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Index
1. Antagonism
2. Additivity
3. Synergy
B. Sample Formulae:
1. Mixes of related phytochemicals from the same plant species.
2. Mixes of foods rich in specified phytochemicals.
3. Mixes of related species with related phytochemicals.
4. Mixes of unrelated species with related or unrelated phytochemicals.
Handouts will includes dozens of the authors published and unpublished
recipes or formulae, to be rationalized in class.
REFERENCES: CRC Handbook (and database) of Phytochemical Constituents
of GRAS Herbs and Other Economic Plants (1992) CRC Handbook
(and Database) of Biological Activities of Phytochemicals
(1992), CRC Handbook of Medicinal Mints (Aromathematics)
(1996). Rodale's Green Pharmacy (1997)
4-F Formulae (for Fun)
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The logo is, perhaps all too obviously, patterned after the good-luck
four-leaf clover, which by the way will show up in several of
the formulae, including one that will probaly be better at preventing
breast and prostate cancer and tastier than soybeans.
2. HERB GARDEN tea: 2 ANISE: 4 HYSSOP: 2 TARRAGON: 2 THYME
3. SPICE RACK tea: 2 ANISEED:2 CORIANDER SEED:2 CLOVE:4 CINNAMON
4. SPICE RACK tea: 1 GINGER: 1 CLOVE :4 PEPPERMINT :4 CINNAMON
ACNE LOTION: Steep 4 parts calendula, 4 parts camomile, 2 parts
rosemary, amd 2 parts rosemary, in enough vodka to cover twice;
strain, and apply topically as a facial lotion (Drink the same
facial lotion it if it fails to help your acne, adding lemon lemonbalm
to improve the flavor) (RD)
ALOEHA ACNE: Take half cup of fresh aloe juice and mix in 2 tsp
calendula tincture (flowers), breaking a capsule of vitamin E
into the mix, applying tpoically to affected areas, or generally
as an overnight facial cream. (RD)
SAY AHA! TO ACNE: Squeeze the juice of one papaya and one pineapple
(both contain AHA, alpha-hydroxy-acid) of about the same size,
with a couple of figs, with some thick-skinned grapes. Drink the
juice al gusto. Take the pulp and apply to the face as a mud-bath,
no more than a half hour on the first pass.. (RD)
CHAMELOT: Steep a lot ( a small handful) of chamomile flowers
in a two cups of boiling water, with a few leaves each of lavender,
lemonbalm, and a couple cones of hops. Keep warm in a thermous.
Sip when you feel the stress mounting.
LACKLUSTRE-LICKING-POT-LIKKER: Gently simmer 2 handsfull water
cress, and 1 handful spinach, with a dozen or so diced chive leaves,
and 2-4 diced asparagus spears and drink the potliiker when stress
mounts, enjoying the solids for lunch.
SEEDS OF TRYPTOFANTASY: Nibble on a homemade mix of seeds of evening
primrose, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower, all good sources of tryptophan.
Dietary
2. ARTHRALGETUM: A homemade arthraid pomade, made crudely by grinding
or juicing up equal parts ginger, hotpepper, peppermint, turmeric
(RD)
3. BILBERRY BUST: Spice up one cup blended bilberries (substituting
blueberries OK) with ca 10 g each ground ginger, oregano and turmeric.
Believe it or not, I'd both ingest it, cut with lemonade, or apply
it topically (RD)
4. FENUGREEK GODDESS: Well endowed with the same steroid precursors
as wild yam, fenugreek is cheaper, and can be ground into a paste
in your blender, one cup fenugreek, with a hot pepper, oregano
and peppermint. The resultant pomade will contain the presteroid
disogenin, capsaicin, menthol, and two sources of salicylates,
all common ingredients in OTC topicals for arthritis. (RD)
Asthma-Heat: Mix as hot as you can stand it, in a tea, or ground
up as a relish to eat on bread, ginger; horse-radish; hot pepper;
turmeric
Cosmic Caffeinator (my formula, on sale by Jeanne Rose) Mix to
taste, chocolate powder,, ground, coffee, ground cola nuts, guarana,
guatusa, and mate; all contain at least one of the three antiasthmatic
alklaloids, caffeine, theobromine and theophylline. Sweeten with
by steeping a licorice root in the "coffee", if you
can stand it. Arab might like to add cardamom,
Potherb: Cook up * lb fresh nettle leaves, bringing only to a
simmer; add five cloves garlic and one whole onion, peel and all;
serve like spinach, with vinegar in which hot pepper have marinated.
Spice Rack: Equal mix of Ginger, Turmeric, flavored with a handful
of peppermint, and 2-4 small licorice roots.
1. Garlic Foot Bath: Dice 10 garlic clove into a wash basin of
warm water with a little lemon juice. Steep feet for ca 15 minutes.
Dry feet carefully. Go to the beach barefooted. Soak your feet
in the ocean several; time, then dry them in the sun.(If you go
with the Four-For-Fun-Formulae;
add a dash of ginger and licorice, each of which have a wide array
of fungicidal compounds; (garlic contains at least 5 antidermatitic
compounds in my database (URL=http:/www.ars-grin.gov/duke/), as well as 1
3 bactericidal and and 8 fungicidal compounds.
Venugopal and Venugopal (1995) tested aqueous garlic extracts
(100 g garlic in 50 ml distilled water) against 88 isolates from
clinical cases of tinea capitis, corporis and cruris).
2. Add 10-20 drops teatree oil to a warm basin of water; steep
feet therein. Dry feet carefully. Go to the beach barefooted.
Soak your feet in the ocean several; time, then dry them in the
sun.
3. Aero-mata-mal-de-pies: Mix equal parts of oil of garlic, lavender, thyme and teatree; apply sparingly, moistening affliced areas with a cotton applicator.
4. Backyard Bonanza: Steep overnight 10-20 whole walnuts (hulls
intact), four handfulls crushed jewelweed (heavy with the red
prop roots), 2 handfulls mulberry leaves, and one handful crushed
wild garlic in a bucket; remove the goodies and soak your feet
15-30 minutes; if the grey hairs on your legs turn auburn or black,
give me royalties on this "Greasian" Formula.
ANALGESITEA: Two tsp fennel, four tsp oregano, two tsp tarragon,
one tsp thyme in a uqart of simmering water. Use lemongrass instead
of lemon for flavoring
ANES-THEA: Thea used to be the scientific name of tea, Camellia
sinensis. Drink tea, heavy with three l's, lemongrass, licorice,
and lovage, all well endowed with anesthetic compounds. Add left
overs to your bath.
BORNEALGESIA (Rich in borneol) Cardamom, expensive as it is, tops
the list for borneol, followed by sage, rosemary, and mountain
mint (weed at my place) Use lemongrass instead of lemon for flavoring.
LEMONGRASS LINIMENT: Add a concentrated lemongrass, oregano, rosemary
and thyme tea, one part herb to two parts water, simmered slowly.
Let stand overnight. Bring to a boil again. Strain and add the
tea to olive oil as a carrier for a massage oil. Throw the spent
leaves in your bath.
FARSI FOUR: Persians often indulge clusters of fresh herbs, coriander,
parsley, spearmint, and tarragon, all with chlorophyll's breath
freshening magic.
FOUR C's: Cardamom (four seeds); 2 quills cinnamon, cloves (8),
and ten coriander (1 tsp). Chew individually or mixed, or make
a strong tea for a mouth wash/gargle, swirling it thru the teth.
SCAMBORO FARE: Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, as concentrated
tea, a/o mouthwash; I tend to chew the whole herbs on the sly
when faced with an unexpected unexpectedly close encounter. The
rough leaves of sage are good for massaging the gums.
FFFF Four G's: Garlic (cloves), Ginger (buds), Ginkgo (leaves),
Gotu Kola (leaves, or capsules)
M-4: Make a salve of six parts pulverized comfrey leaves with
one part each pulverized calendula flowers, horsechestnut leaves,
and plantain leaves.
V-4: Throroughly juice the following veggies and apply topically after washing and massage around the sore; as a poultice, to leave on 15-30 minutes:
One Part Alfalfa Sprouts: Four parts comfrey leaf (two if you're
inclined to eat the slurry or drink the juice, too): Two Parts
Kohlrabi: One Part Plantain (covered with water in the blender.
Dehydroalo: Take 1 dash of aloe gel, with two spoons honey, with
one drop each of oil of bergamot and oil of thyme.
ENURETEA: Herbs rich in antidiuretic carvacrol: bergamot (Monarda
fistulosa), dittany (Cunila),savory (Satureja)
and thyme. Sweeten with licorice, which also contains an antiudiuretic.
HomeOhome Remedy: Barberry, dandelion, fennel and horsetail, in
a very dilute tea. Drink the tea at least two hours before bedtime.
(Barberry and horsetail, though frequently used by herbalists
are not bona-fide food farmacy, and might be too strong for children.)
(X LETHAL X): Flying Ointment: The old witches balms contained
herbs like belladona, henbane, jimsonweed, and mandrake, all of
which contain the antisialogogue alkaloids, atropine and scopolamine.
(Peruvian baby sitters just put leaves of plants like this under
the pillow of a child to make them sleep through the night. We
warn you not to try this one, including it only for historical
interest.
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From Father Nature's Farmacy
CARMINATEA # 4: Aniseed, camomile, cinnamon, clove; ca 1 tsp @
per cup simmering water. Add extra cloves for extra potency.
EPAzoTEA: Although potentially dangerous in very large doses,
the Mexican wormseed known as epazote is a classical carminative.
I personally do not feear it in small doses, and have eaten many
bean dishes garnished with epazote. Sweet annie has been listed
in some GRAS tabulations, including my own. Hence I fear not my
4-F epazotea; a teaspoon(dry) or three tsp (fresh) each of epazote,
peppermint, savory and sweet annie. Spicing it up by adding a
few cloves could improve efficacy. Add turmeric for its curcumin
which inhibits gas formation by E. Coli. Curcumin, bound to iron
in the medium, causes inhibition of the formation of formic dehydrogenase
which in turn inhibits gas formation.
MINT TEASE # 4: Oregano, peppermint, sage and savory; ca 1 tsp
@ per cup simmering water; adding a dash or two of cloves and
turmeric could improve efficacy.
SAGaciTEA: Sage; savory; spearmint; and rosemary; ca 1 tsp @ per
cup simmering water; adding a dash or two of cloves and turmeric
could improve efficacy.
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From Father Nature's Farmacy
1. 3 parts calendula flowers (H), 3 parts echinacea root (H),
1 part garlic (F) steeped 15 minutes in 10 parts hot water (with
or without some alcohol) (with unhappy face; not fun to drink).
Strain (I squeeze out the goodies as I strain) 1-4 cups a day
spiced up for taste.
2. 2 parts cloves (S), 2 parts hyssop (H); 8 parts lemon balm
(H), 1 part licorice (S), 1 pa
3. 4 part honeysuckle flowers (M); 4 part forsythia fruits (M),
1 part licorice root (S), 1 part lemon juice (F), in 20 parts
water (With straight face, not yucky, not great)
4. 5 parts hypericum (flowering shoots) (M), 1 part licorice root
(S), tinctured in 50 per cent alcohol. Take up to 30 drops in
cup of warm water, 1-4 times a day. (With yuckey face)
5.1 part kava-kava, 1 part licorice; ten parts water; take one-cup
warm at bedtime (yuckey)
WARNING: These are for my personal use only, and not to be recommended or prescribed to anyone else. All herbs, fruits and vegetables contain natural pesticides. (And allergens and antiallergens, carcinogens and anticarcinogens, inflammatories and antiinflammatories, mutagens and antimutagens, and prooxidants and antioxidants, etc.) .
FIRST DRAFT
Jim Duke FOR DISCUSSION ONLY
ADRENERGITEA: Equal parts, as available, of echinacea,
eleuthero, ginseng, huanchi, (astragalus); sweeten with the controversial
licorice, a proven adrenal stimulant.
