Natural herbal remedies, a traditional medicine: May 2011

Dermatosis, hemorrhoids and bowel inflammations: hazel remedy

Hazel is a very widespread tree in Italy and it grows spontaneously, on the hills or on the mountains, till 1400 metres height. It’s never taller than 2-4 metres; it has a straight trunk covered by reddish hair and gland-tipped black hairs. Its leaves are rounded and heart-shaped at the base with a pointed tip and double serrate margins. They are covered by hair, especially in the lower part.
Flowers are small and they can be male and female: the formers are yellow and they grow first, even in January, covering leafless brunches; the second are formed by green bracts and have numerous red stems.
The fruit is enclosed in a cluster of tube-shaped leaves.
When the nut is ripe (September-October), it takes a brown colour and spontaneously detaches from the shell falling down.
The edible part is the seed enclosed in the wooden shell. It has to be eaten fresh or, if you eat it dried, it must not be older than one year from the harvest since it becomes rancid and indigestible.
For their high energetic power (660 calories for 100 grams (3.52 oz)), nuts are suitable for children and teenagers, or for those who need a food supplement. And, since they do not contain sugar, they are suitable for diabetics too.
In herbal medicine, leaves and branches bark are used.
The first ones are gathered in July-August without stem, the second in October-November from at least 2 years old branches: it is detached from the branch with a pocketknife, chopped into 10 cm pieces and dried in the sun. The leaves, on the contrary, are dried in the shadow frequently turning them. They both are preserved in a paper bag sheltered from light and humidity.
Officinal properties of hazel leaves and bark are essentially astringent, anti-inflammatory, febrifuge and purifying.
Leaves are also used as vein tonic and vasoconstrictor and as a treatment against varicose veins, phlebitis and hemorrhoids.

Anti-inflammatory and purifying decoction (internal use):
Boil 25 g (0.88 oz) of leaves in 1 l of water for 3 minutes. Drain, sweeten with honey and drink 3 cups per day.
It’s very helpful in case of bowel inflammations and as body purifiant.

Decoction for dermatitis and hemorrhoids (external use):
Boil 40 g (1.41 oz) of bark in 1 l of water for 8 minutes. Let it cool and drain. It’s very helpful to make compresses, to rub on irritated skin, to cleanse light abrasions in case of dermatosis, and in case of haemorrhoids too.

A natural laxative remedy: burdock recipe

Prepare an infusion with 3 g (0.10 oz) of seeds of burdock in 100 ml of boiling hot water. Drink one glass per day.

Skin affections (even pimples): burdock remedy for internal use

Burdock is a very effective purifying plant against skin affections in general:
boil 100 g (3.52 oz) of burdock dried root in half a litre of water until it will reduce to the half.
Let it cool and add 1 l of vermouth. Let it stand 4 or 5 days and drink 2-3 small glasses per day. Be careful: it’s an alcoholic recipe.

A cure for measles? Using herbs! A recipe for children

Use this recipe with burdock to favour the onset of the disease and a faster healing of measles: Add 25 g (0.88 oz) of burdock dried root to half a litre of cold water.
Boil for 7-8 minutes, drain and give a tsp every 5 minutes.

Wounds and arthritic pains

Burdock is a treatment against arthritis and sores.
Boil a handful of burdock fresh leaves in a cup of milk.
Pour forth and use to make hot compresses on the affected part.

Liver poisoning, rheumatism and mild diabetes

Boil a spoon of burdock dried root for 5 minutes in a cup of water.
Drain and drink two cups per day after meals.

Burdock is a purifying plant fighting acne and hair fall

Burdock is a humble plant. It grows everywhere in grasslands and in uncultivated and sunny areas. It has large leaves which are heart-shaped and whitish in the lower part. Flowers are red and their stem is long and vertical.
Burdock is known also with the name of burr, clothburr and fox’s clote, since its flowers easily catch on clothing, hair and fur.

