Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Caraway
Digestive Aid Since Ancient Egypt
Family: Umbelliferae; (includes Carrot, Parsley)
Genus and Species: Carum Carvi
Also known as: Carum
Parts used: Fruits (”seeds”)
Caraway is best known as the seed that flavors rye bread. The reason it’s in rye bread, and many other foods, is that caraway has been used since ancient times to calm the digestive tract and expel gas.
Caraway seeds have been found in prehistoric food remains from 3500 s.c. The ancient Egyptians loved the aromatic seeds. They were recommended for digestive upsets in the Ebers Papyrus, one of the world’s oldest surviving medical documents, about 1500 BC.
Unchanged for Centuries
Caraway is one of only a handful of herbs whose major medicinal use has remained unchanged throughout history. The ancient Greek physician Dioscorides mentioned the seeds to aid digestion, and herbals down through the ages have recommended them for indigestion, gas, and infant colic.
In Shakespeare’s day, baked apples with caraway seeds were considered a stomach-soothing dessert. In Henry IV, a meal ends with “a pippin and a dish of caraway” Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper said caraway “helpeth digestion… and easeth the pains of the wind colic.”
And America’s 19th-century Eclectic physicians believed the seeds “gently excite the digestive powers… I and are I used in flatulent colic, especially of children.”
Throughout history, in Europe, the Middle East, and early America, caraway was a favorite addition to laxative herbs because it tempered their often violent effects.
Caraway’s only other traditional uses relate to women’s health-for menstrual cramps, menstruation promotion, and milk promotion in nursing mothers.