Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Feverfew
For Migraine Preventlon
Family: Compositae; (includes Daisy, Dandelion, Marigold)
Genus and Species: Chrysanthemum parthenium; Matricaria parthenium; Tanacetum parthenium
Also known as: Febrifuge plant, Wild Quinine, Bachelor’s Button
Parts used: Leaves
Until the late 1970s, feverfew was discredited as a Healing herb, In The Herb Book, John Lust summarized most herbalists’ feelings: “Feverfew has fallen into considerable disuse, Its name no longer fits, it is also hard to find, even at herb outlets,”
Now feverfew is hot. Recent studies show it’s remarkably effective at preventing migraine headaches.
Fever a Misnomer
Many sources claim the name feverfew comes from the Latin febrifugia, meaning “driver out of fevers,” They also say it’s been used since ancient times to treat fever. They’re wrong on both counts,
The plant was never called febrifugia, Ancient physicians including Dioscorides and Galen used its Greek name, parthenion, and prescribed it for menstrual and birth-related problems, not fever. During the Middle Ages, the name parthenion faded, and the plant was renamed featherfoil because of its feathery leaf borders. Featherfoil became featherfew and eventually feverfew.
Once feverfew acquired its name, herbalists decided it was, in fact, a fever treatment. They planted the strong-smelling herb around their homes in hopes of purifying the air to ward off malaria, which they mistakenly believed was caused by bad air (hence malaria, from the Italian mala, “foul,” and aria, “air”).
Malaria had plagued Europe since prehistoric times, and it was untreatable until Spanish explorers returned from Peru with cinchona bark and early chemists isolated its antimalarial constituent, quinine. Quinine proved so successful at treating malaria that for a brief period, other fever herbs basked in its reflected glow, and feverfew picked up the name “wild quinine.” But the name didn’t stick. Quinine proved so superior as a malaria treatment that feverfew fell by the wayside.
Headache Hints
For a while, some herbalists recommended feverfew for other ailments, particularly headache. In the 17th century, England’s John Parkinson claimed feverfew “is very effectual for all pains in the head.” And more than 100 years later, John Hill wrote, “In the worst headache, this herb exceeds whatever else is known.”
But most herbalists stuck to feverfew’s traditional gynecological uses. Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper called it a “general strengthener of wombs” and prescribed it in tea for colds and chest congestion. Culpeper also recognized the herb’s decline, declaring it “not much used in present practice.”
Early colonists introduced feverfew into North America, where malaria was also a major problem, but as it fell from fashion in England, it stopped being used here as well.
America’s 19th-century Eclectics prescribed it mainly as a menstruation promoter and treatment for “female hysteria,” (menstrual discomforts) and some fever-producing diseases.