The parts used in herbal medicine are roots and fresh leaves. Roots are harvested in autumn, after the first year of vegetation of the plant or better in the following spring. They are taken out of the soil with a hoe and deprived from small side leaves. They are washed up, cut into thin slices and, if you want to dry them up, they are put into the sun and kept then in glass pots.
For this reason, it’s necessary to know that burdock root, because of its high sugar content, is easily perishable: it must be well dried and replaced every year.
Leaves are gathered without stem in spring, before flowering: if you want to dry them up, arrange them into thin layers in the shadow and keep them into paper bags.
The most widely known property of this plant, thanks to its purifying power, is its anti-acne, anti-furuncle and anti-seborroheic effect. It’s thus recommended for all types of acne, furunculosis, dermatosis and eczemas, for internal use (in infusions or decoctions) or for external use (actually there are some burdock soaps).
Moreover, it’s an excellent general depurative, perspiratory and laxative remedy. For external use, fresh leaves lotion is used against scalp seborrhoea and thus to fight hair loss.

Diuretic and depurative burdock wine: put 50 g (1.76 oz) of burdock fresh root to soak in 1 l of white dry wine after having ground it well. Drain and drink into small glasses (1 in the morning and 1 in the night after meals).

Burdock lotion against hair loss: put 30 g (1.05 oz) of well ground and contused fresh root to soak into 1 l of distilled water and 30 ml of 90% ethyl alcohol. Drain it 3 days later and use in the morning and in the night, rubbing it on the scalp. In this way, seborrhoea will be eliminated and hair fall will be stopped.

Tarragon in cooking, vinegar but also as digestive infusion

Tarragon medicinal parts are leaves and blossomed ends. Leaves are gathered one by one in May and flowers in July. They are both dried up into the shadow or in an aired room and then kept into hermetic glass pots, sheltered from the light.
Very rich in aromatic essences, tarragon has a tonic effect on the stomach, stimulates digestion and eliminates intestinal gas. It’s a good cooking herb for its aroma. It can be easily grown into a pot and, if sheltered from winter cold, it produces leaves throughout the year.
For its digestive property, it’s recommended to mix it with raw salads, to sprinkle it on cooked vegetables and meat and to use it for soups and omelettes.
Tarragon vinegar too, besides giving a special taste to salads, can make some dishes more digestible.

Digestive infusion: prepare an infusion using some tarragon leaves and a cup of boiling hot water. Let infuse for 5 minutes, drain and sweeten with honey. Drink it after meals instead of coffee.

Tarragon vinegar: take a small bunch of tarragon sprigs before flowering (100 grams (3.52 oz) and put them into a hermetic bottle. Fill the bottle with good white wine vinegar, close and let it stand for 2 months in a place sheltered from light. Once this time passed, use it in small quantities because it’s very aromatic.

Treating verrucas with garlic

It’s worth trying: I send you back to the article on garlic

The way to use it on a verruca:
make an hole large like the verruca in a plaster, put crushed garlic on the verruca and close with another plaster.
This method is used to avoid burning the healthy skin around the verruca.
Keep it on all night long, do this for 15 days.

Sage for after childbirth secretions and for tiredness

Sage has sedative, hormonal, antisudoral, antiseptic and stimulant properties. Use clean leaves and flowers.

After childbirth, it helps in decreasing milk secretion: put 20 g (0.70 oz) of dried blossomed ends into boiling hot water and let infuse for 15 minutes. Drain and drink 2 cups per day after meals.

In case of great tiredness or convalescence: soak 30 g (1.05 oz) of clean leaves in 1 l of red wine for 10 minutes, drain and drink a glass of it at the end of each meal.

Kidney failure and twists treatment with rosemary

Rosemary has stimulating, diuretic, bactericide and anti-inflammatory properties. Flowers and leaves are used for this purpose.
For people practicing sport it has an important external use:

In case of ankle twists: cook 30 g (1.05 oz) of rosemary fresh leaves in 1 l of red wine for 15 minutes. Drain and dampen some cotton compresses or gauzes. Apply to the sore part.

