Tag: Water

Indian Paper Birch (Betula utilis)

Post author By Mukul
Post date May 25, 2010
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Botanical Name : Betula utilis
Family : Betulaceae
Genus : Betula
Synonyms: Betula bhojpattra – Wall.

Habitat : E. Asia – Himalayas to S.W. China. Forests at the upper height limit of tree growth, rarely found below 3000 metres[146]. Moist hillsides at elevations of 2000 – 4000 metres in Nepal.Woodland Garden; Canopy; Secondary; Sunny Edge; Dappled Shade;

Description:
A decidious Tree growing to 20m at a fast rate.A variable species with normally dark coppery brown peeling bark revealing an attractive grey pink bloom. Makes a medium sized tree of comparatively fast growth.

Fast-growing Birch trees are attractive year-round. Their light green foliage turns yellow in fall. Losing their leaves for winter shows off their colorful, peeling bark, thin graceful branches, and hanging cone-like fruit. Young trees have dark-colored bark until their trunks reach 1 inch around. Plant against a darker background or green lawn to highlight pale trunks. Prone to aphids that drip a sticky substance called honeydew, so plant away from patios or car parks. Most thrive in moist sandy or rocky subsoils. Once established, tolerates some heat and dry spells. Prefers winter chill. Water deeply and often, around shallow roots. Prune in winter only after leaves have formed, to prevent sap bleeding. Transplant when dormant. Birch borers and leaf miners are major pests.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

It is hardy to zone 8. It is in flower in April, and the seeds ripen in October. The flowers are monoecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but both sexes can be found on the same plant) and are pollinated by Wind.
The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in heavy clay soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil. The plant can tolerates strong winds but not maritime exposure.

Cultivation:
Succeeds in a well-drained loamy soil in a sheltered position. Grows well in heavy clay soils. Dislikes wet soils. Shade tolerant. Plants are showing good wind-resistance on our Cornish trial ground. Hybridizes freely with other members of this genus. A good plant to grow near the compost heap, aiding the fermentation process. Trees are notably susceptible to honey fungus.

Propagation:
Seed – best sown as soon as it is ripe in a light position in a cold frame. Only just cover the seed and place the pot in a sunny position. Spring sown seed should be surface sown in a sunny position in a cold frame. If the germination is poor, raising the temperature by covering the seed with glass can help. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in a cold frame for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. If you have sufficient seed, it can be sown in an outdoor seedbed, either as soon as it is ripe or in the early spring – do not cover the spring sown seed. Grow the plants on in the seedbed for 2 years before planting them out into their permanent positions in the winter.

Medicinal Actions & Uses:

Antiseptic; Carminative.

An infusion of the bark is antiseptic and carminative. It has been used in the treatment of hysteria and jaundice. It is applied as drops to the ears to rlieve earache. A paste made from the bark is used as a poultice on cuts, wounds and burns.

Other Uses
Incense; Paper; Waterproofing; Wood.

A paper is made from the inner bark. The outer bark can be carefully peeled off the tree (this does not harm the tree) and used as a paper. The outer bark can also be used as a waterproofing and for roofing houses. The bark is sometimes used as an incense. Wood – tough, even grained, moderately hard, elastic. Used for construction.

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://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Betula_utilis_01-10-2005_12.44.48.JPG
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Betula_utilis_01-10-2005_12.45.20.JPG
http://www.sunnygardens.com/garden_plants/betula/betula_0392.php
http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Betula-utilis-leaves.JPG

Tags Birch, Deciduous, Flower, Forest, Loam, Seed, Soil, Water

Health Problems & Solutions

Some Health Quaries & Answers

Post author By Mukul
Post date May 24, 2010
No Comments on Some Health Quaries & Answers

Popping antibiotics for diarrhoea
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Q: My eight-year-old son has frequent attacks of diarrhoea. The doctor always prescribes antibiotics. Are so many antibiotics needed?

A: Children often develop diarrhoea when they go to school. They may be sharing food with other children. They may run out of water and drink unhygienic water from any source they find. They may have a little money with them and buy eatables from roadside eateries.

The diarrhoea and vomiting may be due to food poisoning or a viral infection. It may not be an infective bacterial diarrhoea that requires and responds to antibiotics.

Before going to the doctor, try some home remedies. Stop all milk, sugar and wheat. Take equal quantities of rice and dal in a pressure cooker and cook it well. Mash it and feed it to your son, two teaspoons at a time every 10 minutes. If the vomiting and diarrhoea persist, or if he has not passed urine for eight hours, please go to the doctor. Otherwise this may be all the treatment he requires.

