Prefers some lime in the soil but is likely to become chlorotic if too much lime is present. Succeeds in sun or partial shade though it fruits better in a sunny position. This species is closely related to P. cerasifera. Most members of this genus are shallow-rooted and will produce suckers if the roots are damaged. Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus.
Propagation:
Seed – requires 2 – 3 months cold stratification and is best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe. Sow stored seed in a cold frame as early in the year as possible. Protect the seed from mice etc. The seed can be rather slow, sometimes taking 18 months to germinate. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle. Grow them on in a greenhouse or cold frame for their first winter and plant them out in late spring or early summer of the following year. Cuttings of half-ripe wood with a heel, July/August in a frame. Softwood cuttings from strongly growing plants in spring to early summer in a frame. Layering in spring.

Edible Uses:
Edible Parts: Fruit; Seed.

Fruit – raw or cooked. A bitter or sour flavour. The fruit is rarely produced in Britain. The fruit is about 2cm in diameter and contains one large seed. Seed – raw or cooked. Do not eat the seed if it is too bitter – see the notes below on toxicity.
Medicinal Uses:
Although no specific mention has been seen for this species, all members of the genus contain amygdalin and prunasin, substances which break down in water to form hydrocyanic acid (cyanide or prussic acid). In small amounts this exceedingly poisonous compound stimulates respiration, improves digestion and gives a sense of well-being.
Other Uses: Dye……..A green dye can be obtained from the leaves. A dark grey to green dye can be obtained from the fruit.

Known Hazards: Although no specific mention has been seen for this species, it belongs to a genus where most, if not all members of the genus produce hydrogen cyanide, a poison that gives almonds their characteristic flavour. This toxin is found mainly in the leaves and seed and is readily detected by its bitter taste. It is usually present in too small a quantity to do any harm but any very bitter seed or fruit should not be eaten. In small quantities, hydrogen cyanide has been shown to stimulate respiration and improve digestion, it is also claimed to be of benefit in the treatment of cancer. In excess, however, it can cause respiratory failure and even death.
Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_cocomilia
http://www.pfaf.org/USER/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Prunus+cocomilia

Categories
Environmental Pollution

How Eating Meat Can Save the Planet

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Meat production is said to create a staggering 18 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
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But in a new book being released in February 2011, Meat: A Benign Extravagance, Simon Fairlie claims that eating moderate amounts of meat could be greener than going vegan.

Fairlie argues that every agricultural system produces hard-to-use biomass that is best fed to livestock, and that animals kept on small farms also fend off predators and pests and fertilize the soil.

However, Fairlie tells Time magazine that:

“… [O]f course, it is not what we eat individually — it is what we eat as a whole society that has the impact on the environment. Some vegans may continue their vegan ways. I’m arguing for meat in moderation, not to eradicate meat entirely, nor to overconsume it.”


Source:
Time Magazine October 12, 2010

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Featured

Eat Local, Think Global

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Many Americans are buying food grown locally not only to get quality produce but also to reduce carbon emissions. P. Hari on the growing popularity of the movement for sustainable living.

RED ALERT: The US meat industry is one of the most polluting ones in the world
.Susan Osofsky, a computer scientist by training, was working at Adobe Systems in the Silicon Valley when the idea struck her. She had volunteered in organic farms in the past. She decided to use her knowledge to teach people the practice of sustainable living — eating healthy while making sure that our planet stays healthy too.

Today, Osofsky holds workshops on cheese making, fermentation, landscaping with edible plants, and other activities that help people grow or make their own food. Osofsky says that people’s interest in such workshops is growing. “One of my workshops on cheese making was sold out a month in advance,” she says.

All over the US, people are discovering the huge burden food production places on the environment, and are volunteering to reduce it as much as they can. Some of them grow their own food, buy only local produce, avoid processed food and often give up meat.

“There has been a tremendous increase of interest in sustainable living since 2007,” says Erin Barnett, director of Local Harvest, in Santa Cruz, California. Local Harvest puts consumers in touch with local farmers so that they can buy food grown locally and avoid being participants in the high carbon emissions that are involved in transporting food over long distances.

Local Harvest is part of a movement called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Under CSA, you pay the farmer in advance for a specified amount of produce every season. Farmers use this money instead of a loan from a bank to buy their seeds and other things necessary for farming. If the crop fails, both the farmer and the consumer suffer. “It is a shared risk,” says Osofsky, who acts as a node for several farmers around her home in Palo Alto, California.

Apart from getting quality produce, buying food locally has the important effect of reducing global warming. The food industry is the most polluting industry in the US, and produces at least one-fifth of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country. While the main reason for this is the excessive amounts of meat Americans eat, transport of food also plays an important role in raising emissions. The food found in supermarkets in America travels, on an average, 2414km. So buying locally grown food immediately cuts transport emissions.