Against kidney or vascular failure: put 20 g (0.70 oz) of dried blossomed ends in 1 l of boiling hot water and let infuse for 15 minutes. Drain and drink 2 cups per day, after meals.

Stimulating sexual activity and calming nerves with mint

Mint has tonic, stimulant, digestive and analgesic properties. Flowers and leaves are used for this purpose.

In case of nervous crisis: prepare an infusion of wild mint with 10 g (0.35 oz) of dried leaves in a cup of boiling hot water (infuse for 10 minutes)

To stimulate sexual activity: prepare an infusion of pepper mint. Drink one cup at sleeping time. The infusion is prepared with 25 g (0.88 oz) of leaves and blossomed ends in 1 l of boiling hot water.

Remedy against hair loss and nausea with basil

Basil has digestive and tonic properties.
The whole plant, leaves and flowers are used.

Against nausea: prepare an infusion with 50 g (1.76 oz) of plant and 1 l of boiling hot water and drink during the day.

Against baldness: rub the scalp with a concentrated infusion of 150 g (5.29 oz) of dried leaves and 1 l of boiling hot water (20 minutes infusion). Squeeze the leaves, drain and use as lotion.

Help digestion and calm menstrual pains: laurel remedy

Laurel has stimulant, digestive, antiseptic and pesticidal properties. Leaves and berries are used for this purpose.

As digestive remedy: prepare an infusion with 30 g (1.05 oz) of bay dried leaves in 1 l of water for 10 minutes. Drink a cup after each meal.

Remedy against menstrual pains: prepare an infusion with 20 g (0.70 oz) of leaves per each litre of water for 5 minutes and drink two cups per day for one week before and during menstruation.

Inflamed eyes and gums and soothing remedy with cornflower

Cornflower is a very well known flower. It blooms from May to June. Its petals are intense blue.
It’s an annual herbal plant, growing 80 cm tall, with flowers producing flowerheads which are blue, small and red inside.
It grows all over Italy in invasive form in uncultivated places and in corn fields, where it’s often connected with poppy.
The parts used in herbal medicine are flowerheads which are gathered as soon as they blossom, detaching them one by one; they are dried up in the shadow and kept in glass pots sheltered from the light.
Cornflower has anti-inflammatory, diuretic, anti-cough and low astringent action. The most interesting feature is that it’s an excellent decongestant and anti-redness for eyes and lids. For internal use, on the contrary, it’s used as light diuretic and couth sedative. It can also be used in baths for its soothing effect for delicate and sensitive skins.

Anti-inflammatory compresses for eyes: prepare a decoction, boiling a tbsp of cornflower flowerheads and a big cup of boiling hot water for 10 minutes. Let it cool, drain and use with sterile gauzes to make compresses on inflamed eyes and lids. The same decoction can be used to have mouthwashes and gargles. It disinflammates gums and mouth mucosa.

Soothing bath: Mix a handful of cornflower dried flowerheads and one of chamomile dried flowerheads. Put them in a tightly woven cloth bag and dip it in the bath filled with hot water. Dip for 15 minutes without using foamy substances. Be careful, water temperature must not be higher than 37°C. It’s a relaxing bath, particularly recommended for sensitive skins.

Relaxing and defatigant bath with horse chestnut

Horse chestnuts, which today are very common ornamental plants in gardens and alleys, have become generally well-known for their majesty, their typical leaves, their beautiful flowers, and their glossy fruits.
The plant can grow 30 metres tall, the leaves are opposite and compound with 5-7 leaflets where the central one is bigger, oval-shaped and palmately divided.
Flowers are gathered in white erect panicles. Fruits are prickly capsules that open when they are ripe and let 2-3 seeds come out, that is sweet chestnuts. Sweet chestnuts have nothing to do with chestnuts, if not the fact they look like them, and are not edible.
In herbal medicine, the bark and seeds have always been used since they contain saponins and bioflavonoids.
The bark is gathered in March, before the tree begins to flower, from grown branches, while the seeds are gathered in autumn when they start falling. Horse chestnut seeds are used to extract escin which is used in pharmaceutical industry.
Horse chestnut has astringent, vasoprotective, anti-haemorrhoids and antiemedigine properties. In popular tradition, horse chestnut is used only externally, since plant active principles are very active but also very irritating for body mucosa.