AIDS-ADE: To the usual antioxidant (which see)
mint tea, add such proven antiviral mints as allheal, hyssop,
and skullcap. Gollapudi et al (1995) isolated
from hyssop tea (aqueous extract) a polysaccharide MAR-10 which
dose-dependently inhibited HIV-I. They concluded that the hyssop
compound might be useful in treating HIV-I patients. Add
echinacea and chicory for the antiintegrase compound cichoric
acid.
ALL-SAINT'S TEA: Mix all-heal, Prunella vulgaris
(in clinical trials for AIDS), with shoots of various species
of flowering Hypericum, especially St. John's-wort, Hypericum
perforatum, and St. Peter's-wort, Hypericum hypericoides,
with proven antiretroviral activity. The patient him or herself
should collect the plants on St. John's Day, June 24, and extract
them in an hydroalcoholic tincture. Additionally the patient should
extract the flowers of Hypericum by steeping in evening prirose
oil until the oil turns blood-colored. (NOTE: Prunella
is a well recognized antioxidant food plant, used in teas and
as a potherb, or added to salads, soups and stews., Of the Hypericums,
only Hypericum perforatum is GRAF; Facciola says of it:
The herb and fruit are sometimes used as a tea. Flowers can be
used for making mead."
ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT CASUALTEA: Steep cloves (Syzigium
aromaticum, alias Eugenia caryophyllata) in your
coca tea (if legal and available), adding allspice, bayleaf, cinnamon
and marjoram as available to taste. Mix in, as available, those
mints that smell rich in thymol: balm, basil (also rich in eugenol),
dittany, savory, and thyme. To accomodate your Japanese mountain
climbing friends, add peppermint because they believe in peppermint
oil for soroche. (Believing is the bigger half of medicine) I
believe more in the thymol and eugenol after surveying the literature.
Therefore, the peppermint would be superfluous with me.
ALZHEIMARETTO: This is a drink I make only for
myself and cannot recommend to anyone else, except perhaps as
a bath ingredient. The drink is made by steeping those herbs richest
in compounds that prevent the breakdown of choline or acetylcholine,
at least in test tubes. Mint compounds which are known to prevent
the breakdown of acetyl choline and/or choline include carvacrol,
carvone, cineole, fenchone, limonene, limonene oxide, pulegone
and puelgone-oxide, and thymol. Rosemary contains at least five
of these, the italicized five. Many if not all of these compounds
are dermally absorbed and some can cross the blood brain barrier.
Thus rosemary shampoo could have acetylcholine saving activity
comparable to tacrine. As mentioned in Organic Gardening (Jul/Aug
1995), horsebalm is my best mint for carvacrol and thymol, spearmint
is my best mint source of cineole, mountain mint my best mint
source of limonene and pulegone. Add oregano, rosemary and self-heal
for their marvelous antioxidant properties, and/or high contents
of rosmarinic acid, which has different activities showing promise
in Alzheimeran research. Caraway, dill and fennel top it off.
AMAZONIAN ACEER HEARTWISE SALAD: Wash and dice
your purslane (Portulaca oleracea), best source of several
antioxidants, e.g. ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, tocopherol and
glutathione, and well endowed with omega-three fatty acids. For
your dressing, mix equal parts palm oil (Elaeis guineensis)
best source of tocotrienol and great source of carotene; mix with
mil pesos oil (Jessenia batatau; better than olive oil
for MUFAs); and camu-camu juice, (Myrciaris dubia) best
known source of vitamin C. Add diced brazilnuts (Bertholettia
excelsa) and cashew nuts (Anacardium occidentale),
best and good source of selenium respectively. (Don't use more
than 10 brazilnuts a day.)
AMAZONIAN SALVE: Naturopathic Doctor, Steve and I cooked up something that might be a great antiviral, maybe even better than Shaman's Virend for herpes, over an open wood fire in an Amazonian kitchen with no electricity, Nov. 3, 1995. We amalgamated components of a reportedly antiviral pair from the rainforest, cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa) and fer-de-lance (Dracontium loretanum), with the dragon's blood (Croton lechleri), five parts equally mixed, into a mix of 1 part beeswax and 4 parts olive oil. We called it the Amazonian Salve. I'll carry it around on my next lecture swing, thinking of it as the poor man's Virend. But if AIDS were my target, I might use evening primrose oil instead of olive oil, and I'd add a lot of turmeric, thereby incorporating, with the proven antiviral dragons' blood, most of the supposed anti-AIDS plants in some Peruvian and Ugandan clinical trials. It might not help. But neither are the more expensive immune-smashing hardcore pharmaceuticals that are further debilitating our AIDS patients.
AMENI-TEA: Amen!. My database
(URL=http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/)
lists scores of emmenagogue herbs, among which I think the following
are the most likely to be effective yet pleasantly scented. I
would not hesitate to suggest Ameno-Tea to my daughter, if she
wanted to bring on her period. Add dashes of whichever you have
on hand to boiling water. Steep 15 minutes: agrimony, angelica,
calaminths, caraway, carrotseed,catnip, coriander, culantro, cumin,
dill, dongquai, epazote, fennel, feverfew, ginger, horehound,
hyssop, juniper, lavender, lemonbalm, lovage, marigold, marjoram,
motherwort, nutsedge, oregano, parsely, pennyroyal, roselle, rosemary,
rue, saffron, tansy, tarragon, thyme, turmeric, wild chervil,
wintergreen, yarrow, ylang-ylang. I note also that fruits and
roots with proteolytic enzymes, like figs, ginger, papaya, pineapple,
are also folkloric emmenagogues. I'm a strong believer that millenia
of empirical experfimentation and/or observation by our ancestral
women have selected the more effective of these, so much so that
their use in pregnancy is often counterindicated, feverfew, pennyroyal,
parsley, rue and tansy. I've known herbalists who intetnionally
brought on their periods early with these in anticipation of the
timing of trips or special visits from lovers.
AMYGDELIGHT (Laetrile Sauce). Scoop off the thick
top that rises in your blender after you let your laetrilogy settle.
Crush a few almonds and closely related apricot pits (which may
contain 8% amygdalin, and maybe a few other members of the rose
family, like blackberries, cherries, peach, plums, raspberries
and strawberries, which have, in general, more water and less
laetrilesin the delicious fruits than in the semi-edible seeds.
Caution: Too much amygdalin, benzaldehyde, cyanide a/or water
can kill a human.
ANALGESITEA: I'd combine my more flavorful herbs
from ANALGETEA and ANESTHEA with better local sources of salicylates,
capsicum, queen-of-the-meadow, loosestrife, willow, and mostly
wintergreen (for both flavor and methyl salicylate). Add as avalable
a dash of dill, fennel, ginger, oregano, pennyroyal, spearmint,
thyme.
ANALGETEA: When seeing why "lemon coke"
might lead one to feel no pain, I did an FNF run for plants with
the greatest number a/o quantity of analgesic compounds. That
run would suggest to me the following components. fennel and tarragon
with 10 analgesic compounds each, capsicum with 9, carrot with
8, currant and rosemary with, dill, ginger, grapefruit, hops,
oregano, poppy (illegal!) and thyme with 7 each. Camphor leaf,
though it had only 4 analgesic compounds was highest of these
quantitatively with 22% analgesic compounds, on a zero-moisture
basis. Bayrum, celeryseed, coffee, clove, and licorice ranged
from 4.4% to 18% analgesic compounds, on a dry weight basis.
ANESTHEA: When seeing why "lemon coke"
might lead one to feel no pain, I did an FNF run for plants with
the greatest number a/o quantity of anesthetic compounds. Licorice
contained 9 anesthetic, tea and black pepper 8, lovage and kava-kava
7, rosemary, shrubby basil and spearmint 6, cinnamon, fennel,
mace, oregano, peppermint, pennyroyal, winter savory, and ylang-ylang.
ANGELADE (for the heart): Celery is close kin to the herb angelica (Harmala et al. 1992) which contains 15 calcium-antagonistic compounds. Celery has three of these: bergapten 1-520 ppm's; isopimpinellin 4-122 ppm's; and xanthotoxin 6-183 ppm's. Parsnip and parsley are even better endowed with the coumarin calcium-blockers. I'm not about to suggest ingestion of coumarins in foods as calcium-antagonists, just here to ask of our federal health watchers: would
ANGELADE (consisting of juiced angelica, carrot, celery, fennel,
parsley, parsnip juice) be as safe and efficacious and cheap as
verapamil as a calcium blocker? Might that thereby partially explain
the lower incidence of cardiopathy in vegetarians? So celery contains
hypotensive, hypocholesterolemic, and calcium-blocker phytochemicals.
How about antiarrhythmic compounds? There's apigenin, apiin, magnesium,
and potassium. Is heart of celery better for the heart than what
your physician suggests? Would ANGELADE, with
a wider variety of 6 vegetables be better? Methinks yes! But I'll
probably never know. I'd bet however it would do more good than
verapamil.
ANTIAGGREGANT SALAD: When I asked FNF for the
plants with the greatest variey of antiaggregant compounds, the
printout read like a tofu salad: garlic with 9 different antiaggfregants,
tomato, dill and fennel with 7, onion, hot pepper and soybean
with 6; and celery, carrot and parsley, each with 5 different
antiaggregant compounds. I left out a few front runners that might
have detracted from the salad. Consult the FNF database if you
really want to know. The more you add, the less the likelihood
of altitude sickness and stroke.
ANTIINLAMMATEA: A very good antitinflammatory
tea can be fashioned from backyard herbs, as available, like birchbark,
caraway, CELERY, chamomile, feverfew, oregano, peppermint, rosemary,
wintergreen, thyme, and yarrow , spiced up with analgesic antiinflammatory
eugenol from clove; curcumin, galangin, and zingibain from ginger
and turmeric; and thymoquinone from black cumin; sweetened with
licorice (for those like me not bothered with hypertension or
hypokalemia) and pineapple (for its bromelain)
ANTIOCH'S TEA: Mix as available those high antoxidant
mints, as tabulated in Organic Gardening (Jul/Aug, p. 45. 1995).
Of 15 mints, their relative antoxidant potency follow, from highest
to lower (many more are tabulated elsewhere): oregano 2.9; self-heal
2.4; spearmint 1.7; rosemary 1.5; bugle 1.5; lemonbalm 1.5; clary
1.4; marjoram 1.3; applemint 1.3; peppermint 1.2; sage, 1.2; cornmint
1.1, watermint 1.1, savory 1.0, and thyme 1.0. This means the
oregano has nearly three times the antioxidant acivity as the
savory and thyme. But I like to mix as many as I have on hand,
stressing the high antioxidant ones. I think this approach complements
the ACESe (beta-carotene, ascorbic acid, tocopherol, selenium)
nutrient approach, but prefer the whole food sources to the supplement,
i.e. purslane, camu-camu, purslane, brazilnut, better than Vitamin
A, Vitamic C, Vitamin E, and selenum, respectively.
ANTIULCER CELERY SOUP: 1 cup celery, 2 cups cabbage,
1 cup diced potato, 1/2 cup okra, 1/2 cup onion, 1/2 cup green
pepper, spiced with cayenne, garlic, ginger, black pepper.