Too many pills
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Q: Whenever anyone in the family has fever, our doctor prescribes two to three antibiotics. Is this normal?

A: A combination of two antibiotics may be prescribed for a life threatening infection, where a blood culture has grown more than one organism. This may be the case in individuals whose immunity is insufficient — as in cancer patients or those infected with the HIV virus. Most people need only a single appropriate antibiotic in adequate dosage and duration.

If you develop fever, wait for three days. Take paracetamol when the temperature rises above 100.5 degree F. If the fever persists consult your doctor, but ask for a diagnosis before taking any medication. Also, maintain a file with dates, diagnoses and a list of prescribed medications.

Chest pain
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Q: I am 22 years old and have pain on the left side of my chest. It appears with exercise. I am scared I might have a heart attack.

A: At the age of 22, the chest pain you are experiencing is unlikely to be a heart attack, but stranger things have been known to occur. Take a plain X-ray of the chest as well as an ECG, treadmill and echo. The results are likely to be normal, but the tests will help put your mind at ease.

Chest pain can occur in a localised area of the chest wall owing to fibromyalgia or costochondritis. Press your chest and see if you can elicit the pain. If so, the diagnosis may be one of these two conditions.

Physiotherapy will help ease the pain. You can also apply a capsaicin containing gel to the area followed by application of ice.

Yeast for health
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Q: I read that yeast is good for health. Can I eat baker’s yeast?

A: Baker’s yeast is used for fermentation, so that the bread rises and becomes soft before baking. The same yeast is sold as a medical supplement under the name Brewer’s yeast. It is a rich source of B-complex vitamins like thiamine, riboflavin, pyridoxine and pantothenic acid. It is one of the few natural foods that contain folic acid and biotin. Brewer’s yeast also has essential minerals like chromium and selenium. It is available as powdered flakes and tablets. The usual dose is two tablespoons of the flakes or one 300mg tablet three times a day. It is a harmless food supplement which may confer some health benefits. But it should be avoided by people on psychiatric medications and those who are suffering from gout.

Red groin
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Q: My baby has developed redness in the groin area. It looks inflamed and pains when I touch it.

A: What you are describing is a type of diaper rash. You need to —

Bathe the baby with a non-irritating mild soap and not a medicated antiseptic one

Make sure the area is wiped dry with a soft towel

Apply a cream containing Clotrimazole as a single ingredient. It should not be combined with steroids

Avoid using talcum powder

Wash the baby’s diapers with a Neem-based washing soap. This is available in Khadi and Village Industries outlets. Avoid soaking the clothes in antiseptic solutions.

If possible, switch to disposable diapers.

Ambient noise
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Q: We live very close to a railway station. The loud sound of passing trains makes the whole house vibrate. We have had a baby recently. Will it affect her?

A: Children become accustomed to the noises they hear in the womb. And those sounds do not disturb their sleep.

Therefore, the trains and the vibration will not affect the baby’s sleep as she is acclimatised to it. But the disadvantage of living with loud ambient noise is that it causes progressive loss of hearing. This will affect you, your wife and eventually your child. It also produces stress in adults.

Source: The Telegraph ( Kolkata, India)

Tags B vitamins, Conditions and Diseases, Folic acid, Health, HIV, Infection, Water, Yeast

Herbs & Plants

Manna Tree (Alhagi mannifera)

Post author By Mukul
Post date April 18, 2010
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Botanical Name : Alhagi mannifera
Other Scientific Names:-
Alhagi camelorum Fischer
Alhagi canescens (Regel) Keller & Shap.
Alhagi graecorum Boiss.
Alhagi kirghisorum Schrenk
Alhagi persarum Boiss. & Buhse
Alhagi pseudalhagi Desv.
Alhagi tournefortii Heldr.
Alhagi mannifera Jaub & Spach
Hedysarum alhagi L.
Hedysarum pseudalhagi M. Bieb.

Common Names:-

English :-
camelthorn
camel thorn bush
Caspian manna
Persian manna

French :-
alhagi des Maures

Germany :-
Kameldorn, Manna-
Mannastrauch

Israel:-
manna

India :-
jawasa
bharbhara

Italy:-
lupinella alhagi
manna di Persia

Family : Leguminosae /Papilionaceae
Genus : Alhagi
Synonyms : Hedysarum alhagi – Lerche.