Relaxing bath: prepare a good soothing bath putting a handful of horse chestnut seed flour in bath hot water. It completely eliminates the feeling of tiredness. It’s necessary to dip completely and relax for at least 15 minutes, without using foamy substances.

Maize (corn): purifying and diuretic remedy and much more…

Maize, also known as corn (grass family), is so common and well-known that it’s useless to describe it.
But maybe we can make at least a sex distinction: male flowers are arranged in a cluster, forming the so-called tassel, whereas female flowers form maize ears, with combs on lower leaves. They are wrapped in large bracts, with long styles coming out of the ear (the silks).
Herbal medicine uses styles (or stigmas) which must be gathered at flowering time in June-July.

It’s important to underline that styles gathered for herbal purpose must not come from agricultural cultivations to avoid the absorbing of toxic substances due to chemical dressing. You have to inform about what is declared as “biological”.
The drying process takes place in the sun, in thin layers to obtain a perfectly dried up product in the fastest time. Dried up styles are delicate and they easily deteriorate if put in a damp place. Therefore they have to be kept in hermetic glass pots.
Styles are one palm tall, flat as a tape, slightly hairy, with a characteristic smell and their colour can be white, green, yellowish or even dark red.
They are used mainly as diuretic and have a depurative, sudoriferal and anti-inflammatory action. Diuretic properties of corn styles are useful to eliminate body toxins or in case of water retention.
They are recommended as adjuvant for all those who suffer from gout, arthritis, rheumatisms and cystitis.
Compounds based on maize, since they contain allantoin, are used externally as anti-inflammatory and to help healing.

Diuretic and depurative infusion: Prepare an infusion with a tsp of dried styles into a cup of boiling hot water. Let it infuse for 5 minutes, drain, sweeten with honey and drink 1 cup three times per day.

Anti-inflammatory and healing compresses: prepare a decoction with a handful of dried corn styles in 1 l of water.
Boil for 10 minutes, let it cool, drain and use to make compresses and rubbings.

Irregular menstruation and skin irritation: pot marigold treatment (calendula)

A weird use of pot marigold is to replace saffron: they have nothing in common, neither the aroma nor the taste, but only the colour. Actually, many European countries use its petals to colour butter and cheese. It’s well-known from ancient times.
It is a spontaneous plant which is present throughout the year and, in Italy, it’s grown both for medical and ornamental purpose.

Calendula blossoms at dawn when the sun begins to rise and closes at sunset.
Herbal medicine uses flowers and leafs since they contain carotense, essential oils and resins.
Flowers are gathered in the morning, when they are still closed, between April and May or September and November.
Leaves are gathered from March to November.
Pot marigold is well-known for regulating menstrual flow, both during puberty and during the age preceding menopause, and to calm abdominal cramps during these periods.
It has then anti-inflammatory, decongestant, soothing and moisturizing properties.
For external use, it heals burns and soothes contusions.
Popular medicine suggests it as a foolproof remedy to eradicate calluses and to fight chilblains.

Infusion to regulate menstrual flow: to regulate menstrual cycle, it’s helpful drinking a cup of infusion prepared with 2 g (0.07 oz) of dried pot marigold flowers and 1 cup of boiling hot water 2 times per day before meals. Drink it sweetened with honey.

Decongestant compress for burns and irritations: prepare a decoction boiling 50 g (1.76 oz) of calendula leaves and flowers in half a litre of water for 8 minutes. Let it cool, drain, and use it to soak cotton compresses to apply to the affected parts for 15 minutes.
It’s highly recommended for flushed or seriously irritated skin. It gives relief for sun burns too.