ANTIULCER FRUIT COCKTAIL: Apple (pectin), Banana,
Blueberries (anthocyanosides), Cinnamon (cinnamaldehyde), Cloves
(eugenol), Ginger (shogaol), Pineapple (bromelain). A flavonoid-rich
diet might help in allergic ulcer patients. In one study, 1,000
mg catechin, 5 times a day, reduced histamine levels in both normal
and patients with gastric and duodenal ulcers and gastritis (Pizzorno
and Murray, 1985). Others swear by bananas (Musa) and
plantains (both Musa and Plantago). For example,
Dunjic et al (1993) argue that bananas and plantains "strengthen
mucosal resistance and promote healing of ulcers because of water
soluble polysaccharides in unripe bananas and surface active phospholipids
in ripe sweet bananas." They gave some hard drinking rats
absolute alcohol, chased 45 minutes later by banana suspension
or lecithin a/o pectin. Reichert (1995) in review, queries why
not just employ lecithin or choline since they showed greater
statistical significance, and hence greater anti-ulcer effectiveness,
than banana pulp alone. Suggesting synergistic interactions between
such phytochemicals as phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol,
and phosphatidylethanolamine Reichert says: "Bananas may
in fact be another useful addition to such well established anti-ulcer
foods as raw cabbage, green tea, garlic and legumes." (Reichert,
1995)
ANTIYEAST SOUP 4 cloves garlic; 2 onions; sage,
thyme, clove, salt and pepper to taste; top with acidophilus yogurt.
ANTIYEAST YOGURT: Steep some of the tea herbs
in acidophilous yogurt, but only briefly. The candidicidal compounds
can probably, at least in some cases, damage the acidophilous
as well. The caprylic acid in coconut might make a useful addition.
If the yeast is in the mouth (thrush) you might consider topical
application..
ANTIYEAST TEA: mix to taste those easily available
to you: allspice, basil, bergamot, camomile, caraway, cinnamon,
clove, eucalyptus, ginger, lavender, lemonbalm, lemongrass, licorice,
mace, orange rosemary, sage, spicebush (GRAF, not GRAS), tea-tree
(not exactly GRAS, consult the FDA, if you like the Washington
Merry-Go-Round), thyme. Sweeten with licorice or stevia instead
of sugar. ( Sweetflag, a relativly dangerous herb, has impressive
levels of antiseptic eugenol, isoeugenol and methylisoeugenol).
ARTHRITIC BROTH: For an herbal broth (consomme
or bouillon), I'd try burdock, cayenne, celeryseed, dandelion,
epazote, garlic-mustard, horseradish, juniper, lambsquarter, lemongrass,
oregano, parsley, sarsaparilla, thyme, turmeric, valerian, watercress
and willowbark. I salt and pepper my broths, but herbal seasonings
are probably better for you. Black pepper and white mustard belong
in this one, with ginger and turmeric.
ARTHRITIC SOUP:
MAJOR INGREDIENTS MINOR INGREDIENTS SPICES
(Cups) (Cups) (Dashes)
Cabbage (2) Garlic (1/8) Capsicum (2)
String Beans (1) Chicory (1/4) Black Pepper (2)
Nettle Leaves (1) Turmeric (1/8) White Mustard (2)
Celery (1) Eggplant (1/4) Flax Seed (2)
Dandelion Leaves (1/2) Licorice (1/8) Lemon Juice (2)
Dandelion Roots (1/2) Evening Primrose Sarsaparilla (1)
Carrots (1/2) Seed (Whole) (1/8) Fenugreek (2)
Asparagus (1/2) Spinach (1/4)
You don't need all of these, nor in these proportions. But all
ingredients have a folk reputation for arthritis. In my experience,
25% (Amerindian) to 50% (Chinese) batting averages have been attributed
to the folklore, i.e., 1/4 to 1/2 of them, if carefully examined
will prove to have a compound scientifically demonstrated to have
an appropriate biological activity. And if you believe in the
soup more than the fizzician who has failed you, the soup will
do more good.
ARTHRITIC-TEA: For an herb tea (I sweeten my
teas with Stevia and add lemon or lemonbalm), I'd include camomile,
cassia, cinnamon, ginger, ginseng (only if cheap), groundivy,
hyssop, lavender, lemongrass, licorice, oregano, sarsaparilla,
sassafras (without safrole if the FDA is around; they outlawed
the old sassafras root beer even though it is less carcinogenic
than today's ethanolic beer), thyme, turmeric, and wintergreen.
The brave might experiment by adding hot sauce, so that the capsaicin
might generate endorphin release. Several OTC products containing
capsaicin are used to control the pain of arthritis and rheumatism
(ABC, 1994). Bromelain from pineapple might be added; Murray suggests
400-500 mg bromelain, three times a day, on an empty stomach,
to increase the absorption of curcumin, the active ingredient
in turmeric. Turmeric is close kin to ginger which also shows
promise.
ARTHITI-TEA (DISFLAMMITEA): Duwiejua and Zeitlin
( 1993) prepared a nice summary on plants as sources of antiinflammatory
compounds. They generalize that flavonoids, as a class, are potent
inhibitors of arachidonic-acid metabolism. Many inhibit cyclooxygenase,
which itself leads to conversion of arachidonic acid to prostacyclin
(PGI2), thromboxane A-2, and the largely proinflammatory stable
prostaglandins, PGE2, PGF2, and PGD2. Galangin from turmeric and
other members of the ginger family inhibits cyclooxygenease with
IC50=5.5 uM. Activity of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) leads to proleukotrienes.
Aesculetin, baicalein and quercetin inhibit 5-LO at IC50 0.1-5
uM. Among the terpenoids, triterpenes and sesquiterpenes are most
promising. They enumerate several triterpenes with significant
antiinflammatory., one from licorice equalling in intensity alpha,beta-boswellic-acid
(from Boswellia serrata) which completely inhibits the
complement pathway 100% at only 0.1 uM. Moreover the glycyrrhetinic
acid even mimic corticosteroid activity. Several other compounds,
less potent, inhibit carrageenan activity at 40 mg, ipr, but I
don't think thats of consequence to the herbal community, unless
the activty can be demonstrated for oral preparations. At 40 mg/kg
ipr, the inhibitions are nimbin (24.8%), beta-amyrin (26.9), oleanolic-acid
(36.5), filicene (40.3%), and alpha-amyrin (43.1%) (Duwiejua and
Zeitlin, 1993). Antiedemic activity (against carrageenan-induced
paw-edema in rodents), but ipr, has also been reported for many
sesquiterpenes; aromaticin (IC35=2.5 mg/kg ipr); deoxyelephantopin
(IC57=2.5 mg/kg ipr); eupaformosin (IC31=2.5 mg/kg ipr); eupahyssopin
(IC57=2.5 mg/kg ipr); eupatolide (IC30=2.5 mg/kg ipr); helenalin
(IC70=2.5 mg/kg ipr); molephantin (IC33=2.5 mg/kg ipr); tenulin
(IC16=2.5 mg/kg ipr). While I'm not overexcited about any of these,
the reference drug, indomethacin, is not much more exciting (IC88=10
mg/kg ipr). Against adjuvant-induced arthritis, the sesquiterpenes
were even better, administered daily for three weeks,on average)
helenalin (IC77=2.5 mg/kg ipr); tenulin (IC53=2.5 mg/kg ipr);
eupahyssopin (IC66=2.5 mg/kg ipr); eupatolide (IC30=2.5 mg/kg
ipr); molephantin (IC60=2.5 mg/kg ipr); most were better than
the reference drug, indomethacin, (IC45=10 mg/kg ipr). Other important
antiinflammatory compounds in the daisy family include parthenolide
from feverfew, bisabolol from chamomile, and atractylenolide frp,
Atractylis japonica. Salicylates are the best known of the phenol
carboxylic acids, occuring in such antiarthritic plants as birches,
poplars, primroses, willows, violets and wintergreen. Simple phenols
like carvacrol, eugenol and thymol also have IC50 values comparable
to indomethacin (IC50=1.2 uM) in the cyclooxygenase system.
Reading this paragraph conjures up in my mind a very good antitinflammatory
tea from my backyard herbs, like birchbark, caraway, chamomile,
feverfew, wintergreen, thyme, and yarrow , spiced up with analgesic
antiinflammatory eugenol from clove, curcumin
from ginger and galangin from turmeric. Curcumin,
a relatively non-toxic nutraceutical, is as antiinflammatory as
cortisone or phenylbutazone in acute models, but only half as
effective in chronic models. I think we should at least try the
tea and exercise before resorting to cortisols.
ASTHMATEA: Leading plants with the most "antiasthmatic"
compounds were tea, fennel and cayenne (each with at least 6 antiasthmatic
compounds), onion, coriander and bell-pepper (each with 5 or more),
and cabbage, cacao, carrot, cranberry, currant, eggplant, grapefruit,
orange, oregano, sage, and tomato, each with at least 4 reportedly
antiasthmatic compounds. On a quantitative basis, licorice and
tea were big winners, with cacao, cardamom, coffee, cola, onion,
purslane, and tea looking relatively rich.
BACTERICADE: A ranking of spices according to
which contained the greatest variety of bactericides (based on
CRC handbook, 1992) showed that coriander and licorice had 20
bactericides, oregano and rosemary 19, ginger 17, nutmeg 15, black
pepper 14 and garlic 13 (but I'll leave those two out of my Bactericidal
Spicades) cinnamon and cumin 11, and bay 10. I'd go heavy with
the turmeric becuae curcumin is not only antseptic, it is deodorant.
Licorice contained up to 33% bactericidal compounds on a calculated
dry basis, thyme (up to 21.3%), hops (up to 14.2%), oregano (to
8.8%), rosemary ( up to 4.8%), coriander (up to 2.2%), and fennel
(up to 1.5%), in decreasing quantities of maximum potential bactericidal
compounds (dry weight basis).
BALM-BANE: Mix 8 parts lemon balm, 4 parts bee-balm,
4 parts ginger, 1 part horse-balm, if going for viruses; for bacteria,
stress the horse-balm which is better endowed with carvacrol and
thymol.
BANANA BUST: Steep mashed banana, including inner
portions of peel, with blueberry and pineapple juices, cassia,
cinnamon, cloves, ginger and peppermint, all of which contain
proven antiulcer ingredients. Drink before retiring.
BEAN PATE (I'd indulge in this if I feared cirrhosis)
by Jim Duke
-----------
2 cup beans (soybean, kidneybean, lima bean, black-eyed-pea)
(aim for the bean that has the most anticirrhotic lecithin)
1 cup diced onion
1/8 cup diced beets
Soak dried beans overnight, just covering with unsalted water.
Boil bean gently until tender, adding raw beets and onions to
simmer 15-20 minutes, salting to taste, and adding a dash of cayenne
and paprika at the last minute.
For sauce for the pate or bean cake, use in the following proportions:
1 part paprika
1 part cayenne
1 part garlic
1 part parsley
2 parts turmeric
8 parts diced onion
8 parts chopped tomatoes
2 parts diced carrot
2 parts diced celery stalks
2 parts diced red or green mild pepper
1 part celeryseed
1 part black pepper
Follow with artichokes, which like milk thistle and lecithin,
also have proven liver-protective bioactives. Lecithin is the
trivial name for a class of phospholipids officially referred
to as phosphatidylcholines. Synthesized in the human body, it
is not considered an essential nutrient. Lecithin preparations
are widely consumed for health reasons, thought to be beneficial
in cholesterol metabolism, brain function, and more recently,
soy-lecithin was shown to prevent cirrhosis in baboons. Three
tablespoons (1.5 ounces, according to my unabridged) of soy lecithin
a day protected the livers of baboons consuming the alcohol equivalent
to humans taking 8 cans of beer a day. Assuming I weigh 4 times
more than a baboon, that would mean I'd have to take 6 ounces,
or 180 grams or 180,000 milligrams of soy lecithin to prevent
cirrhosis if I were a king-sized baboon. (Science News 138, 340.
1990) But it only takes 16,000 mg/day choline a/o lecithin to
significantly improve some patients with tardive dyskinesia (Nut.
Rev. 5th ed.) They even state that "Geriatric cognition might
be improved by providing abundant amounts of choline or lecithin
in the diet". Two cups of poppyseed and/or three cups of
the appropriate beans could possibly provide 16,000 mg choline
and/or lecithin. But that's too much, enough to fatten one significantly.
Poppyseed have more lecithin (28,000 ppm) than the legumes reported
in FNF (black gram 16,000; peanut 5,000-7,000; soybean 15,000-25,000).
