Monthly Archives: February 2012

Benefits of ginger

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Ginger is a very popular spice for use in the kitchen. On the other hand it has medicinal benefits and has been used for that purpose for thousands of years. There are some cases in which ginger has shown to be more effective than drugs prescribed by a doctor, according to some studies. Ginger is an herb. It grows in the lowlands of the tropic. It is an articulated tuber, it has a hand form. This tuber is known as rhizomes comp. The main characteristic of this plant is the sour and spicy taste and the strong aromatic taste. The rhizomes are white inside and dusky yellow outside. With long leaves, like the ones from corn just sprout from the ground, they wrap the stem in its sheath. The flowers are supported by slated scales in which they are arranged, they have conical spikes and are very beautiful.

It has a nutty fruit. It is perennial, herbaceous and measures up to 1mt in height. The rhizomes are meaty and thick, they have knots. The flowers are gathered in a dense spike, located at the end of the stem. They have purple and yellow lips and are sessile.

This is its chemical composition: essential oil (0.5 to 3%) containing terpene derivatives;c ream (5 to 8%), bitter principles and phenolic ketone (zingerone, gingerol, shogaol) and other substances.

It has to be dried after harvesting and the process is as follows: the rhizomes need to be collected before the new shoots are formed. Old rhizomes lose their medicinal benefits. After that you need to wash them, scrap them and dry them in the sun.

Ginger shouldn’t be used by menopause women who suffer from hot flahes or people with high fever, because it tends to elevate the body’s temperature. In pregnancy it should be used in small amounts and only after doctor’s approval. You can get ginger in two forms: young and mature. The young ginger is harvested in the spring and has a milder flavor than the mature variety.

Avocado and Potatoes

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The avocado is a delicious fruit and also very nutritious. It is very easy to digest, and for that reason is an excellent first food for babies. It is rich in long chain fatty acids that are essential for many body functions; one of them is the development of the brain and another, the elimination of bad cholesterol.
For this reason we should include avocado in our weekly diet. We can add it to any salad and it will give it an excellent twist. We can also include avocado in a turkey sandwich with tomato. And finally a delicious guacamole, prepared as follows:
Mash avocado with a fork, add finely chopped onion, diced tomato, and lemon juice. Lemon juice is very important because it prevents the avocado from oxidizing. Just before serving, add some finely chopped coriander leaves.
The avocado is also great for external use. A good face or hair mask with avocado will help them look shiny and fresh. It’s prepared by crushing the ripe avocado with a fork and applying it directly. Leave on for 30 minutes and rinse thoroughly.
Potato is also a very noble food. It is important to balance it with protein because it is a simple carbohydrate and over eating it can make us fat.
However, in cases of stomach ailments such as diarrhea, vomiting and heartburn, mashed potatoes with little salt and just a little margarine, helps relieve discomfort in children and adults.
Potatoes also have medicinal properties when used externally. Grated raw potato applied to burns of the skin and will relief the burning sensation and prevents the formation of blisters.
And boiled potatoes and mashed to puree, applied while warm help reduce inflammation caused by strokes.

Mustard

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When we think of mustard, we usually think of a condiment, but thanks to the delicious Chinese food that includes in its natural form, we know that it is a very nutritious plant. It grows on roadsides, but is generally grown for human consumption.

Mustard has medicinal properties that can be tapped directly eating the leaves or flour prepared from crushing their seeds. The latter is available in pharmacies.

Uses: The mustard is used to relieve inflammation of the lungs. For this use you should prepare a paste of mustard and warm water, which then must be applied on the back, at the height of the lungs, as a poultice. Remove after 15 minutes.

In cases of bronchitis, the same paste, applied on the chest helps relieve bronchial tubes, helping the patient to expel phlegm and therefore breathe easier. Remove after 15 minutes.

The same poultice with its anti-inflammations properties can be applied over the kidneys or abdomen to relieve inflammation of the bladder. Remove after 15 minutes.

The poultice is good for inflammation, but if left too long can irritate the skin.

For rashes of all kinds, whether caused by scabies or fungus, you must remove the juice from the leaves of mustard in a mortar. This juice should be rubbed over the affected area of skin 2 or 3 times a day.

For problems with excessive sweating and bad odor from feet and armpits, dilute 3 tablespoons of mustard in one liter of water and use that water to wash the affected area.

On the other hand, the smoke produced by burning mustard seeds serves to dispel insects and bats.