A tea to heal stomach ulcer

Ingredients:
2 pinches of orange flowers
2 pinches of sage
2 pinches of linden
2 pinches of chamomile

Boil a cup of water and pour down this mixture. Cover it and take off the fire. Let it infuse for 5 minutes. Drink this tea very hot, once per day.
How does it act?
Orange flowers and lime are soothing for the nervous system (ulcer is often caused by neurosis or anxiety); sage fights the excessive secretion of hydrochloric acid and chamomile is used to soothe the lining of the stomach.

A tea for constipation

2 pinches of anise grains
2 pinches of chervil
2 pinches of lavender flowers
2 pinches of orange flowers
2 pinches of verbena

Prepare a tea with this mixture. Drink two cups per day after meals when it’s very hot.

A recipe against bloating

Treanting bloating with this infusion: Prepare a tea boiling a cup of water and pouring down a mixture with 2 pinches of mint and 2 pinches of anise. Cover, take off the fire, let infuse for some minutes.
Drink a cup of it twice per day, in the morning and in the night.

Flu treatment and laxative remedy: elder properties

Flowers and fruits are the medicinal part of the plant. Fruits are gathered when they are well ripe, when they get an almost blackish colour since the reddish ones can be irritating.
Elder is believed to have diuretic, laxative, antinevralgic, antirheumatic and perspiratory properties.
In popular tradition, actually, elder is called “vegetable aspirin” for its perspiratory effect (flowers) and is used in hot teas to fight cold, flu and rheumatism.
Fruits are excellent anti-inflammatory remedies and are used for example to fight trigeminal neuralgia.

You must be careful not to confuse Sambucus Nigra with Sambucus Ebulus (Dwarf elder) since the latter has poisoning berries. It’s not difficult to distinguish them: dwarf elder has small leaves with two stipules at the base of the leaflets which are not present in Sambucus Nigra.

Elder flowers are also used in cooking to prepare fritters or a very delicate jam with its slightly laxative fruits, useful in case of constipation for elderly and babies.

Preparation

Perspiratory infusion (aspirin effect) for flu and cold: prepare an infusion using a spoon of dried elder flowers in a cup of boiling hot water. Drain and sweeten with honey. Drink it twice per day.

Laxative elder syrup: use the sieve to mash 1 kg of well ripe elderberries and let them stand one night in the fridge. Drain, weigh, add the same amount of sugar and boil for half an hour. Put into a bottle when it’s cold. It’s recommended as refreshing and laxative syrup, to take pure or diluted with water (one tbsp in a glass of water).

Calming asthma with herbal remedies

Asthma causes very annoying choking attacks and respiratory disorders. It’s a very serious disease which can not be treated only with homemade remedies and doctor’s intervention is always necessary. However, herbs can help in emergency moments, to calm a sudden attack or to slow down the rate of respiration.

Take 60 g (2.11 oz) of sage leaves + 40 g (1.41 oz) of rosemary leaves. Mix them and smoke in a pipe.

Put 5 g (0.17 oz) of chestnut leaves in a cup. Pour 100 ml of boiling hot water on them, cover and let infuse for 25 minutes. Strain and drink 2-3 cups per day.

Bronchial asthma: Put 5 g (0.17 oz) of juniper (crashed berries) in a cup.
Pour 250 ml of boiling hot water, cover and let infuse for 15 minutes. Drain and drink very hot small cups every 2 hours.

Asthma with heart disorders: soak 200 g (7.05 oz) of mistletoe leaves and soft branches in 100 ml of 95% alcohol for 8 days. Drain and take 25 drops 2-3 times per day.

Nervous asthma: dried and cut leaves of nightshade to smoke in a pipe once per day.

Treating arthritis with parsley, garlic and hay

For chronic arthritis:
Boil 10 g (0.35 oz) of parsley roots in 300 ml of water for 10 minutes. Let infuse 10 more minutes, drain and drink a cup in the morning on an empty stomach.

Arthritis deformans:
Prepare a tincture of 30% garlic. Take 30 drops in a little bit of water or on a sugar cube three times per day.