Dandelion flowers have even more, rounded up to 30,000 ppm or
3%. Dietarily that looks pretty improbable; I'd need ca 15 pounds
of dandelion or poppyseed, even more of the beans to provide that
much lecithin. No one should ingest that much soybean or dandelion
for that matter, in a day. But do take time to eat the flowers
(if you're not sensitive to dandelion pollen or allergic to or
poisoned by the flowers you eat).
BEER BEANSTM (a mixture of twenty parts milk-thistle
seed, twenty parts fababean seeds or sprouts (for daidzein and
l-dopa, ten parts soybean (for its daidzin), and one part ginkgo,
by weight) to nervous cirrhosiphobes who continue to drink. Seeds
of the milk thistle, also kin to chicory, can be made into a salubrious
coffee, better for the alcoholic than the beer.
BIBLICAL BRAINFOOD SOUP could be contrived of
choline-rich Biblical plants like barley, bottle-gourd, lentil,
nettle, and wheat, and lecithin-rich Biblical plants like dandelion,
faba-bean, flax, poppyseed, walnut (with serotonin) and wheat.
Sprouted fababean seeds (our best source of dietary l-dopa) might
accompany this soup, especially for those suffering Parksinson's
and Alzheimer's.
BLISTERINE: Steep mixed herbs 50:50 in denatured
alcohol or vodka. Herbs would contain the major active ingredients
in listerine; cineole (eucalyptol), menthol, methyl salicylate,
and thymol. I use eucalyptus, rosemary or spearmint for my cineole,
since I'm too cheap to use cardamom, a very good source of cineole.
I'd use one of my many species of mint (Mentha) as a
source of menthol, cherry birch or wintergreen as a source of
methyl salicylate, and horsemint or thyme for my thymol. I'll
guarantee it would contain more than twenty antiseptic aromatic
compounds and could help as an antiseptic on popped blisters.
In the humid tropics I'd first wash wounds with peroxide, if I
had any, then apply blisterine, then dry the abscess in the sunshine,
and sprinkle in flowers of sulfur. Roughly that treatment permitted
my five more years in the humid tropics.
BOG BITTERS: (melanoma): Those prone to melanoma
who believe that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound
of cure, might enjoy Bog Bitters, a mix of bearberry, birch-bark
and bogbean bitters, to which some other betulinic acid containers
have been added. Other plant reported to contain betulinic acid
include dogwood, eucalyptus (lemon-), forsythia, grape, henna,
jackfruit, jujube, mulberry, rosemary, sage, and teatree. Some
of these are better not ingested. Some may have more betulinic
acid, some less. Very few quantitative data are available. Other
betulinic-acid- (a/o derivatives) containing plants found in a
search of medline and agricola databases include :
BONE BROTH:
BORON FRUIT SALAD
2 cup sliced fresh peaches (2-150 ppm, fresh-dry weight Boron {B})
2 cup diced fresh plums (or prunes, moistened) (3-255 ppm B)
1 cup diced apple (2-43 ppm B)
1 cup raisins (grapes contain 2-38 ppm B)
1 cup grapefruit (2-33 ppm B)
1/2 cup almonds (18 ppm B)
Canned material may be substituted. Steep juices with allspice
(25 ppm B) and clove (10-40 ppm B). Serve chilled.
BORON SALAD
2 cups drained canned asparagus (6-100 ppm B)
1 cup diced cabbage (2-87 ppm B)
1 cup cooked or pickled stringbeans (3-45 ppm B)
1/2 cup sliced cucumbers (4-28 ppm B)
over lettuce leaf (1-87 ppm B)
Three mg boron can double blood levels of estrogen, thereby tending
to prevent osteoporosis. Men seeking to prevent impotence with
my INSTERILI-TEA, catuaba, muira puama, scotch pine pollen (reported
to contain testosterone), yohimbine, and 3 mg boron, reported
to double blood levels of testosterone. Reduced dietary boron
usually increases theta-wavy brain activity and decreases in alpha-wave
activity (James Penland, USDA psychologist, Grand Forks, N. Dakota).
Lower boron means slower mental response.
BREATHALYZER: Keep fresh sprigs of chlorophyll-rich
aromatic herbs, like basil, cilantro, nettle, and parsley in water.
(I use my aromatic cinnamon smelling tansy, but can't recommend
to anyone, because it carries the warning: may cause abortion
if over-consumed) Nibble as needed, chasing with powdered charcoal,
to improve the breath. Munch on ginkgo nuts and kudzu roots.
BROMELADE: One simply adds high bromelain pineapple
to Embolade (an Antiembolitic Chutney of capsicum, garlic, ginger,
onions and turmeric) Pineapple's bromelain has proven useful in
bruises as well as having antiemolic properties.
BUS-TEA: "Anise, caraway, fennel and lemongrass increase the size of the breasts and promote lactation, whereas parsley, mint and sage reduce the milk supply."
The first four might be incorporated into my "Bus Tea". clearly improving on the flavor of the active fenugreek. I would not hesitate to indulge in fenugreek sprout "Bus Tea" or a Lebanese fenugreek "milkshake" for micromastia (or hyperglycemia or hypertension). I might even sweeten my Mastogenic Milkshake with licorice whose glycyrrhizin is amphiestrogenic. (With the licorice it might be hypertensive and hypokalemic). But for other people who might have trouble with licorice, I would suggest the following as a recipe for
"Bus Tea"
1 cup fenugreek sprouts Dash or two of anise, basil, caraway, dill, fennel, marjoram
1/2 cup lemongrass Sweeten to taste
1/2 cup lemon-verbena Steep licorice, if you are sure that it does you no harm!
1/2 cup lemon balm Add lemon juice to overcome bitterness
CARAWADETM: (To prevent breast cancer?) The
monoterpenoid limonene (not a limonoid) has received a lot of
press lately, especially relative to breast cancer.Huang et al's
Table VII indicates that limonene inhibits the initiation of cancer
in the lung, mammaries, and forestomach, and even led to regression
in mammary cancers (in rats). POTENTIAL LIMONENADE INGREDIENTS
APIUM GRAVEOLENS CELERY 530-24,700 SD
CARUM CARVI CARAWAY 7,860-30,180 SD
CITRUS AURANTIIFOLIA LIME 2,795-6,400 FR
CITRUS AURANTIUM SOUR ORANGE 1,000-8,000 FR
CITRUS LIMON LEMON 2,796-8,000 EO
CITRUS RETICULATA TANGERINE 6,500-9,400 FR
CITRUS SINENSIS ORANGE 8,300-9,700 FR
ELETTARIA CARDAMOMUM CARDAMOM 595-9,480 FR
FOENICULUM VULGARE FENNEL 200-9,420 FR
ILLICIUM VERUM STAR-ANISE 100-5,220 FR
MENTHA SPICATA SPEARMINT 200-5,725 FR
MYRISTICA FRAGRANS NUTMEG 720-5,760 FR
THYMUS VULGARIS THYME 15-5,200 PL
I enjoy beverages combining any of these that I have on hand.
CARMINATEA: For colitis and IBS, I might try
my own carminatea, consisting of camomile, caraway, dill, fennel,
melissa and peppermint, sweetened with licorice. E.g. caraway
oil is antihistaminic, antispasmodic, bactericidal, carminative,
larvicidal and non-toxic (Leung and Foster, 1995).
CATARACTEA:Take two liters of water (preferably
from the rapids of a clear clean stream); bring to a slow boil,
and remove from heat, dropping in one handfull each of the following
herbs:
Catnip
Ginger
Lemonbalm
Oswego Tea
Pot Marjoram
Rosemary
Turmeric (several dashes)
Steep for 20 minutes, and drink warm or cold, with lemon juice
and honey (or sugar, if you don't like the mess of honey)
(NOTE: All these herbs contain ascorbic acid, bioflavonoids, and
tocopherols, respectively vitamins C, P, and E, all of which have
proven anticataract activity, and all contain manganese and magnesium,
likewise, apparently with anticataract activity. Some of these,
like rosemary, contain more than a dozen antioxidants, which antioxidants
may protect protein in the eye's lens from breaking down.). My
database tends to show how diet could be manipulated in various
pharmacological directions. Dr. Robin Saunders, USDA, Albany,
California, notes that rice bran lowers cholesterol at least as
much as oat bran, at least in hamsters. But it contains less than
10% of the beta-glucans in oat bran. Must contain other additive
or synergistic hypocholesterolemic compounds.
CATHA COLA: incorporating the anorexic thermogenic
qat (khat; Catha edulis) with anorexics cathine and cathinone
with their cocaine and caffeine. Hot "catha or qata
cola", incorporating the Maya hot chocolate, with
its anorexic xanthines (no longer believed to contain theophylline)
with hot pepper's thermogenic catabolic capsaicin. This 5-C
High Wire formula would probably be illegal,
containing caffeine, capsaicin, cathine, cathinone, cocaine, in
addition to ephedrine and theophylline, but it would probably
be effective at inducing weight loss. And it would in all probability
get the patient all wired-up, if not fired up.
CHASTI-TEA: Steep an ounce of chasteberries with
an ounce of marshmallow in two ounces of 50-100 proof vodka, adding
to taste bayleaves, carrot (and seed), celery seed, feverfew,
horehound (in a Chastitea?), pennyroyal , tansy, turmeric and
yarrow. All are folkloric or real emmenagogues or remedies for
amenorrhea. All are counterindicated in pregnancy.
CINEOLADE: Since I like pineapple juice and ginger, recommended by popular writers for various pulmonary ailments, I would combine them with several of the high-cineole herbs listed below to make "Cineolade", containing the expectorant cineole, reportedly useful in laryngitis. Plants containing more than 300 ppm's cineole (as their maximum reported dry weight content) are basil (to 776), beebalm (to 2,735), cardamom (to 56,000), cinnamon (to 800), eucalypt (to 29,750), fennel (to 300), ginger (to 5,000), hyssop (to 610), lavender (to 3,435), lemon leaf (to 700), lemon verbena (to 450), nutmeg (to 3,520), peppermint (to 1,390), rosemary (to 8,125), spearmint (to 9,375), sweet annie (to 6,600), tansy (to 1,300), tarragon (to 500), turmeric (to 720), and yarrow (to 960). Cineolade might also be useful for the liver if ABC (Blumenthal et al, 1997) is correct,"Cineol causes the induction of the enzymes involved in detoxication of the liver." I'll put that in my cineolade and drink it with my milk thistle.
COSMIC CAFFEINATOR: A mix conatining most or
all of the major caffeine-containing beverage plants; chocolate,
coffeee, cola, guarana, guatusa, mate, tea.
COUMARADE: (See Also Furanocoumarade) For that
smell of new mown hay, it is simply coumarin (1,2-benzopyrone)
Sources: ageratum (to 0.1% coumarin, ZMB), balsam of Peru (to
0.4%), jujube (to 0.3) red clover, sweetclover (to 0.2%), sweetgrass,
tonka bean (to 3.5%), and woodruff (to 1.3%).
CREAM OF SEDATIVE SOUP Made of many of the tryptophan
sources (pulverize seeds, as available, of evening primrose (9,000
ppm), winged bean (8,000), white mustard (5,000), pumpkin (4,500)
sunflower (4,000), lablab (4,000), sesame (3,500), chickpea (3,500).
Add if desired almond milk, butternut, ginger, poppyseed, sesame
and walnut. After simmering as a soup stock, add at the last minute
one half-cup diced celery per cup of broth. Simmer no more than
ten minutes.