Lettuce

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Lettuce is a vegetable very rich both nutritionally and medicinally. There are many varieties and all are delicious. Can be prepared in salads of all kinds and also added to sandwiches. Being a mild-flavored vegetable, it is easier for children and adults who dislike eating vegetables to accept them.

Depending on the color of its leaves will be different nutrients they provide. Always remember to give much variety of color to your meals to make sure you eat the different minerals and vitamins that you need to be healthy.

Properties: to relieve constipation, memory loss, help fall asleep and stay asleep in case of insomnia and for appetite loss. For all this you can eat a salad with plenty of lettuce and will be well in no time.

In cases of pediatric insomnia, one of the best grandma’s remedies that will help the most without causing harm to the child is the tea of lettuce. You should boil 3 lettuce leaves in 1 cup water; allow cooling and give it to the child a bedtime.

Remember that the World Health Organization recommends not giving teas of any kind to babies under 6 months.

Lettuce is also an excellent tranquilizer to eat after a hard day at work, so that we can relax and rest well.

Lettuce is also recommended to prevent and even cure inflammation of the eyelids and eyes, colds, flu, skin rashes and recurrent infectious diseases. All of these because it is rich in vitamins A, B and C.

For nursing mothers who have excess milk, that causes breast pain, apply cold lettuce leaves on the breasts to help reduce inflammation.

Artichoke and Chickpea

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It’s no secret that a balanced diet rich in vegetables, helps to maintain health. What few know is that each plant has specific properties that will help with the health problems we face in a moment.
The artichoke for example, with it’s delicious taste, is very useful in the treatment of inflammations of the urinary tract, joints and diabetes.

An infusion of 4 tablespoons of artichoke leaves in a liter of water taken before meals will help flush uric acid and thus help reduce inflammation of the joints of those suffering from rheumatism and gout.

This tea has diuretic effect and will help cleanse the kidneys and urinary tract in general.

The fruit is very nutritious and helps replenish vitamins and minerals after convalescence. Prefer to prepare it in soup so that the water it’s cooked in is not lost. But if you want to boil them and eat them in salad, save the water and use it to prepare porridge later.

On the other hand we have the chickpeas, essential in Mediterranean food. It is an excellent food to increase libido, breast milk, it also helps expel kidney stones and gall bladder.

For cases where you want to increase the libido and the production of breast milk should be cooked in soup and drink the stock. Or you can boil them and drink the water with honey.

To dissolve kidney stones and gallstones, prepare an infusion of 5 tablespoons of chickpeas in 2 liters of water. Take a cup 3 times a day.

Chickpeas also have properties for external use. Such is the case of mature abscesses and boils. To that end boil 2 tablespoons of chickpea flour in a cup of water for 5 minutes, mix to form a paste and apply on affected areas.

Garlic

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Garlic is a vegetable with excellent properties. In the culinary world is very much appreciated as it gives flavor to meals and is used in almost all regions. It is essential in Italian and Panamanian food.

In addition, garlic has many medicinal properties. Among the best known, we know that garlic is a disinfectant, so it kills the worms, is febrifuge, which means that it fights fever, and it is stimulating, increasing energy for vital functions, which normalizes the functioning of organs.

Other properties and uses: to relieve fever, reducing blood sugar for diabetes, arteriosclerosis relief, to lower blood pressure, dissolve uric acid and cure arthritis, should be ground from 3 to 10 cloves of garlic raw and added to food. You can also chop into small pieces and swallow with water.

In case of worms such as tapeworms or parasites like amoebae, you should ground 3 to 5 cloves of garlic in a mortar, mix it with a cup of boiled milk and take fasting for a week.

To eject the white worms called pinworms, very common in children of school age you can do an enema with 10 cloves of garlic in a pint of milk, boil, allowed to cool until barely warm and then applied.

Earaches are very common in children but there are also adults who have them. Garlic helps to relieve pain. You need to add 2 or 3 cloves crushed garlic in 1 tablespoon olive oil, warm a bit and add 3 drops to the affected ear.

Garlic is a natural antibiotic and antiviral. In case of flu and colds, should be consumed in abundance. You can make a pot of chicken soup with lots of garlic. You can also make garlic tea with milk sweetened with honey or my favorite preparation: orange juice, onion, garlic and honey, taken by cups throughout the day. This preparation relieves symptoms and significantly reduces the duration of colds.

The Orange Fruit

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The sweet orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) is one of the most delicious and healthy fruits in the world. Its flavor, especially of some varieties is really intense in terms of acidity and sweetness.