Habitat : N. Africa – Egypt to Turkey. Waste places, sand dunes etc in Turkey. Cultivated Beds;

Description :The manna tree, or Flowering ash, is a small decidious Shrub, usually 20 or 30 feet high, with a close, round head; the bark is smooth and grayish. The leaves are opposite, unequally pinnated in 3 or 4 pairs; the petioles furrowed; the leaflets petiolate, oblong, acute, serrated, and very hairy, at the base of the midrib on the under side. The flowers are white, in dense, terminal, nodding panicles, and appear with the leaves. Calyx very small and 4-cleft. Corolla divided to the base into linear, drooping segments. Stamens 2; anthers yellow and incumbent. The pericarp is a winged key, not dehiscing (L.). The leaves on the same tree are said to be variable.
Click to see the pictures.>….…(01)..…...(1)..…….(2)……………(3)
It is hardy to zone 0. It is in flower in July. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs)It can fix Nitrogen.

The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Cultivation:
Requires a sunny position in a well-drained light or medium soil. Plants are not very hardy in Britain, they can be grown outdoors in the summer but require protection in the winter[1]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby.

Propagation
Seed – pre-soak the seed for 12 hours in warm water and sow March/April in a warm greenhouse. When large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in a greenhouse for at least the first winter. Plant out into their permanent positions in the summer. Cuttings of young shoots in a frame.

Chemical Composition.—The principal constituent of pure manna is mannite (C6H8[OH]6), 90 per cent, with 11 per cent of sugar and about 0.75 per cent of impurities (Flückiger, Pharmacognosie, 1891, p. 27). Inferior sorts of manna contain mucilage, cane-sugar, laevulose, dextrin (Buignet, 1868; doubted by Flückiger), bitter substances soluble in ether, and fraxin (C16H18O10), a fluorescent glucosid resembling aesculin.

Mannite (mannitol) (C6H8[OH]6, or C6H14O6) may be readily prepared from manna by digesting it in hot alcohol; on cooling, the mannite forms in tufts of silky, quadrangular prisms. C. T. Bonsall’s method consists in dissolving manna in boiling water (3 parts by weight), precipitation of the gum, etc., by lead subacetate, removal of lead with sulphuric acid or hydrogen sulphide, concentration, and pouring the hot solution in cold alcohol (2 parts), from which the mannite is deposited on cooling. Mannite is sweet, odorless, requiring about 6 parts of water to dissolve it, is readily dissolved in boiling alcohol, much less so in cold, deliquesces in the air, and does not dissolve in ether. Its solution possesses a feebly laevo-rotatory polarization. Mannite combines with bases, dissolves lime, reduces gold from its chloride solution, does not reduce Fehling’s solution, forms oxalic and saccharic acids when heated with nitric acid, does not ferment when its solution is mixed with yeast, though it ferments when in contact with old cheese and chalk at 40° C. (104° F.), alcohol, lactic, butyric, acetic, and carbonic acids and hydrogen being produced. Unlike cane-sugar, mannite does not char under the action of sulphuric acid, and does not become, like grape-sugar, brown when heated with alkaline solutions. It fuses at about 165° C. (329° F.), without losing weight, and, on cooling, the colorless solution forms a mass of radiated crystals. At about 200° C. (392° F.), it sublimes partially unchanged, but a large portion of it becomes a sweetish, viscid liquid, mannitan (C6H12O5.. It is also changed into fermentable mannitose (C6H12O6) and mannitic acid (C6H12O7) when in contact with moistened platinum black (Gorup-Besanez). Mannite also exists in Laminaria saccharina, onions, asparagus tops, celery, unripe olives, certain fungi, etc. It has also been procured from beet root, and the juice exuding from apple and pear trees. One or 2 ounces will, it is stated, act as a gentle laxative.

Edible Uses
Edible Parts: Manna; Root.

A sweet-tasting manna is exuded from the twigs at flowering time. It is exuded during hot weather according to one report, whilst another says that the twigs themselves are chewed. Root – cooked. A famine food, it is only used in times of need.

Medicinal Actions & Uses
Diaphoretic; Diuretic; Expectorant; Laxative.

The whole plant is diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant and laxative. An oil from the leaves is used in the treatment of rheumatism. The flowers are used in the treatment of piles.