CRUCI-FIX: Fearing cancer, I might seek isothiocyanates,
I'd go for a cruci-fix, a solitary dish or mix
of the crucifers I had on hand. A series of new studies reported
on Medline indicate that feeding isothiocyanates to experimental
animals protects them from cancers of the breast, esophagus, liver,
lungs, mammaries, and stomach. My friend Paul Talalay, MD, Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine, reviews the mechanisms by which isothiocyanates
block carcinogenesis and suggests that they are ideal for chemoprevention
of cancers. The list of well-known crucifers is long and tasty:
broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, cress, kale, kohlrabi,
mustard greens, pak choy, radishes, turnip greens, and watercress.
DEFYING GRAVE-TEA: If diagnosed with Grave's
Disease and unable to get standard pharmaceuticals, I would resort
to Defying Gravetea: Combine four handfulls lemonbalm, with two
handsfull each, if available of gromwell and bugleweed; add others
tasty herbs, especially mints, well endowed with caffeic-, chlorogenic-,
ellagic-, lithospermic- and/or rosmarinic acids. I think this
would help in Grave's Disease, as well as in viral infections.
But don't you do this. Instead listen to Varro Tyler, Lilly Distinguished
Professor of Pharmacognoscy at Purdue University, and author of
a dozen or so books, including the recent Herbs of Choice (Haworth
Press, Inc., 1994): "Hyperthyroidism is a complex disease
scarecly amenable to self-treatment with nonstandradized medicaments."
But in Adverse Effects of Herbal Drugs, Winteroff, in De Smet
(1993) says of bugle: "Moreover, ellagic acid, another constituent
of this plant, may perhaps counteract carcinogenic effects."
DIABETIC'S DILEMADE: Bay, cinnamon, clove, turmeric;
steeped overnight in a pint of boiled water, to heat up tomoroow
as a tea, sweetened with licorice a/o stevia).
DIABETIC LUNCH
(Feed me on cornbread and beans).
Kay Behall, USDA's Beltsville lab, shows that amylose content
of starches from potato, wheat, corn and barley constitute 20,
25, 26 and 27% respectively of the total starch. Behall mentioned
a special hybrid corn ('High-Amy-7'or Amylonaze-7) in which amylose
constituted 70% of the starch. Seems to me that's what diabetics
should use for their cornbread. In legumes amylose ranges from
34-40% of total starch. The higher the amylose content, the less
the glucose and insulin response. University of Toronto scientist
Lilian Thompson even made unleavened bread from navy-bean flour
and fed it to 10 healthy volunteers, with and without the bean's
normal levels of phytic acid. Bread without the phytic acid induced
52% higher blood-glucose responses.
Put onions and/or garlic, and some fenugreek, with your beans.
According to Bailey & Day, Diabetes Research Unit in UK, raw
onion bulbs have long been used as a dietary supplement to treat
diabetes traditionally in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Extracts
(at the high dosage of ca 10 g/kg body weight, which = more than
a kilo of extract in my case, improve glucose tolerance 7-18%.
Fenugreek seed (50-60% fiber) also have proven hypoglycemic activity,
and at least 6 compounds with hypoglycemic activity (coumarin,
fenugreekine, nicotinic acid, phytic-acid, scopoletin, trigonelline).
One hundred grams of defatted fenugreek powder a day reduced urinary
glucose excretion by 54% (Sharma et al, 1990). Consumption of
50 ml extract of bitter gourd reduced hyperglycemia by some 20%.
Better yet, just eat it as a side dish.
NIDDM BEAN SOUP: I made this one just after Thansgiving,
1995, having talked about it and modified it for half a decade
now. First I bolied the exterior rings and husk of a whole onion,
putting half of the meat of the onion in. Here I was hoping to
capture some of the quercetin. Letting it steep to cool, as I
typed on the Green Pharmacy, I then removed the inedible portions
of the onion and garlic, and added a 16 oz can of kidney beans
(a dry, fresh or canned bean mix would have done as well. Then
I added half a cup of some uncooked peanuts with their testae,
and a quarter cup of fenugreek. Then I added Anderson's 1/2 g
of bay leaf, cinnamon, clove and turmeric (from here on I'll increase
the turmeric adding curry powder, diminishing those sweeter spices).
I added diced carrot for its 18% pectin, and its folkloric antiflatulent
reputation. Then I simmered for half an hour. Had it for supper
and breakfast, but would have enjoyed it more with less cinnamon
and clove, and more turmeric. Topped with capsicum and diced raw
onions, I did enjoy this hypoglycemic soup.
Twenty five million people in the world have diabetes mellitus,
the most common endocrine disorder in the world. Six million Americans
are under treatment for Type II diabetes, according to USDA chemist
Richard Anderson. Almost that many more people are estimated to
have it and not know it. 14 of 16 studies showed positive responses
to dietary chromium. "Chromium functions as a nutrient, not
as a therapeutic. If you give more of a nutrient to people who
have plenty, nothing beneficial happens." Biologically active
organic chromium binds very tightly to insulin in a test tube
and makes the hormone up to 100 times more efficient at getting
glucose oxidized to its end point---carbon dioxide. Shifting from
20 ug to 200 ug chromium significantly improved
glucose tolerance, 40-50%, and lowered levels of insulin and glucagon.
It's rather easy to get 200 ug Chromium, 100 grams (ZMB)
onion containing up to 400 ug, cabbage up to 870, carrot
to 150, lettuce to 2,000, tomato to 300, the beans themselves
to 500, and cowpwas to 360. Spices too can be rich in chromium,
10 g (1/3 ounce, ZMB) caraway containing up to 155, cinnamon 99,
coriander 288, cumin 84, turmeric 60, cardamom 295, fennel 50,
nutmeg 164, mace 132, poppyseed 134, white mustard 186, and cloves
to 45. Note that all these figures are based on ZMB (Zero-moisture
basis)!
See INSULINADE:CONTAINERS OF BAYLEAF; CINNAMON; CLOVES; TURMERIC:
I can bring and make tea of these on stage, and drink USDA's Richard
Anderson's studies show that 1/8 tsp. (which I think translates
to ca 500 mg (1/2 gram or 1/60th ounce) bayleaf, cinnamon, cloves
or turmeric can treble insulin efficiency. Coriander and cumin
also have hypoglycemic activity in experimental animals. You might
spike your beans with these spices, further increasing your potential
for keeping the blood sugar down. STEEP HERBS 5 Minutes, with
licorice sticks, and drink on stage.
For desert, use fruits with the most complex carbohydrates and
spice them with cinnamon, cloves and turmeric, which triple insulin's
performance in getting glucose metabolized. A few peanuts sprinkled
on the fruit cocktail or pie can be useful, especially those high
in amylose.
For diabetic neuropathy, some doctors suggest capsaicin, which
often relieves intractable painBurning hands and foot sensations
plague about 20 percent of diabetic patients. Two out of three
find some relief from capsaicin, the hot principle in hot pepper.
Under the brand name Zostrix, capsaicin is marketted in a cream
containing 250 ppm capsaicin. Fruits of Capsicum frutescens
can contain 217-3,914 ppm capsaicinoids, seeds even more, 316-7,117
ppm. Ogbadu et al, Trop. Sci. 29:151. 1989).
DYSPEPSIKOLA: (for stomach distress, and a bit
tastier than Mylanta). I mix according to availability a dash
each of anise, camomile, coriander, fennel, ginger, with two dashes
of some of my weedy mints, steeping overnight in the refrigerator
in a hydroethanolic medium or menstruum (a mix of one shot cheap
vodka to each cup of spring water).
EMBOLADE: One might create an Antiembolitic Chutney
of capsicum, garlic, ginger, onions and turmeric, all of which
tend to decrease the stickiness of platelets. Pineapple might
be added for its proteolytic bromelain, also recommended against
embolism.
ENURETEA, I'd make a tea of Kathi Keville's incontinence
herbs, cornsilk, hypericum, oats and plantain leaves, adding fennel
and lemonbalm, maybe even some damiana if it makes it through
the winter, all with a lot of folklore, and not too much science
to back them up as antienuretics.
EXPECTORANTEA: Consists of your choice of the
plants that FNF identified as having the greatest number of expectorant
compounds. Licorice contains >15% expectorant compounds spread
among at least 9 different expectorant compounds, oregano, peppermint
and shrubby basil have 7, tea 6, lovage, mace, mother-of-thyme,
myrtle, pepper, rosemary, spanish marjoram, spanish oregano, thyme
and wintersavory 5, coriander, fennel, lavender, lemon mint, and
pennyroyal at least 4 expectorant compounds. These numbers have
increased since the publication of my database in 1992.
FLATULADE: Cloves, ajwan, cornmint, caraway,
allspice, mint, horsebalm, and thyme came out on top when I searched
FNF for GRASherbs richest in 5 carminatives, camphor, carvone,
eugenol, menthol and thymol. You can concoct several anti-flatulent
teas from this abbreviated list. Most of the herbs and spices
in the mint and carrot families are good carminatives. For colitis
and IBS, I might narrow it down to my carminatea, consisting of
camomile, caraway, dill, fennel, melissa, and peppermint, sweetened
with licorice.
FRIGIDITEA: A tea for frigid women should, methinks,
embrace dong quai, damiana, epimedium, fenugreek, ginger
and ginseng.
FOLK FOLIC FOLLY: Folacin (folic acid), not plentiful
in plants, is highest in edible jute (Corchorus olitorus)
at 32 ppm (ZMB) (among reliable entries in my database), spinach
at 27, endive at 25, asparagus at 18, parsley at 18, okra at 10,
pigweed at 10, and cabbage at 9 ppm's, on a calculated zero moisture
basis. Nine parts per million converts to 900 micrograms (ug)
per 100 g (1/2 cup), but to convert to dry weight you need to
divide by 10 if the water content was 90%. Acc to CRH7:p. 63,
1995, on a fresh weight basis, 1/2 cup blackeyed peas will provide
45% of the RDA of 400 micrograms of folic acid, or 180 micrograms
(ug); 1/2 cup lentils 180, one avocado 164 ug, 1/2 cup sunflower
seed 160, 1/2 cup pinto beans 148, 1/2 cup garbanzos 140, 1/2
cup lima beans 136, 1/2 cup spinach 132 ug, 1/2 cup lima beans
128, 1/2 cup kidney beans 116, 1/2 cup asparagus 96, 1/2 cup peanuts
88, 1 cup orange juice 76, one cup lettuce 76, one cup escarole
72, 1/2 cup peas 52, 1/2 cup broccoli 48, and 1/2 cup brussels
sprouts 48 micrograms on an as purchased basis. (CRH7:61.1995)
Folic acid can reduce homocysteine levels, converting it back
to methionine which does not foster arterial damage. Hence Werbach
(1993) suggests 5 mg folic acid a day, under medical supervision.
We could however get this much from lentil or other bean soups.
It took a long time for the FDA and fizzicians to admit that some
of us might be helped by folic acid. All of a sudden it's legal
and fashionable. Finally its legal not only to fortify with folate,
its recommended, and its legal to make health claims about it.
In JAMA, University of Washington researchers (Boushey et al (1995),
using various assumptions, estimate that 13,500 to 50,000 deaths
could be avoided annually by folate supplementation. "The
deaths of more than 30,000 men and 19,000 women might be prevented
with the 350 ug fortification scheme" How many lives would
have been saved had the FDA moved a bit faster on folic acid?
By lowering levels of homocysteine and its related moeities, higher
folic acid intake "promises to prevent atherosclerotic disease.Increasing
folic acid intake by only 200ug/day significantly lowers homocysteine.
Tree quarters of a cup of fresh black eyed peas, lentils, sunflower
seed or pinto beans or lima beans could provide more than this
200 ug. A cup or two of a mixed bean soup a day could do it. What
a pleasant way to stave off stroke and heart attack. Soup
d'GRAS): (for prevention of atherosclerosis, CHD, peripheral
arterial disease and stroke), Take two cups lentils, two cups
blackeye peas, one cup pinto beans and one cup
lima beans; more than cover with water; soak overnight, retaining
the water, Bring gently to a boil and simmer, keeping water levels
adequate. When legumes are tender, add a cup of chopped onion
and a couple cloves garlic, plus a finger of ginger, and a dash
of hot pepper and turmeric. Add curry powder, and try without
salting. Use herbs in lieu of as much salt as you can do without.
