Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Dandelion
Much More Than a Weed
Family: Compositae; (includes Daisy, Marigold)
Genus and Species: Taraxacum Officinale
Also known as: Lion’s Tooth, Wild Endive, Piss-in-bed
Parts used: Root primarily; also leaves
Dandelion is so widely despised as a weed, it’s some. times difficult to see this plant for what it really is-a nutritious healing herb with a medicinal reputation dating back more than 1,000 years.
Dandelion may help treat premenstrual syndrome, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure. It may also help prevent gallstones and may have other medically intriguing possibilities as well.
Chinese Cold Remedy
Chinese physicians have prescribed dandelion since ancient times to treat colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, hepatitis, boils, ulcers, obesity, dental problems, itching, and internal injuries. They also used a poultice of chopped dandelion to treat breast cancer. India’s traditional Ayurvedic physicians used the herb similarly 10th-century Arab physicians were the first to recognize that dandelion increases urine production.
During the Middle Ages, Europeans believed in the Doctrine of Signatures-the idea that plants’ physical characteristics reveal their healing value. Under this doctrine, anything yellow was linked to the liver’s yellow bile and considered a liver remedy. That’s why dandelion gained a reputation in Europe as a treatment for jaundice and gallstones.
The Doctrine of Signatures was also used to explain dandelion’s use as a diuretic to treat water retention. Dandelion has a juicy root, stem, and leaves. Anything juicy was linked to urine production. By the 17th century, dandelion was so well known as a diuretic, the English called it “piss-a-bed,” from the French pissenlit.
The Official Remedy
Thanks to such herbal exaggerators as 17th-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, dandelion’s medicinal reputation spread as widely as dandelions across an untended lawn. Culpeper recommended the herb for every “evil disposition of the body.” In fact, dandelion was used for so many ailments, it became known as “the official remedy for disorders.”
Early colonists introduced dandelion to North America, and the Indians quickly adopted it as a tonic.
Dandelion root was an ingredient in Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, a popular 19th-century patent medicine for menstrual discomforts. As a diuretic, the dandelion no doubt helped relieve the bloating many women experience before they menstruate. (There is no dandelion in the Pinkham’s Compound marketed today.)
Despite dandelion’s incorporation into the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1831 to 1926, many 19th-century herbalists despised it for the weed it had become. The American Eclectic physicians’ text, King’s American Dispensatory, called it “overrated …. Dandelion root possesses little medicinal virtue [except] slightly diuretic action.”
Contemporary herbalists recommend dandelion almost exclusively as a diuretic for weight loss, premenstrual syndrome, menstrual discomforts, swollen feet, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure.