Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Celeryseed
A Natural Diuretic
Family: Umbelliferae; (includes Carrot, Parsley)
Genus and Species: Apium Graveolens
Also known as: Marsh Parsley, Wild Celery
Parts used: Fruit (”seeds”)
Celery stalks don’t do much but add crunch to salads. But scientists have discovered a surprising number of healing benefits in celery seed. They may help relieve insomnia and high blood pressure and may even help some people manage diabetes and congestive heart failure.
Elixir for Greek Athletes
The ancient Greeks gave celery wine to winning athletes, and celery elixirs have been used in healing throughout history. (A contemporary echo of this, minus any medicinal claims, is the celery-flavored soft drink, Dr. Brown’s eel-Ray Soda.)
India’s traditional Ayurvedic physicians have prescribed celery seed since ancient times as a diuretic to treat water retention and as a treatment for colds, flu, indigestion, arthritis, and diseases of the liver and spleen.
The medieval German abbess/herbalist Hildegard of Bingen wrote: “Whoever is plagued by [the arthritis of] gout …should powder celery seeds… because this is the best remedy.”
English herbalist John Gerard claimed celery “provoketh urine” as an aid to weight loss and expelled “phlegm out of the head.”
Seventeenth-century England’s Nicholas Culpeper also recommended celery seed as a diuretic for “dropsy” (congestive heart failure).
Later herbalists suggested it for insomnia, obesity, nervousness, and several cancers, as a menstruation promoter, and to bring on abortion. It has even been recommended as an aphrodisiac.
Oddly, America’s 19th-century botanical physicians, the Eclectics, were not impressed. They considered celery a mere footnote under its close relative, parsley. If parsley were unavailable, the Eclectics grudgingly recommended celery as “a nerve tonic” and for arthritis and chest congestion.
Contemporary herbalists recommend celery as a diuretic, tranquilizer, sedative, and menstruation promoter, and as treatment for gout, arthritis, obesity, anxiety, and lack of appetite (gustatory, not sexual).