A cup of the solid part of this soup should suffice to give you
200 ug folate. Accompany with your greens dish Folk Folic Folly.
Two carrots a day can lower elevated serum cholesterol 10-20%.
Sounds like we have the makings of an antiatherosclerotic bean
soup here. Some have suggested that the carrots in the bean soup
will reduce flatogenesis.
GENISTEIN GUMBO: "I think Euclid and I would
agree that the whole food is better than the sum of its phytochemicals."
Genistein gumbo calls for equal parts soybeans, blackeye peas,
fava beans, garbanzos, kidney beans, lentils and lima beans, soaked
overnight, boiled, blended or pureed with curry powder, hot sauce
and onion. At the last minute throw in some soy sauce and tofu
curd. (Genistein, a phytochemical in soy products and other legumes,
has been found to retard cancer growth in test tubes - possibly
by inhibiting the new blood vessel growth on which tumors depend.
(Susan Brink, quoting Jim Duke, in US News & World Report.
May. 1995.) She quoted me before I had my table of ingredients.
SEED SAMPLE Genistein (ppms) Daidzein (ppms)
Psoralea esculenta 1528.0 539.7
Yellow split pea 45.8 0.4
Black turtle beans 45.1 0.4
Baby lima beans 40.1 0.4
Large lima beans 34.4 0.3
Anasazi beans 29.8 6.5
Red kidney beans 29.3 2.7
Red lentils 25.0 5.2
SOYBEANS 24.1 37.6
Black eyed peas 23.3 0.3
Pinto beans 22.3 23.2
Mung beans 21.8 0.3
Azuki beans 21.2 4.6
Faba beans 19.9 5.0
Great northern beans 17.7 7.2
Three years ago, I wrote a letter to soy scientists predicting
that an American bean (I had lima bean in mind) might prove richer
in genistein than their soybean. They quit writing to me, even
though one owed me 60 analyses. Nearly five years after I started
sending out legumes seeds for analysis, Univeristy of Michigan
Botanist, Dr. Peter Kaufman, PhD (Plant Physiology), produced
some exciting results (personal communication, Dec. 8, 1995).
Lima bean, as predicted, did prove richer in genistein. But not
predicted, North American Psoralea esculenta proved more
than 60 times richer than soy. Maybe that's why the soy scientists
failed to respond to my letters. Soybean was by no means highest,
as the soy scientists had claimed, in Kaufman's genistein analyses,
presented above in descending order of genistein content.
GLUT-O-GLUTATHIONE: People low in glutathione,
an antioxidant common in asparagus, broccoli, cabbage cauliflower
and other crucifers, potatoes, purslane and tomatoes and the like,
are more prone to arthritis than those people better endowed with
glutathione. Fruits mentioned with glutathione include avocado,
grapefruit, orange, peach, watermelon, but you better drink it
quickly. This ubiquitous antioxidant is quick to disappear. (J.
Clin. Epidem. 9:1994; Prevention June 1995. p. 26)
GOBO GUMBO (for arthritis): Burdock with as much
turmeric as possible, with too taste the following antiarthritic
foods: black cumin; cayenne (the hotter the pepper, the less the
pain; rich also in salicylates), evening primrose (crushed seed
or bran flakes), fenugreek (distasteful to some), garlic, ginger,
job'stear (Coix, a weed in the tropics), licorice (distasteful
to some), nettleleaf (self flagellating as well), okra, onion
(leave the skin on), oregano, purslane, rosemary, savory, thyme,
GOBO GUMBO (for cancer): Burdock, with as much
turmeric as possible, with whole onions and garlic (for their
quercetin), and as available, the following better daidzein and
genistein sources, scurfy pea (Psoralea corylifolia),
kudzu root (Pueraria lobata), faba bean sprouts (Vicia
faba), miso (from soy, Glycine max, or other high
genistein legume), mungbean sprouts (Vigna sp.), clover
heads (Trifolium pratense), okra for its gossypol (Abelmoschus
esculentus) and a mixture of edible beans or legume seeds;
if available, purslane. Add al gusto, the following antitumor
spices, cayenne (the hotter the pepper, the more capsaicin), garlic,
ginger, licorice (distasteful to some), mustard, onion (leave
the skin on), oregano, rosemary, savory, sesame, thyme, and more
TURMERIC.
HANGOVERADE: Cinnamon, clove, coriander, cornmint,
fennel, hyssop, lavender, mint, mountainmint, peppermint, rosemary,
and watermint, as available, for flavor; willowbark for salicylates,
and cayenne for capsaicin and salicylates. Make it a hot and spicey.
HAPPY HERPICIDE: Many mints, especially lemon
balm (Melissa officinalis) are recommended by some herbalists
(but few if any halfistic fizzicians) for herpes. My mixed antioxidant
mint tea, e.g. hyssop, LEMON BALM, oregano, rosemary, sage, self-heal,
and thyme etc., sweetened with licorice (not aniseed) would contain
caffeic-acid, geraniin, glycyrrhizic-acid, glycyrrhizin, lysine,
protocatechuic-acid, quercetin, rosmarinic-acid, tannic-acid,
thymol, tocopherol and zinc, but there is no guarantee that antagonisms
or synergisms might not nullify (or amplify) their antiherpetic
activity. Italian researchers report that glycyrrhizic acid inactivates
HSV1 in cell cultures. SUGGESTED RECIPE: Fill the desired pan
half full of boiling water. Add lemonbalm until about 3/4 full,
and fill with 2 parts each of oregano and selfheal, and one part
of any other aromatic GRAS mints available. Steep licorice root
in mix to sweeten.
HIGH WIRE: Would probably be illegal, containing
caffeine, capsaicin, cathine, cathinone, cocaine, in addition
to ephedrine and theophylline, but it would probably be effective
at inducing weight loss. And it would in all probability get the
patient all wired-up, if not fired and fired up.
HOT n'HOT SOUP: Spices seems to be so useful
at preventing and curing diseases, cancer, cardiopathy, diabetes,
ulcers, and helping to detoxify toxins, that I'd like to expand
the Ayurvedic Trikatu to a Octakatu, in a hot broth with black
pepper, garlic, ginger, horseradish, hot pepper, mustard, onion
and turmeric. Trikatu, composed of black and long pepper and ginger
can increase levels of drugs like sparteine by more than 100%
and selenium by ca 30%. This is a great hot broth for opening
the sinuses, and speeding up absorption of some medicines, assuming
it is as good as trikatu. While I prefer my octakatu made fresh
from fresh herbs, where possible, I could see a dehydrated mix
to be used as a bouillion or simply in capsules, for those on
the run. I can't however recommend it to anyone else; there's
too much bad press to overcome for piperine and safrole, deserved
or not. Piperine is synergistically insecticidal and may be synergic
with medicines as well. Play it safe, leave out the black pepper
and its piperine.
HYPERACTIVITEA: Instead of the uppers lile Ritalin,
so heralded by the physicians, I'd prefer, culinarily and medicinally,
Kathi Keville's hyperactivity tincture: 1 teaspoon valerian rhizome,
1/2 teaspoon each catnip and passionflower leaves and 1/4 teaspoon
each linden and peppermint. (Keville, 1996). I'd add a little
camomile and a lot of lemonbalm to Kathi's herbs to make my HYPERACTIVITEA.
IMPOTENTEA: Kathi Keville's very rational suggestion contains 1/2 oz each of damiana leaves, ginkgo leaves, ginseng root, wild oats and yohimbe bark. I'd include some saw palmetto as well if it were for me but leave out the yohimbe for anyone else. I believe yohimbe more effective than safe.
.
INSULINADE: Iced tea with BAYLEAF; CINNAMON;
CLOVES; TURMERIC: USDA's Richard Anderson's studies show that
1/8 tsp. (which I think translates to ca 500 mg (1/2 gram or 1/60th
ounce) bayleaf, cinnamon, cloves or turmeric can treble insulin
efficiency. Coriander and cumin also have hypoglycemic activity
in experimental animals. STEEP HERBS 5 Minutes, sweeten with licorice
sticks or stevia leaves.
Laetrilogy, a blend of apple, servicberry and wild cherry.
LEAN MEAN BRAIN BRAN: I'd rather take food than
drug as a source of tryptophan. (Prozac runs $500-1500 a year;
I can gather a pound of evening primrose seed in an hour in autumn,
and I would prefer ground whole seed to pure tryptophan. I'd add
that ground primrose seeds to barley/oatmeal muffins. Rich in
beta-glycans), to which I'd also add some butternut, hickory nuts
or walnuts, best dietary sources of serotonin (so-called brainfood
which is broken down before it gets to the brain. I'd call that
my lean mean brain bran muffin. I might add a little catabolic
hot pepper to the muffins; the hot ingredient speeds up fat burning
by the body. Chase with Catha Cola.
LIMONENADECARAWADETM: (To prevent breast cancer?)
The monoterpenoid limonene (not a limonoid) has received a lot
of press lately, especially relative to breast cancer. Limonene
has been described as one of the major components of the essential
oils of citrus (said to constitute 90% of lemon and orange oil,
although the FNF database does not score it nearly so highly).
That prompted me to put out a hand out a year or so ago entitled
??? LIMONENADE FOR BREAST CANCER ??? based on
entries from Duke (1992b). Huang et al's Table VII indicates that
limonene inhibits the initiation of cancer in the lung, mammaries,
and forestomach, and even led to regression in mammary cancers
(in rats). A pertinent quote for my synergy vs the silver
bullet folder.
"Inhibition of isoprenylation may be the mechanism responsible
for the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activities of limonene
against mammary and other cancers ... Although we have examined
the evidence for cancer chemoprevention by many individual phytochemicals
in this review, there is not a magic bullet. The synergistic effects
of compounds in fruits and vegetables, the presence of fiber,
and the value of fruits and vegetables as low fat, zero-cholesterol
sources of vitamins, antioxidants, micronutrients and chemopreventive
functions can not be overlooked." Translation: Eat lemon
and caraway, not pure limonene (JAD!)
At the USDA, following some political problems about sensitive
topics, we are not encouraged to encourage ingestion of foods
(nor to discourage ingestion of meat or high fat dairy products)
for the prevention of disease. Hence I prepared this list, not
for potential sufferers of breast cancer, but for potential sufferers
of bugbites. You see limonene is an insect repellant, and so far
the USDA has still not eliminated the study of natural repellants,
if not disease preventives. (The EPA, not the FDA, might land
on me for selling it as an insect repellant; I note that they
busted someone selling a garlic repellent). Here is a formula
that contains high-limonene plants that might repel insects, the
GRAS and GRAF herbs and foods richest in limonene (over 5,000
ppm on a dry weight basis).
POTENTIAL LIMONENADE INGREDIENTS
APIUM GRAVEOLENS CELERY 530-24,700 SD
CARUM CARVI CARAWAY 7,860-30,180 SD
CITRUS AURANTIIFOLIA LIME 2,795-6,400 FR
CITRUS AURANTIUM SOUR ORANGE 1,000-8,000 FR
CITRUS LIMON LEMON 2,796-8,000 EO
CITRUS RETICULATA TANGERINE 6,500-9,400 FR
CITRUS SINENSIS ORANGE 8,300-9,700 FR
ELETTARIA CARDAMOMUM CARDAMOM 595-9,480 FR
FOENICULUM VULGARE FENNEL 200-9,420 FR
ILLICIUM VERUM STAR-ANISE 100-5,220 FR
MENTHA SPICATA SPEARMINT 200-5,725 FR
MYRISTICA FRAGRANS NUTMEG 720-5,760 FR
THYMUS VULGARIS THYME 15-5,200 PL
I enjoy beverages combining any of these that I have on hand.
