Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Health Benefits Of Pomegranate (Delum)

Pomegranate is very often used in indigenous medicine in Sri Lanka. The rind of the fruit is dried and powdered like coffee. Two tablespoonful can be taken thrice a day for dysentery.

Pomegranate For Chronic Bowel Complaint

For any chronic bowel complaint the following medicine is very effective:

Ingredients:
One ounce each of pomegranate rind, corriander, cummin seed, walangasal, thippili and quarter ounce of pepper and dry ginger.

Preparation:
Powder all ingredients together.

Dosage:
Two tablespoons of this powder poured like coffee in half cup of hot water. Mix one tablespoon of bee's honey and drink thrice a day. The bark of the root of the Pomegranate tree is considered a specific cure for tapeworms. It is given in decoction form: 2 ounces of the root bark is boiled in one and a half pint of water and is reduced to 3/4 pint.

Pomegranate For Bleeding Piles
Pomegranate is very effective in cases of bleeding piles. Take one cup full of the juice of the green fruit. Mix together aralu, cloves and dry ginger and powder it. Take one teaspoonful of this powder and mix it in the pomegranate juice and drink every morning.

Pomegranate For Eye Diseases
When the eyes become irritating and swollen it is good to ferment with delum (pomegranate) leaves and saman pichcha leaves boiled in water.

Friday, April 17, 2009

How to Prepare a Decoction?

When boiling the decoction the vessel must not be covered. It must always be over a low fire. The liquid must be strained and never kept in the same vessel, with the boiled herbs. The strained liquid could be sweetened with bee's honey. It is always best to use bee's honey because by itself it is a medicine.

Adding bee's honey to the medicine must be done when the liquid is slightly warm. It is not advisable to drink the decoction before meals as it would dilute the gastric juice and interfere with digestion, unless it is specially advised by the physician.

Related Blog Post:

Decoctions, "Peyavas" And "Kalkas"

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Healing Plants: Best Way to Good Health

Early man believed that the Creator had put a sign indicating the use of plants-some for food, others for their curative value. A red resin for example meant that the plant was good for the blood. A heart shaped leaf signalled its cardiac properties, a liver shaped leaf was a sign of efficacy against Jaundice.

Man probably put most plants into his mouth. Many were harmless; a few nourished him and a number relieved him from discomfort or sickness. The modem concept of healing plants began in Europe with the appearance of herbals in the Sixteenth Century. Healing plants act in a variety of ways. Many (e.g. Carminatives) exert a soothing action. A large number act on the nervous system. Others have muscular activity. In herbal plants there are variable benefits.

Plants like cannabis have been valued from the earliest times for their powerful psychoactive and physical effects. Cannabis contains many healing properties. It is a very important plant used specially in many kinds of Guli (Pills) in indigenous medicine. It was used as a sacred plant for ceremonial use. It was known in India and China as early as 1500 B.C. or even before. At present it is classified as a narcotic.

The curative value of most beneficial plants and their healing art has been handed down from generation to generation. These herbs still have a useful place in coping with many ailments. As home remedies, this is particularly true in the case of minor ailments such as indigestion, coughs and pains. Nature has many remedies for our ailments and they have been tested over the years.

Herbs still claim our attention as natural remedies. The efficaciousness of herbs in fevers is something very important.