Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Turmeric
Healing with Curry
Family: Zingiberaceae; (includes Ginger)
Genus and Species: Curcuma Longa
Also known as: Curcuma
Parts used: Roots
Turmeric is a recent addition to most American spice racks, but it’s been a mainstay in Indian curries for thousands of years. Its arrival here is good news for our palate and our health.
Turmeric’s Healing benefits are still largely unknown in North America, but it helps aid digestion, may fight intestinal parasites, may protect the liver. may help prevent heart disease, and may one day playa role in the treatment of cancer.
Whole-Body Cleanser
Turmeric held a place of honor in India’s traditional Ayurvedic medicine. A symbol of prosperity, it was considered a cleansing herb for the whole body. Medically, it was used as a digestive aid and treatment for fever. infections, dysentery, arthritis, and jaundice and other liver problems.
Traditional Chinese physicians also used turmeric to treat . liver and gallbladder problems, stop bleeding, and treat chest congestion and menstrual discomforts.
The ancient Greeks were well aware of turmeric, but unlike its close botanical relative, ginger, it never caught on in the West as either a culinary or medicinal herb. It was, however, used to make orange-yellow dyes.
Turmeric Paper
In the 1870s, chemists discovered turmeric’s orange-yellow root powder turned reddish brown when exposed to alkaline chemicals. This discovery led to the development of “turmeric paper,” thin strips of tissue brushed with a decoction of turmeric, then dried. During the late 19th century, turmeric paper was used in laboratories around the world to test for alkalinity. Eventually, it was replaced by litmus paper, which is still used today.
American chemists used turmeric paper, but not even the botanically oriented 19th-century Eclectic physicians had much use for turmeric itself, except to add color to medicinal ointments.
Maude Grieve’s influential Modern Herbal, published in 1931, said turmeric was “once a cure for jaundice,” then dismissed it as “seldom used in medicine except as a coloring.”
Few contemporary herbalists recommend turmeric. The ones who do advocate it to treat fever, relieve pains and chest congestion, and restore menstrual regularity.