Cervical arthritis:
Boil hay flower in water for 15 minutes. When you reach 35-40°, make local compresses for 2 hours long. Repeat three times per day, warming always the same water. As for the doses, ask the herbalist according to attacks seriousness.

Cure diarrhea with home remedies

It’s obviously better consulting your doctor to preclude it depends on a severe malfunction, but if it is a simple colon irritation, then herbal remedies for dysentery are the following:

Put 25 g (0.88 oz) of purple loosestrife leaves and flowers in a cup. Pour 500 ml of boiling hot water, cover and let infuse for 20 minutes. Drain and drink 3-4 small cups per day.

Soak 20 g (0.70 oz) of blueberries in 100 ml of 90% alcohol for 15 days.
Drain and take 10-20-30 drops on a tsp of sugar according to the seriousness.

Throat inflammation and redness

For throat seasonal inflammations:
use 10 g (0.35 oz) of plantain leaves boiled in 200 ml of water for 5 minutes. Let infuse for 10 minutes, drain and sweeten with honey. Take a spoon after meals (three times per day).

How to cure a cough with thyme

Common thyme is a wild plant growing in the grass and on dry hills. It’s grown also in pots to be used in cooking and for its pleasant smell. It blooms between March and July. Leaves, which will be used to prepare infusions, are gathered in August.

Its properties: it’s helfpul against migraines and whooping cough. It’s antiasthmatic, antiseptic, soothing for throat and bronchial tube inflammations. It has perspiratory properties and is recommended for arteriosclerotic people.

Infusions can be prepared: generally it’s calculated 1 g (0.03 oz) of thyme leaves for each coffee cup of water. Let it infuse for 10 minutes. Doses can be increased.
As sedative for whooping cough, the infusion is prepared using 15 g (0.52 oz) of leaves for 100 ml of boiling hot water. Sweeten and let it infuse for 15 minutes: doses are one spoon every hour for children and three coffee cups per day for adults.

At what time should you get your tea? Tips about the best times to use natural remedies

In order to make these natural remedies effective, you have to take them at specific times. They vary according to the ailment you have to treat and the action of the remedy.
Actually, plants too have a specific rhythm to comply with according to the disorder you must fight. So we suggest following these instructions to fully exploit their potential:

MORNING
Depurative, laxative, purgative, diuretic, stomach and bowel healing, vermifuge remedies. -------> IN THE MORNING ON AN EMPTY STOMACH

BEETWEEN MEALS
Liver protectors, antirheumatic agents, antiseptics, anticough, antigout, cardiotonics, adjuvants for menstruation treatments --------> TWO HOURS BEFORE MEALS (10 in the morning) OR TWO HOURS AFTER MEALS (16 in the afternoon)

Tonic, antiacids and mineralizing drugs-----------> 20 MINUTES BEFORE MEALS

AFTER MEALS
Digestive, sedatives, antiacid, antifermentative remedies and adjuvants for intestinal gas ejection, --------> AFTER MEALS

BEFORE SLEEPING
Sedative and laxatives remedies, cardiotonics, drugs to improve blood circulation ------> BEFORE GOING TO SLEEP

Teeth care with herbal medicine

To remove tartar, once per week, softly rub on your teeth with horsetail or common heather powder or even with a strawberry.

To whiten your teeth, wash them twice per week with a lemon juice added to a tsp of baking soda.

To prevent tooth decay, chew fresh leaves of allaria officinalis.

For toothache, waiting to go to see the dentist, apply green leaves of coltsfoot to the sore part or
pour a glass of boiling hot vinegar with a little bit of salt on 5-6 leaves of ivy. Cover and let infuse until it cools.
Use it to have a gargle, do not drink.

Natural remedy for headache

Headache is often a symptom of other ailments for which it’s better getting medical advice.

Put 2 g (0.02 oz) of peppermint in a cup. Pour 100 ml of boiling hot water, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Drain and drink two cups per day.

Put 5 g (0.17 oz) of chamomile flowers in a cup. Pour 250 ml of cold water and let infuse for 12 hours. Pour and drink 3 small cups per day.