Best sources of limonene, surprisingly, are not citrus, but caraway,
at 3% on a dry weight basis, celery seed at 2.5%, orange at 1%,
cardamom, fennel and tangerine at 0.9%, lime, spearmint, nutmeg,
at 0.6%, and star-anise and thyme at 0.5%, zero-moisture basis.
LITTLE LIVER TEA: Hepatosiphobes not subject
to the side effects of licorice might sweeten my quack tea with
licorice, coloring it with beet juice; ingredients, as available:
anise, carway, celeryseed, dill, citrus, clove, fennel, licorice,
peppermint, rosemary, turmeric, and vanilla.
LOW PRESSURE SOUP n' SALAD
by Jim Duke
To be eaten only after 20 minutes low-impact aerobic exercise.
SOUP
2 Cups Fresh or Canned Tomatoes
1 Cup Diced Onion
1 Cup Rice
1 Cup Dice Celery
1 Clove Diced Garlic
1 Cup Water
Replace as much salt as possible with herbs that have a folk reputation
as hypotensive like bay, cayenne, garlic, onion, saffron, turmeric.
Bring ingredients to a boil and simmer gently 20-30 .
SALAD
1 cup diced pineapple (high in GABA)
1 cup sliced banana (high in potassium)
1/2 cup hawthorn or crabapple (Crataegus oxyacantha is proven arterial hypotensive)
1/4 cup sprouting fenugreek seed
To be eaten just before 20 minutes calming meditation.
MAGNESIUM MEDLEY: A mixed mess of dandelion,
nettle, purslane, and spinach leaves, alongside a 100 grams of
stringbeans and another of cowpeas, could easily provide your
RDA (40-400 mg) for magnesium, especially if sprinkled generously
with poppyseed but I'm more inclined to recommend that for lowering
blood pressure than for gum diseases.
MIDSUMMER MADNESS: Winding down my career, with
only six workdays left in the office, I felt a sneezing headcold
coming on, in mid August, at 3:00 PM the afternoon, having spent
the last week off and on with 6 sniffling children and their 14-year
old babysitter. Goldenrods were in flower signaling that the ragweeds
were also in flower. Did I have a viral head cold, or was it just
pollen-induced hayfever? I went for the Johns Hopkins Symptoms
book (Margolis, 1995) and turned to sneezing. Only five ailments
were mentioned, including hay fever and cold. Itchy eyes and runny
nose are common to both, but if you believe the Johns Hopkins
book, my cough, headache and sorethroat signal that I had a cold
instead of hayfever. So I went home after work and called in my
big herbal antiviral guns and made a big tea hoping to circumvent
this midsummer problem that might cost me seven days when I only
have six more. For the benefit of Rodale Press writers, I recorded
the recipe this time, even though I can't recommend it to anyone
except myself (and maybe close friends and families not liable
to sue me).
I put a quart of cold water in a sauce pan and threw in two handsful
of lemon balm for its antiviral compounds, a handful of raspberry
leaves and a half cup of blackberry fruits, respectively for their
tannins and anthocyanosides, a handful of juniper for the dangerous
antiviral ligans, a half handfull each of honeysuckle and forsythia
for their proven antivirals (and empirical success with me in
winter), a small flower cluster of the poisonous pokeweed for
its pokeweed antiviral mitogen (PAM), and a dash of crystal light
lemonade powder to mask any unpleasant flavors that might emerge.
Any other day and I might not have fogotten the juniper, but today
I had written a juniper entry and had juniper on my mind. I'd
add ginger now, both for antiviral and flavoring properties.
Here's something you may have never tried in your own self medicating
regime. Before cooking the tea, I drank a cup of the cold water
extract of the leaves after they had steeped an hour. Why? Because
a few compounds are better extracted with cold water than with
hot, and a lot of the critical volatile compounds are lost in
the heating process. Then I added a little more cold water and
a shot of vodka. Why? Because the alcohol will extract some chemicals
much better than pure water. Then I had a cup of that after it
steeped for another hour. Then I brought it to a boil, let it
steep, off the heat, for another hour, and drank another cup,
with an almost vegetarian dinner. Why, because some of the compounds
are better extracted in hot hydroalcoholic menstruum. Then I added
another pint of water and let it sit out overnight, and added
it to my thermus, with a bit more lemonade powder, to take to
the office and continue my medication into a second day. And here
i am, five o'clock on a Tuesday morning, typing up this recipe
with a minor, not major, case of the sniffles. Anecdotal. I think
I would have been much worse off had I not intervened with my
pink Midsummer Madness (The blackberries turned it pink.). But
I'll get twelve hours work done today, instead of losing the day
or week in my battle with the summer cold.
MIGRATING (MAYBE) MITIGATING MIGRAINE MUSH:
100 g evening primrose bran, or 130 g crushed seed
500 mg fresh (125 mg dry) high-parthenolide feverfew leaf
Slurry in water or milk with 1 chile, 1 clove garlic, 2 celery
stalks, lemonjuice, and 1 onion.
MINT TEASE (Antioxidant Tea): Add a Duke's mix
of available edible mints heavy with Origanum vulgare and Prunella
vulgaris (highest among 60 mints in antioxidant activity)
MUFAmous BUTTER: I would eat a few more nuts
and avocadoes were I suffering NIDDM. If FNF and its sources are
correct, avocado fruits can contain up to 69% MUFA's or oleic-acid,
macadamia nuts up to 59% MUFA, hazelnuts 57%, the much maligned
oil palm fruit 43%, marula nuts 42%, pistachio 34%, olives 33,
cashews 30, peanuts 26%, brazilnuts 24%, chocolate 22; coriander
seed 17, pumpkin 15%, fennelseed and butternut 11%. My proposed
MUFAmous MUFA-nut butter would embrace the better of these, spiced
up with a little coriander and fennel.
PANTOTHENIC SALAD
Endive Watercress
Raw Peas Broadbeans
Broccoli Green Gram
Cucumber Avocado
PECTINADE: Juice a mix of the following, including albedo of any citrus on hand:
Banana, carrot, guava, lime, linseed, mango, orange, papaya, rosehip.
If cardioprotection is the target add fig and pineapple for their
proteolytic enzymes; grape and hawthorn for OPC's .
PINEADE: Made to taste from some of the better
sources of alpha-pinene from FNF: parsley seed (to 31,080 ppm,
ZMB); coriander seed 13,780, juniper berries 9,200,, sweet annie
3,760, cardamom 3,000, cubeb 2,200, sassafras 2,000, horsemint
2,000, ginger 1,950, sage and angelica 1,500, and boldo, dill,
tarragon and yarrow at up to 1,000 ppm, on a calculated dry weight
basis. Better sources of beta-pinene were parsley seed (to 26,450
ppm, calculated ZMB), cumin 6,600; hyssop 4,580; cornsilk 3,000;
angelica 2,400; bayleaf 2,080; sage (greek) 1,590; cornmint 1,445;
lime 1,190 biblical mint 1,160, and cardamom (to 1,095 ppm, on
a calculated ZMB) If you are pining for pinene, here are some
sources.
Prosnut Butter TM, a combination of
foods made into a peanut-like butter, embracing the most important
traditional phytomedicinal approaches to BPH. The butter would
be comprised of, in decreasing order of relative abundance, ground
pumpkin, cucumber, and watermelon seeds (agricultural byproducts),
saw palmetto fruit and seed (edible palm), brazilnuts, sunflower,
ground carob, peanuts, almonds, sesame, soybean, flaxseed, and
walnut, leaving out the poppyseed. Spiked with a little zinc picolinate,
this could be a tasty sandwich spread, an ounce of which would
give you the suggested quantity of alanine, glycine, glutamic
acid, not to mention the EFA's, and sitosterol, and whatever it
is in saw palmetto that increases urinary flow and ease of micturition,
while reducing residual urine and frequency of urination. The
brazilnuts and sunflowerseed could provide the recommnded dose
of 200 ug selenomethionine. Licorice like saw palmetto contains
compounds that prevent the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone.
PROTEASE-INHIBAIDS: Mints were outstanding for
ursolic and maslinic acid, from Coleus and Salvia, as well as
drops of EO of cloves.. After compiling all this, I'd mix up a
pleasing tea, if I had HIV, and indulge the potential synergies
of the natural protease inhibitors, ursolic acid from Acinos,
Hyptis, Rosmarinus and Thymus;. Today I'd add ot aekn independently,
Echinacea, highest known natural source of the HIV-integrase inhivitor,
cichoric acid. And looking for all that synergy that the super-silver-bulleteers
are seeking, I go also for some of the HIV.
PROTEOLADE, i.e. juices of fruits well endowed
with proteolytic enzymes, especially breadfruit, fig, papaya and
pineapple, spiced up with ginger. I add prune juice as a laxative,
to help expel dislodged worms. If that didn't work, I might resort
to the fig's milk, my own fig at home, Peru's fig in Peru.
QUACK CANCER SALAD: Heinerman (1988) said he
was indebted to Dr. James Duke, head of the USDA's Germplasm Resources
Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, for letting me feature here
a slightly revised version of the cancer preventative salad that
he calls quack salad." I'm equally indebted to him for his
version of my Anti-Cancer Quack Salad! Would it be violation of
copyright for me to copy my own recipe as modified by an anthropologist,
with permission to copy but not to modify? Please go organic with
his modification: 2 tomatoes, 1 cup whole raw beet; handful of
chopped walnuts and peanuts; 3/4 cup diced celery, 1/2 cup endive;
1 cucumber; 1/2 onion (chopped) 1 tbsp flaxseed; 1 garlic clove;
1/2 tsp sage, 1/4 tsp cumin, and a pinch of cayenne. His salad
dressing calls for 2.5 cups lemon juice, 1 minced clove, and 1/4
tsp. kelp. Heinerman left out one of the most important anticancer
ingredients, the red clover; so I give you here the original but
dangerous quack salad recipe.
absinthe chive hot pepper tamarind
arnica chufa licorice tansy
atriplex clover onion tea
beet colocynth peanut tomato
borage cucumber poke salad vetch
calendula cumin safflower walnut
celery flax salvia
chicory garlic stinging nettle
In Quack Salad and Cancer (Prevention ,1976) I listed what I considered
to be one of the healthiest choices of salad dressings, one I
had experienced with the Kuna Indians of Panama a decade earlier:
lemon juice, garlic and hot pepper, only the latter Latin American.
And I listed those potential salad ingredients above, that I had
lifted from Jonathan Hartwell's classic PLANTS USED AGAINST
CANCER. All of the ingredients listed were cited at least
once in Hartwell's compendium, enumerating about 3,000 plants
for which Hartwell found published folkloric cancer-curing anecdotes.
Over half contained a compound he lated showed useful in the treatment
of some types of cancer. And all green plants contain the cancer-preventive
antioxidant vitamins.
But after 20 years, I now suffer a common disease, Bureaucratic
Paranoia, among other things! Today paranoid me would leave out
the absinthe, arnica, borage, colocynth, crown vetch, poke salad
and tansy today, at least in my published recipe. I'd continue
to eat them myself, in sub-homeopathic levels. Each of these herbs,
in addition to containing the omnipresent vitamins A, C and E
and beta-sitosterol, contains a harmful compound as well. And
I fear the FDA would land on anyone proposing them as cancer-preventive
foods, just as, ca 1990, they landed on one cereal company proposing
to add psyllium to their "psereal".
QUACK LIVER SALAD: My quack salad for hepatophobes
would stress milkthistle, artichoke, dandelion, and beet, generously
sprinkled with capsicum, carrot, celery, chicory, flaxseed, garlic,
ginseng (if free or cheap), marigold, onion, parsley, pepper,
pot-marigold, psyllium, squash, and turmeric. All of these plants
contain compounds that protect or regulate activities of the liver.