But there’s more to the sustainable food movement than just reducing one’s carbon footprint. It also involves taking an entirely new look at how people relate to their food.

Three years ago, Barbara Kingsolver, a novelist, spent a year consuming food only grown near her home, if not in her garden. This meant eschewing several things that people take for granted. For example, she could only eat tomatoes when they were in season. Kingsolver has narrated her experience in a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, which immediately became a bestseller.

Since then there has been a raft of books on sustainable living. Michael Pollan, professor of journalism at the University of California in Berkeley, wrote a book called The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Jonathan Safran Foer, considered one of the most promising young novelists in the US, recently published a book called Eating Animals. Both became instant bestsellers. Foer’s book in particular was a frontal attack on the meat industry, now widely recognised in America as among the most polluting and unethical industries in the world.

The sheer statistics of meat production and consumption in America are mind-boggling. More than 10 billion cows are slaughtered every year. The industrial production of meat is so carbon intensive that it accounts for 18 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. This is because of the inordinately large amount of resources needed to support the animals. “You could reduce your carbon footprint significantly by reducing your meat consumption,” says Eugene Cordero, climate change researcher and professor of meteorology at San Jose State University. Cordero also recently wrote a book on food and climate change.

The spate of books has also added to a growing awareness among Americans about the need to take sustainable food practices seriously. The website of Local Harvest had 40 million unique visitors this year, up from 32 million last year. There are over 5,000 farmers markets in the US, versus 1,700 in the 1990s. And The Eat Well Guide, another website that provides information about aspects of sustainable food in each town in the US, gets about 30,000 visitors every month. “We do not focus on carbon footprints but it is a wonderful side effect of sustainable agriculture,” says Dawn Brighid, marketing manager of Sustainable Table, the non-profit organisation that publishes the Eat Well Guide.

Sustainable food practices currently constitute only about 1 per cent of the US food industry, but the current movement could gather momentum. And that could make a significant impact on US carbon emissions.

Source: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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Herbs & Plants

Daruharidra (Berberis aristata)

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Botanical Name : Berberis aristata
Family: Berberidaceae
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Ranunculales
Genus:
Berberis
Species:
B. aristata

Common name: Chitra
Other Common Names:   Darlahad [H], Hint Amberparisi [E], Indian Lycium [E], Nepal Barberry [H], Ophthalmic Barberry [H] (From various places around the Web, may not be 100% correct.) Barberry, Nepal
Vernacular Name: Sans; Daruharidra; Hind: Darhald; Eng : Indian barberry
Synonyms: Berberis coriaria (Lindl.), Berberis chitria (Hort.)

Sanskrit Synonyms:
Darunisha, Peeta, Daruharidra, Darvi, Peetadru, Peetachandana, Hemakanti, Kashta Rajani, Peetaka, Peetahva, Hemakanta,Hemavarnavati, – All these synonyms explain about turmeric-like yellow coloured stem.
Katankati, Katankateri, Parjanya, Pachampacha, Kusumbhaka,
Habitat :E. Asia – Himalayas in Nepal.(Shrubberies to 3500 metres)Woodland, Dappled Shade, Shady Edge.

Description:

Daruharidra is an evergreen erect spiny shrub, ranging between 2 and 3 meters in height. It is a woody plant, with bark that appears yellow to brown from the outside and deep yellow from the inside. The bark is covered with three-branched thorns, which are modified leaves, and can be removed by hand in longitudinal strips. The leaves are arranged in tufts of 5-8 and are approximately 4.9 centimeters long and 1.8 centimeters broad. The leaves are deep green on the dorsal surface and light green on the ventral surface. The leaves are simple with pinnate venation. The leaves are leathery in texture and are toothed, with several to many small indentations along the margin of the leaf.
It is a woody plant, with bark that appears yellow to brown from the outside and deep yellow from the inside. The bark is covered with three-branched thorns, which are modified leaves, and can be removed by hand in longitudinal strips. The leaves are arranged in tufts of 5-8 and are approximately 4.9 centimeters long and 1.8 centimeters broad. The leaves are deep green on the dorsal surface and light green on the ventral surface. The leaves are simple with pinnate venation. The leaves are leathery in texture and are toothed, with several to many small indentations along the margin of the leaf.

