Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Chamomile
Pretty Flowers, Potent Medicine
Family: Compositae; (includes Daisy, Dandelion, Marigold)
Genus and Species: Matricaria chamomilia (German or Hungarian); Anthemis Nobilis (Roman or English)
Also known as: Camomile, Matricaria, Anthemis, Ground Apple
Parts used: Flowers
In the tale of Peter Rabbit, Peter eats himself sick in Mr. McGregor’s garden, then gets chased out at the wrong end of the angry man’s hoe. When he gets home, his mother gives him chamomile tea.
Peter’s mother was a wise herbalist. Chamomile is one of the best herbs for indigestion. It also soothes jangled nerves. Perhaps Peter’s mother also feared his ordeal would give him an ulcer: Chamomile may help prevent and heal them. Or perhaps Mr. McGregor’s hoe grazed Peter’s tender bunny skin. A chamomile compress can help heal many wounds.
Unfortunately, few who sip chamomile tea know what a healer they hold in their paws. Sorry-hands.
Herb of the Sun
Actually, chamomile is not one herb, but two-German (or Hungarian) chamomile and Roman (or English) chamomile. The two plants are botanically unrelated, but they both produce the same light blue oil used in healing since ancient times.
Chamomile’s daisylike flowers reminded the ancient Egyptians of the sun. They used it to treat fever, particularly the recurring fevers of malaria.
The Greek physician Dioscorides and the Roman naturalist Pliny recommended chamomile to treat headaches and kidney, liver, and bladder problems. India’s ancient Ayurvedic physicians used it similarly.
Germans have used chamomile since the dawn of history for digestive upsets and as a menstruation promoter and treatment for menstrual cramps.
Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper recommended chamomile for fevers, digestive problems, aches, pains, jaundice, kidney stones, “dropsy” (congestive heart failure). and “to bring down women’s courses” (promote menstruation) .
British and German immigration introduced both charnomiles into North America, though most of the chamomile grown here today is the German variety.
America’s 19th-century Eclectic physicians recommended chamomile poultices to speed wound healing and prevent gangrene. They prescribed infusions for digestive problems, malaria, typhus, menstrual cramps, menstruation promotion, and for all birth-related difficulties: to quiet fetal kicking, stop premature labor, relieve sore breasts and nipples, suppress milk production, and relieve infant colic.
Best-Seller
Today chamomile is one of the nation’s best-selling herbs. It’s a favorite tea, by itself or in blends. Its apple aroma is the fragrance in many herbal skin-care products. And it has been used in shampoos since the days of the Vikings because it adds luster to blond hair.
Contemporary herbalists recommend chamomile externally to spur wound healing and treat inflammation, and internally for fever, digestive upsets, anxiety, and insomnia.