Put 6 g (0.21 oz) of hypericum flowers, 2 g (0.07 oz) of balm and 3 g (0.10 oz) of chamomile flowers in a cup. Pour 250 ml of boiling hot water, cover and let infuse for 20 minutes. Drain and drink 2-3 small cups per day.

Soak 30 g (1.05 oz) of balm flowers in 100 ml of 80% alcohol for 10 days. Drain and take 15-20 drops after meals.

Herbal healings for kidney stones

Kidney stones surely are a serious disorder to keep under control with clinical tests. However, herbs often have extraordinary effects:

Infusion: put 12 g (0.42 oz) of common knotgrass in a cup. Pour 250 ml of boiling hot water, cover and let infuse for 20 minutes. Drain and drink 100 ml in the morning and 100 ml in the night.
To increase its effectiveness, prepare this infusion with half water and half wine.

Decoction: 25 g (0.88 oz) of ononis spinosa root boiled in 500 ml of water for 25 minutes. Cover and let infuse for 20 more minutes. Drain and drink two cups per day.

After-dinner drink with anise

Anise is an excellent remedy to help digestion and eliminate intestinal gas; moreover it calms stomach and bowel contractions, fights constipation, is excellent against bloating and gives relief in case of painful menstruations. It’s less helpful reducing bad breath and as appetizer to stimulate appetite.
Two ways to prepare it as after-dinner drink:

Digestive infusion: prepare an infusion using a tsp of anise fruits and a cup of boiling hot water. Let it stand for 5 minutes, drain and sweeten with honey. Drink 2-3 cups per day after main meals.

Anise elixir: Soak 20 g (0.70 oz) of anise flowers in 1 l of good mountain grappa. Put them into a hermetic glass pot for 20 days together with some cloves, a piece of cinnamon, a piece of orange peel (only the yellow part). Shake at least once per day. Once passed the estimated time, drain and add a syrup made melting 350 g (12.35 oz) of sugar in half a litre of water. Mix carefully and put into a bottle.
It’s a very good digestive elixir to drink in small glasses after meals.

Tea for intestinal gas: a teaspoon of anise fruits and one of fennel grain infused in a cup of boiling hot water for 3 minutes. Drink after meals.

Pythagoras' remedy against sleeplessness

Here is a strange but very effective advice for people who have difficulty in falling asleep: eat a big lettuce salad every night or, if you prefer, drink a decoction made boiling a head of lettuce in half a litre of water before going to sleep.
Lettuce, actually, has considerable sedative properties, favours sleep and ancient Greeks, Pythagoras included, used it to fight insomnia.

Rheumatism treatment with chamomile

Chamomile “oil” can be used for massages to heal rheumatic pains.
Chamomile oil is produced with 20 g (0.70 oz) of dried flowers in 100 g (3.52 oz) of olive oil, warmed in a bain-marie for 2 hours. Then it’s drained trough a cloth strongly pressing it.

Remedy against pimples: risotto recipe

Teenagers, who have many spots on their skin but not enough money to buy creams, can simply try with rice:
boil a handful of rice in half a litre of not salted water. When it gests creamy, drain the rice and put it tepid on your face, avoiding eyes.
As soon as it dries, rinse with tepid water. It’s miraculous!

Swollen ankles and tired feet… without herbs

After a long walk you could feel swollen ankles and heavy feet.
Then try this remedy: bind the ankle up with a towel soaked in 3/4 of hot water and 2/3 of vinegar.
Spread your feet with equal parts of talcum powder and alum and you will feel like flying away.

Heal the flu with onion: natural method

Natural method against the flu:
Here is the second onion-based recipe to heal the flu.
Let two thin sliced onions soak in half a litre of water.
Then have a glass of this “delicious” drink during meals and before going to sleep for 15 days.
The flu will be out!

Other recipes against flu

To treat pimples: greek hay

Furunculosis can be treated with compresses (used hot but not boiling hot) which can be made boiling some spoons of Greek hay powder in a small quantity of water for some minutes.