Manna is nutritive in small doses, and mildly laxative in large ones. It operates without causing any local excitement or uneasiness, and is useful as a laxative for young infants, children, females during pregnancy and immediately after, inflammation of the abdominal viscera, disorders of childhood, hemorrhoids, costiveness, etc. It is accredited with cholagogue properties, and has a somewhat beneficial action upon the respiratory tract. It is commonly added to other purgatives to improve their flavor, as well as to increase the purgative effect. One or 2 ounces may be taken by an adult; 1, 2, or 3 drachms by a child, according to its age. Two or 3 parts of manna to 1 of senna maybe made into a laxative infusion for children. Sometimes manna causes flatulency and griping, which may be obviated by combining it with any grateful warm aromatic.

Resources:
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Alhagi+mannifera
http://www.cabicompendium.org/NamesLists/CPC/Full/ALH_MA.htm
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/fraxinus-ornu.html
http://www.tiuli.com/flower_info.asp?lng=eng&flower_id=217#405

Tags Alhagi, Alhagi maurorum, Britain, Flower, Leaf, Plant, Root, Water

Herbs & Plants

Century Plant(Agave utahensis eborispina)

Post author By Mukul
Post date March 14, 2010
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Botanical Name :Agave utahensis eborispina
Family : Agavaceae
Genus : Agave
Synonyms: Agave eborispina – Hester.
Common names: Clark mountain agave, Utah agave

Habitat : Native to California and to Arizona, to Nevada, to Utah [Lum/Walker].South-western N. America . Dry stony limestone slopes, 1000 – 1500 metres. Calcareous outcrops with desert scrub at elevations of 1100 – 1900 metres in California and Nevada. Cultivated Beds; South Wall By;

Description:
Agave utahensis, an evergreen Perennial a monocot, is a shrub growing to 4m by 2m. It is hardy to zone 9 and is not frost tender. It is in leaf all year. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Moths, bats….

You may click to see more pictures of Century Plant
The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought.

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Cultivation:
Requires a very well-drained soil and a sunny position. Plants are only hardy on the south coast of England, where they succeed from Torbay westwards. A monocarpic species, the plant lives for a number of years without flowering but dies once it does flower. However, it normally produces plenty of suckers during its life and these take about 10 – 15 years in a warm climate, considerably longer in colder ones, before flowering. This plant is widely used by the native people in its wild habitat, it has a wide range of uses. Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer.

Propagation:
Seed – surface sow in a light position, April in a warm greenhouse. The seed usually germinates in 1 – 3 months at 20°c. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots of well-drained soil when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in a sunny position in the greenhouse until they are at least 20cm tall. Plant out in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts, and give some protection from the cold for at least their first few winters. Offsets can be potted up at any time they are available. Keep in a warm greenhouse until they are well established

Edible Parts: Leaves; Root; Sap; Seed; Stem.

Edible Uses: Drink.You
The heart of the plant is very rich in saccharine matter and can be eaten when baked. Sweet and delicious, but rather fibrous. It is partly below ground. Can be dried for future use or soaked in water to produce a flavourful beverage. Seed – ground into a flour. Flower stalk – roasted. Root – cooked. Sap from the cut flowering stems is used as a syrup. The sap can also be tapped by boring a hole into the middle of the plant at the base of the flowering stem. It can be fermented into ‘Mescal’, a very potent alcoholic drink.

Medicinal Actions & Uses:-
Antiseptic; Diuretic; Laxative.

The sap is antiseptic, diuretic and laxative.

Other Uses
Brush; Fibre; Miscellany; Needles; Paper; Pins; Soap; Thatching.

The leaves contain saponins and an extract of them can be used as a soap. It is best obtained by chopping up the leaves and then simmering them in water – do not boil for too long or this will start to break down the saponins. A very strong fibre obtained from the leaves is used for making rope, coarse fabrics etc. To make hair brushes and brushes for cleaning, the dried matter of a dead and rotten leaf was knocked free from the fibres, which were then bent in two. the upper end of this brush was wrapped with a cord and the bent portion was covered with a cloth. The loose fibres were cut to the right length and hardened by burning the ends. A paper can also be made from the fibre in the leaves. The thorns on the leaves are used as pins and needles. The dried flowering stems are used as a waterproof thatch and as a razor strop.

Resources:
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Agave+utahensis+eborispina
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Agave_utahensis
http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=116

Tags Agave, Alcoholic beverage, Arizona, England, Flower, Nevada, Soil, Water

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