Like most citrus fruits, it contains from forty to fifty percent juice, twenty to forty percent peel and a twenty to thirty percent of its composition is the pulp and seeds. It contains approximately 90 percent of water content and about five percent of sugars. This tasty tropical fruit is derived from an ancient hybrid tree from India, Vietnam or southern China called Citrus × sinensis.

Oranges contains a high content of vitamin C, A, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, fiber and are low in saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.
Some features and benefits that can be obtained from this fruit are:

• It is an excellent natural remedy for colds.

• Because of its high content of Vitamin C is one of the best antioxidant fruits.

• It also believes also helps to burn fat and prevents arteriosclerosis.

Not recommended for use if you have digestive problems such as ulcers, gastritis or heartburn.

The History of Agriculture

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Agriculture is the art of working the land by cultivating in order to obtain products for human use.

There are different disciplines, agricultural infrastructures, scientific and industrial elements around this activity. For this practice, the study, preparation of land, development, cultivation, harvesting, processing, distribution, etc. is taken into consideration.

Agriculture is a very ancient activity, with probable origin in prehistoric times, and is now a key economic factor for the feeding of the world.
Today, thanks to this field, human beings have recognized the value that plants have in order to feed themselves and their pets.

Among the various agricultural crops around the world are several distinguished products, of extreme importance to humans, such as cereals, wheat, corn, rice, sugarcane, vegetables and fruits.

As for animal feed, soy beans and corn are of considerable importance.
Not all agricultural products have a feeding purpose. There also innumerable crops grown to produce materials such as rubber, plants fibers, oilseeds to create paint or synthetic chemical compounds, etc.

Agriculture is essential for human development, and this can be seen as almost half the world population is engaged in this activity.

Weeping willow

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The weeping willow is a tree that is best known as ornamental plant than as a medicinal plant. It grows in both Europe and America and is very common on the banks of rivers and lakes. Panama uses it a lot to reforest newly built neighborhoods.

However, the weeping willow has healing properties also. Unlike most medicinal plants, in which healing substances are found in the leaves and flowers, the willow’s curative substance found in the bark. It is a white and crystalline substance called salicin.

Before the discovery of quinine and the cinchona tree, salicin was the greatest febrifuge in the world. In addition to his virtue to control fever from various causes, including malaria, willow bark also has healing properties, prevents hair fall, removes dandruff and helps remove corns and warts.

Uses: To relieve fever prepare an infusion with 2 tablespoons of willow bark in a pint of water, boil for 10 minutes, divide into four parts and drink during the course of the day.

To eliminate dandruff and prevent hair loss, cook 10 tablespoons of willow bark in a liter of water for 15 minutes. Let it stand and once the liquid is completely cool to use to wash your hair every day.

The same infusion is an effective healer. Use it to wash wounds and skin conditions for rapid cure.

To remove corns and warts, you should burn the bark of the willow tree until reduced to ashes. These ashes should be mixed with vinegar. The resulting mixture is applied on corns or warts, cover with a bandage and leave overnight. Repeat until the wart or callus fall, which must occur no later than one week.

Sage

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Sage is one of the best known medicinal plants, including to those who are not familiar with this science. Its name comes from the word “salvus” meaning saved, and the reason is that it saves people from many diseases.

The two best known varieties of the plant are the that grows straight up, reaching up to 1.5 meters in height, and one that grows low to the ground, reaching only about 20 centimeters tall.

It is recognized primarily for its strong smell. Its leaves have a spicy and bitter taste. It has wrinkled leaves, green with a fuzz above them and are sticky to the touch. Its flowers are blue or purple.

Properties: Helps to cough up the phlegm, this function causes to relieve cough and bronchitis. It also helps with stomach problems such as dyspepsia, improves digestion and relieves gas. It cures vomiting and diarrhea.

It is very effective in relieving menstrual cramps. It also helps reduce blood sugar and is great for relieving headaches.

For all the uses listed above, take a sage infusion 3 to 4 times daily. This infusion is prepared by adding a tablespoon of sage leaves to a cup of boiling water, let it rest and sweeten with honey.

For external use, the infusion is prepared with 10 tablespoons of sage in 1 liter of water and cook for 10 minutes. With this liquid can be used to wash wounds, skin affected by pimples, rash and skin fungus, like ringworm.

A similar preparation, but a little thinner, prepared in the same way but reducing the amount of sage to 8 tablespoons per liter of water, serves to mouthwash and gargle in cases of ulcers, inflammation of the gums, throat and tonsils.