Losing weight with herbs. What about a slimming tea?

It’s worth trying if you think you undergo inconceivable sufferings to lose some kilos.
Then I suggest this recipe:
Prepare an herbal tea made with 2 pinches of wild thyme (serpolet), 2 pinches of mint, 2 pinches of basil in a cup of boiling hot water. Cover and take it off the fire. Let infuse for 5 minutes and then drain.
To obtain a certain result, it’s essential to drink this tea everyday, preferably in the evening.

Using violet as a plaster

Panay (pansé or viola tricolor), a flower easy to find in the fields, from spring to autumns, is rich in essential oils, tannin and mucilage that make it an excellent healer and adjuvant in injuries treatment.
You just have to prepare a decoction with 5 g (0.17 oz) of the blossomed part in cold water boiled for 5 minutes. Let it cool and dip a sterile gauze to apply several times during the day to the affected part.

A remedy from Antilles against the flu

Since it’s a recipe coming from Antilles, it could only be based on rhum:
Put two inches of white rhum in a glass with a pinch of salt and some lemon juice. Let it warm in a bain-marie and drink in the night before going to sleep.
Obviously it has a very bad taste but the flu will magically disappear.

To prevent stomach disorders before drinking alcohol

Sure, it’s not a plant but:
if you suffer from stomach disorders every time you drink a dash of liqueur, an effective solution is eating eggs before going out or in the night you think you are going to drink.
Alcohol will not cause you any trouble!

Healing rheumatism with sleep

Rheumatism can be relieved and healed sleeping on a big sack full of dried fern of forest for one or two weeks.

Intentions, purposes and copyright

With the passing of time, the use of officinal herbs and plants is subject to fashion, habits, dizzy and changing lifestyles.
Traditions thus get lost; a grandmother dies bringing with her the secret of a tea; a family abandons its mores; a country undergoes modernization. Some traditions and habits, some herbs and their properties are suddenly forgotten.
It’s often the case of popular medicine which hardly defends its few and most widely used recipes from the development of patent medicine.
Old habits, lost over time, are not always replaced by new ones.
Plants virtues are forgotten, even in the countryside which is far from city life “… and yet, when the grandmother was feeling bad, that’s what she used to do and when I was a baby she used to heal me like this…”
Who puts herbs in the shoes or in the cap anymore? Who makes marjoram infusions for headache or treats cough with stinging nettle infusion and blood pressure with mistletoe?

Liquorice is highly recommended for heartburn and colitis: prepare an infusion with 2 g (0.07 oz) of roots in 100 ml of boiling hot water.
Drink some cups or small cups whenever you want during the day.

A solution for pharyngitis, laryngitis and tonsillitis

Boil 40 g (1.41 oz) of lavender flowers or 20 g (0.70 oz) of rose flowers (if possible red) in 1 l of water for 2 minutes. Add 100 g (3.52 oz) of honey.
Use 4-5 small cups per day to have a gargle.

Linden infusion for the cold

Linden grows spontaneously. However, it’s also grown as ornamental plant and can be often found in public gardens and alleys. Its flowers are gathered from June to the end of August. They are sold both at the herbalist’s shop and the chemist’s.
Linden has diaphoretic (it favours perspiration) and especially anticatarrh properties, soothes throat and bronchial tube inflammation, is diuretic and is recommended in cases of hyperacidity.

It’s well known that linden flowers infusion (better if mixed in equal parts with violet flowers or chamomile) is an excellent tea to fight colds: 5 g (0.17 oz) of linden every 350 ml of water.
Let it infuse and cover for 5-6 minutes.
Drink it hot, especially in the night 10 minutes before going to sleep. Sweeten with honey and sugar. The frequent use of this drink, however, is not recommended for people suffering from heart disorders.

To heal wounds with lily petals

Lily petals, the white ones, soaked in a small pot full of oil for one month, are helpful to heal injuries and small cuts.

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Phytotherapy, Naturopathy, Medical Herbs. No drugs