The flowering season begins in mid-March and lasts throughout the month of April. The yellow flowers that develop are complete and hermaphroditic. The average diameter of a fully opened flower is 12.5 millimeters. The flowers form a racemose inflorescence, with 11 to 16 flowers per raceme, arranged along a central stem. The flower is polysepalous, with 3 large and 3 small sepals, and polypetalous, with 6 petals in total. The male reproductive structure, the androecium, is polyandrous and contains 6 stamens, 5 to 6 millimeters long. There is one female reproductive structure, the gynoecium, which is 4 to 5 millimeters long and is composed of a short style and a broad stigma. The plant produces bunches of succulent, acidic, edible berries that are bright red in color and have medicinal properties. The fruits start ripening from the second week of May and continue to do so throughout June. The berries are approximately 7 millimeters long, 4 millimeters in diameter and weigh about 227 milligrams.

CLICK TO SEE THE PICTURES.……..>….(01).…..

Cultivation :   Prefers a warm moist loamy soil and light shade but it is by no means fastidious, succeeding in thin, dry and shallow soils. Grows well in heavy clay soils. The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and can grow in heavy clay and nutritionally poor soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires dry or moist soil. Plants are very hardy, they survived the severe winters of 1986-1987 without problems in most areas of Britain.

Plants can be pruned back quite severely and resprout well from the base. The fruits are sometimes sold in local markets in India. Hybridizes freely with other members of this genus. Most plants cultivated under this name are B. chitria., B. coriaria., B. glaucocarpa. and, more commonly, B. floribunda.

Propagation:  Seed – best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame, it should germinate in late winter or early spring.  Seed from over-ripe fruit will take longer to germinate. Stored seed may require cold stratification and should be sown in a cold frame as early in the year as possible. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse or cold frame for at least their first winter. Once they are at least 20cm tall, plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. The seedlings are subject to damping off, so be careful not to overwater them and keep them well ventilated.

Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame. Very difficult, if not impossible. Cuttings of mature wood of the current season’s growth, preferably with a heel, October/November in a frame . Very difficult, if not impossible.

Edible Uses:  Fruit – raw or cooked. A well-flavoured fruit, it has a sweet taste with a blend of acid, though there is a slight bitterness caused by the seeds. The fruit is much liked by children. It is dried and used like raisins in India. The fruit contains about 2.3% protein, 12% sugars, 2% ash, 0.6% tannin, 0.4% pectin. There is 4.6mg vitamin C per 100ml of juice.The fruit is about 7mm x 4mm – it can be up to 10mm long. Plants in the wild yield about 650g of fruit in 4 pickings.

Flower buds – added to sauces.

Composition:  Fruit (Fresh weight) :In grammes per 100g weight of food:Protein: 2.3 Carbohydrate: 12 Ash: 2

Medicinal Uses:  Alterative; Antibacterial; Antiperiodic; Bitter; Cancer; Deobstruent; Diaphoretic; Laxative; Ophthalmic; Tonic.

The dried stem, root bark and wood are alterative, antiperiodic, deobstruent, diaphoretic, laxative, ophthalmic and tonic (bitter). An infusion is used in the treatment of malaria, eye complaints, skin diseases, menorrhagia, diarrhoea and jaundice.

Berberine, universally present in rhizomes of Berberis species, has marked antibacterial effects. Since it is not appreciably absorbed by the body, it is used orally in the treatment of various enteric infections, especially bacterial dysentery]. It should not be used with Glycyrrhiza species (Liquorice) because this nullifies the effects of the berberine. Berberine has also shown antitumour activity.

As per Ayurveda:
It is tikta, katu, ushnaveerya; applied in the treatment of septic wounds and polyuria, pruritus, erysipelas and diseases of skin, eye and ear; antidotal

 Therapeutic uses: Paste of root-bark finds external application for healing ulcers. Extract prepared from root-bark is used as a local application in affected parts of the eyelids and in chronic ophthalmia.The tincture of the root is used against intermittent fever and considered to be advantageous over quinine and cinchona since it does not produce deafness or cardiac depression.

The decoction is particularly useful in the enlargement of liver and spleen associated with malarial fever. It is also used for fever accompanied by diarrhoea. Root combined with opium, rocksalt and alum is considered to be an useful anti-inflammatory agent.

In bleeding piles, application of powdered root mixed with butter is beneficial. “Rasauf’ of the rootprepared withis found useful in stomatitis and leucorrhoea.

Decoction of stem mixed with that of curcuma longa is recommended in’gonorrhoea.

Bark juice is useful in jaundice.

Fruits are edible and prescribed as a mild laxative for children.

 Other Uses:A yellow dye is obtained from the root and the stem. An important source of dyestuff and tannin, it is perhaps one of the best tannin dyes available in India. The wood is used as a fuel.

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.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Berberis+aristata
http://www.ayurvedakalamandiram.com/herbs.htm#bringraj
http://www.motherherbs.com/berberis-aristata.html
http://www.ayurgold.com/clinical_studies/indian_barberry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berberis_aristata

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