Sunday, March 29, 2009

How to Treat Fever?


In treating fever there is a strict method in indigenous practice. Fasting is advised at the beginning of fever arc at the second stage canjee water should be given. At the third stage medicine is adminis­tered, and on recovery a laxative must be given. This method differs with children. Instead of fasting, children are given only a liquid diet.

The laxative at recovery is also given according to the age of the child. Canjee water or rice boiled in water is very good medicine for fever. For children of one or two months of age water in which rice is boiled could be fed at intervals. In the ancient days canjee water was drunk instead of bed-tea. In the decoction administered for fever, Margosa is a herb frequently used. If you take Margosa (Kohomba) daily or at least twice a week you will be healthy.

Related Blog Post:
Treat Your Fever with Herbal Recipes

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Treat Your Fever with Herbal Recipes


The following is a list of herbal medicines for fever.

Herbal Recipes for Fever #1

Ingredients:
Margosa bark,
Corriander, Dummalla (Vatica obscura),
Rasakinda (Tinospora Cordifolia),
Aralu (Terminalia Chebula),
Bulu (Terminalia Belerica),
Nelli (Phyllanthus embilica).

Preparation Method:
Equal parts are boiled into a decoction in the usual way.

Dosage: Half a tea cup twice a day. This decoction is for adults only.


Herbal Recipes for Fever #2

The following decoction is for infants.

Ingredients:
Patpadagam (Aporosa-cardiosperma),
Ginger,
Corriander,
Veniwelgeta or Bangeta (Cosinium Femestratum).

Preparation Method:
Equal quantities of two kalandas must be boiled in six cups of water; simmer down to half a cup.

Dosage: Three teaspoonful to be administered morning and evening.



Herbal Recipes for Fever #3

The following decoction is for fever in older children (8 to 15 years).
Ingredients:
Patpadagam (Aporosacardiosperma),
Kalanduru (Cyperus Rotandua),
Rasakinda (Tinospora Cordifolia),
Binkohomba (Munronia Pumila)
Ginger.

Preparation Method:

Equal quantities of 2 1/2 kalandas must be boiled into a decoction (eight cups of water boiled down to one cup).




(If the fever is not cured by-these remedies a physician's advice must be sought.)
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Thursday, March 5, 2009

How to Make Herbal Teas and Other Herbal Medicines?

Herbal tea is very popular in the west and it is gaining good ground even in Sri Lanka. Those who drink herbal tea must try to store their own herbs properly. You could also build up your own family herbal store. When preparing herbal tea, use the purest water possible. Preferably use bee's honey to sweeten your herbal tea.

Infusion is different from decoction. Place the plants in a tea pot, pour onto them a prescribed quantity of boiling water, cover and leave to infuse for the necessary length of time.

This will depend on the type of plant. This is how an infusion is prepared. For a decoction, place the given amounts (12 kalandas) of herbs in a saucepan or a pot and pour 8 cups of cold water and boil on a slow fire to one cup; strain and use as prescribed.
Decoctions should not be kept for too long a period. One cup of decoction should be finished in one day or in one and a half days.

Maceration - softening by soaking. Put the prescribed amounts of herbs into the given quantity of liquid: leave to soak for the specified length of time, strain through a clean cloth, squeeze all the juice out of the plants.

The most important thing when preparing an infusion or decoction is to remember to respect the prescribed amounts in use, and not make your medicines on assumptions. If so, it would not do any good, but certainly does no harm. Herbs never cause the havoc that certain drugs do.

Herbal plants can provide a flexible and effective form of medical therapy, totally without dangerous side-effect and adaptable to the needs of each individual patient.

The indigenous physician is thus able to prescribe a personal course of treatment that is appreciated a great deal by the patient, who feels he is being treated as an individual and not like every one else. There is a revival of interest in herbal treatment in Sri Lanka, and it is going through its second infancy.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Nature and Herbal Plants for Better Health

Plants engage in a real alchemy drawing from the soil vital nutritive substances which they store and convert into food. They are therefore a natural reservoir of precious elements.

Plants like human beings, have their own particular preferences and characteristics so we must know to look for them and learn to recognize them. This is more difficult than recognizing the people we often see.

Nature is the best gardener in the world, but with the chemical invasion of the world we must be very cautious in gathering plants. Never gather plants that are grown on cultivated land or in orchards; they may be well poisoned and in any case they no longer remain as nature created them.

The soil that feeds them is saturated with chemical fertilizers and synthetic hormones intended to destroy weeds. They are also repeatedly subjected to a fall out of equally poisonous insecticides.

You must gather your herbal plants far away from civilization. There are still areas uncontaminated by human intrusion and waste lands, valleys and mountains to satisfy those who have a liking for herbal infusions.

The Ayurveda books such as Susruta and Charaka pay much attention to the gathering of herbs. Herbs should be gathered at the right moment.

Even the great Western herbalist Dioscorides has said that before all else, it is proper to use care both in the gathering of herbs during the correct season and in storing them.

It is according to these rules that medicines either do their work, or become quite ineffective.

The moon is the closest planet to the earth and most rapid in its motion. It has a great influence upon plants and all other living things when it waxes and wanes every month.

The curative components contained in plants vary according to the age of the plant, the time of picking, the nature of the soil and the climate. Hence the cardinal rule that must be followed by us, is that they should be gathered at the moment of full maturity. It is best to gather herbs on a dry and sunny day. You should not start to pick them too early in the day, nor continue too late. The herbal roots must be pulled out after the rains. Even handling of herbal plants needs a certain amount of care. You should not squeeze or crush the flowers and leaves you' gather, because if they become warm or bruised they will be less effective.

Herbs are ruined mainly due to the careless way in which they are gathered. You should not remove too many leaves or branches from the same plant.

If a plant is stripped of too much bark or leaves it will die. You should refrain from taking too many roots within a limited radius as it is the mainstay of the plant.

In collecting herbs you should also have a choice of plants. The ancient Ayurvedic Acharyas have laid down that a wild plant is always better than a cultivated plant. Choose plants that have the most fragrance, taste and colour. Also select plants which are healthy, bitter, and not attacked by pests or disease.

How to Store Herbs?

Storing the herbs for your use needs a lot of care. Before you store, dry the herbs in a well ventilated place. Do not expose them to the direct rays of the sun. Spread out the herbs as soon as you collect them, or else they will rot.

Never wash the plants before putting them to dry. Spread them out in a single layer. For the first few days keep turning them over so that the drying is even and thorough. When the drying is over, cut them into small pieces, and store the herbs in a clean bottle with a lid. In the case of roots, they must be washed and cut into small pieces before drying.

Never store the herbs whether dry or fresh, in plastic bags or wrappings. Scientific experiments have shown that plastic wrappings bring about certain chemical alterations, and the herbs kept this way no longer have the same efficacy.