E.g., Kiso et al. (Pl. Med. 49(3):185-7. 1983) report several
"antihepatotoxic" principles from turmeric: curcumin,
p-coumaroylferuloylmethane, di-p-coumaroylmethane, and analogues
of ferulic-acid and p-coumaric acid.
QUACK-PACK The British apparently don't use the
same name as we do for my favorite ingredient, quackgrass. They
call it couch grass. The "drug" is obtained by seiving
mixed hays until one fraction consists almost entirely of floral
parts. Bisset (1994) stresses that it is folk medicine, but his
Commission E Extract does not. Comm. E approved hot packs of these
hay flowers for degenerative rheumatic conditions. The warm quack
pack (ca 42 C) is placed on the afflicted part and left 40 to
50 minutes, once or twice a day.. Bisset stated that the plant
source could not be precisely indicated as it's a mixed bag of
hay seeds, fescue, foxtail, orchard grass, sweet vernal grass,
rye grass, timothy etc., At least it's a hot pad. Even my wife
believes in hot pads. Maybe the next time she gets her rheumatic
back kink, I can add some hot pepper to her quack-back-pack.
RATIONALI-TEA: ("Tinea-Tea") Looking
over a list of fungicides, one can visualize a good Ringworm Rationalitea,
sweetened with licorice. Steep, in hot water, dashes of basil,
celeryseed, cinnamon, coriander, dill, fennel, ginger, hyssop,
peppermint, sage, and/or thyme. Enjoy!. If you don't like the
tea, rub it on your tinea. If you do like the tea, drink it, at
your own risk (all ingredients are GRAS). You could apply the
dregs topically to the ringworm. Upon removing the spent tea dregs,
you could wash the fungus with concentrated licorice extract.
RED ZAPPER: Guatemalans use the roselle (Hibiscus
sabdariffa), while Latin Americans generally recommend the
tamarind (Tamarindus indica), also a favorite of mine
(and a good chaser as well). We could mix them together, sweetened
with high fructose honey and call it the Red Hangover Zapper.
ROSMARINADE: One could get physiologically significant
doses of the antioxidant antithyrotropic rosmarinic acid by consuming
teas composed of some of the following herbs, shall we call it
Rosmarinade:
basil 1,000-19,000 ppm rosmarinic-acid (RA)
beebalm 18,000
bugle 37,000
lemonbalm 37,000
oregano 1,000-55,000
peppermint 1,000-30,000
rosemary 3,000-39,000
sage 2,000-30,000
savory 12,000-26,000
selfheal 61,000
spearmint 6,000-43,000
thyme 5,000-26,000 ppm
SPECIES RA (ppm) THD (ppm) ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY
ED50 (ug/ml)
Ajuga repens ------ 8,000 130
Glechoma hederacea 25,000 47,000 36
Hyssopus officinalis 5,000 22,000 60
Lavandula angustifolia 12,000 24,000 45
Lavandula intermedia 5,000 23,000 50
Lavandula latifolia 7,000 40,000 35
Lavandula stoechas 13,000 24,000 38
Lycopus europaeus 37,000 63,000 23
Marrubium vulgare ------ 9,000 90
Melissa officinalis 25,000 48,000 29
Mentha aquatica 27,000 48,000 29
Mentha arvensis 28,000 45,000 29
Mentha longifolia 29,000 51,000 29
Mentha piperita 30,000 61,000 22
Mentha pulegium 30,000 43,000 29
Mentha requieni 20,000 31,000 40
Mentha spicata 43,000 65,000 22
Mentha suaveolens 32,000 52,000 26
Nepeta cataria 2,000 19,000 70
Origanum marjorana 33,000 47,000 34
Origanum vulgare 55,000 71,000 16
Prunella vulgaris 61,000 70,000 21
Rosmarinus officinalis 25,000 35,000 40
Salvia officinalis 30,000 41,000 39
Satureja hortensis 26,000 34,000 55
Satureja montana 12,000 34,000 50
Thymus vulgaris 26,000 38,000 35
TABLE 1. Antioxidant Activity (ED50), Rosmarinic Acid Content,
and Total Hydroxycinnamic Acid Content of Local Mints (After Lamaison
et al, 1991).
Ulcers seem to be tied in somehow to the arachidonic cascade and
the leukotrienes. Rosmarinic-acid might help; it is reportedly
both antiinflammatory, antileukotrienic, and antioxidant, all
of which might be indicated for inflamed ulcers. Alarmed cells
generate leukotrienes, powerful inflammatory agents, from arachidonic
acid.
RUTINADE: Already more than half way to the grave,
I'm not afraid to sample my rutinade, but without a control I
cannot prove it will prevent vascular spiders. I don't need it
yet for hypertension. Here are possible components for rutinade;
but don't even try it unless you are sure that none of these plants
are poisonous or allergenic to you. The last ingredient isn't
even legal here in the US.
Violet Flowers 10-23% Rutin
Pagoda Tree Flowers 13-30%
Eucalyptus Leaf 7-10 %
EUCALYPTUS RHYNCHO 10-24%
Mulberry Leaves 2-6
Buckwheat 1-6.4
Pagoda Tree Leaves 0-4
Rue (POISON) 2
Citrus Leaf 0.6
Rhubarb 0.6
Sheep Sorrel 0.5
Coca 0.5
SCARBOROUGH SHAMPOO: Parsley, sage, rosemary
and thyme all have a folk reputation in baldness, and at least
three of them show up in herbal shampoos already on the market.
Add licorice and saw palmetto oil to your conditioner.
SEDATIVATEA: First exercise for 30 minutes, if
you haven't gotten youself in shape. If that fails, mix camomile,
catnip, evening primrose, kava-kava, lavender, lemonbalm, lemon
eucalpytus, lemongrass, and passionflower as available. If all
this fails, and you don't mind the smell of dirty feet, spike
it the sedativatea with valerian. If that still fails, try evening
primrose bran flakes (best source of tryptophan) wiht milk. Failing
that go to the healthfood store and buy some melatonin. Take a
0.3 mg capsulke after dark. And if that fails take a 3 mg capsule.
SINUSOUP, an onion/garlic soup heavy with all
the hot spices; black-pepper, ginger, horseradish, mustard, red
pepper (capsicum), and turmeric.
SLIM SERONADE: Mix to taste ground seeds of the
following (serotonin levels in ppms): butternut (398 ppm); black
walnut (304), shagbark hickory (143) english walnut (87), mockernut
(67), pecan (29), pignut (25). While dietary serotonin does not
directly contribute to cerebral serotonin, one of its metabolies,
tryptophan, does.
SOCORRO'S SECRET: (Although all these ingredients are
ingested in Amazonia, they have not been proved either safe of
efficacious) Add 1 tablespoon Dragon's Blood and 1 tablespoon
Fig Latex, to one pint red wine and one pint of pineapple juice;
add one cup of shredded ginger) Down on the Amazon, Sr. Cesar
Guerra and his wife Soccorro often welcome our ecotouristic workshops
to their cane distillery and kitchen respectively. Location: Junction
of Yanomoan Creek and The Amazon, 15 minutes on foot from the
Explorama Lodge. Cesar, better known locally as "Polaco"
daily makes a run of rum, harvesting , squeezing, fermenting and
distilling his sugarcane to make that corn-likker-like beverage
known locally as aguardiente or cachasas. We gringoes give it
the euphemistic name of rum. But Bacardi doesn't need to worry.
This cachasas or rum is what Varro Tyler calls the local hydroethanolic
menstruum for nearly half of the local medicines. But "Polaco"
sells a lot of it (at $5.00 a bottle, especially if you bring
your own recycled bottle, to the ecotourists who visit. Back in
her kitchen Socorro, Polaco's attractive wife, proudly shows us
what she uses for her "reumatismo". I call it "Socorro's
Secret", having concluded, through my usual convoluted reasoning,
that it might be as useful as anything out there for rheumatoid
arthritis. The significant ingredients are dragon's blood, fig
latex, ginger, (I'll add pineapple) port wine, and, of course,
the hydroethanolic menstruum. One important component of red wine
and red dragon's blood is oligomeric procyanidins, widely promoted
as pycnogenol. An herbally inclined veterinary acquantance of
mine, however, did some studies on pycnogenol, concluding that
it might in fact have immunodepressant activity, which would be
counterindicated in many ailments, but could conceivably be useful
in autoimmune diseases. Until the veterinary data are published.
I don't want to be quoted as saying that pycnogenol is immunosuppressant,
but I will be more inclined to discourage its use for those ailments
in which one wishes to boost the immune system, not to discourage
its use in autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis. Of
course, Socorro didn't know about pycnogenol occurring in both
her red wine and dragon'sblood; she just assumed that her concoction
helped her "reumatismo." More important was her inclusion
of ginger, which, even alone, can be useful at alleviating the
symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, while the pycnogenol slows the
autoimmune process. According to Murray (1994), proteolytic enzymes
are antiinflammatory in clinical and experimental models. They
play a second role in autoimmune diseases: helping the body reduce
the level of circulating immune complexes, high levels of which
occur in rheumatoid arthritis. These immune complexes activate
the immune system against the body itself, ultimately leading
to tissue damage. Murray says that proteolytic enzyme preparations
can reduce levels of immune complexes in the blood. If Murray
is correct, the ficin from Socorro's fig latex and the zingibain
from ginger can help eliminate Murray's circulating immune complexes.
Not knowing the relative potencies of the various proteolytic
enzymes, I've taken the liberty of adding pineapple to Socorro's
secret, making a very tasty herbal liqueur, loaded with proteolytic
enzymes. For autoimmune diseases, I'd use red wine and dragon's
blood, for other non-autoimmune inflammatory diseases, I'd use
white wine and leave out the dragon's blood ( at least until I
know more about the alleged immunedepressant activities of pycnogenol.)
But for any inflammatory disease, I'll up the ginger ante. Ginger
is already famous for its antiinflammatory activity, with profound
synergies with (1) antioxidant (2) enzymatic and (3) eicosanoid-
balancing activites. (Schulick, 1994). It contains more than 12
antioxidants superior to Vitamin E. It thereby helps neutralize
free radicals which trigger inflammations.
SPASMOLYTEA: Seeking an analgetic and spasmolytic
tea for my backache, I did an FNF run for plants with the greatest
number a/o variety of spasmolytic compounds to augment mentioned
analgetics. To alleviate the cramps, I go for those herbs, mostly
mints, highest in borneol and menthol, since they seem to be stronger
spasmolytics. In the tropics, I'd add some lemongrass for its
spasmolytics; caryophyllene, limonene, linalyl-acetate, myrcene,
quercetin and rutin.
SPINA-BIFIDA SOUP: A vegetable soup combining
several leafy vegetables and legumes rich in folic acid. Folacin
(folic acid) is not abundant in plants, highest
reliable entries being edible jute (Corchorus olitorus) at 32
ppm (ZMB), spinach at 27, endive at 25, asparagus at 18, parsley
at 18, okra at 10, pigweed at 10, and cabbage at 9 ppm's, on a
calculated zero moisture basis. Nine parts per million converts
to 900 micrograms (ug) per 100 g (1/2 cup), but to convert to
dry weight you need to divide by 10 if the water content was 90%.
Acc to CRH7:p. 63, 1995, on a fresh weight basis, 1/2 cup blackeyed
peas will provide 45% of the RDA of 400 micrograms of folic acid,
or 180 micrograms (ug); 1/2 cup lentils 180, one avocado 164 ug,
1/2 cup sunflower seed 160, 1/2 cup pinto beans 148, 1/2 cup garbanzos
140, 1/2 cup lima beans 136, 1/2 cup spinach 132 ug, 1/2 cup lima
beans 128, 1/2 cup kidney beans 116, 1/2 cup asparagus 96, 1/2
cup peanuts 88, 1 cup orange juice 76, one cup lettuce 76, one
cup escarole 72, 1/2 cup peas 52, 1/2 cup broccoli 48, and 1/2
cup brussels sprouts 48 micrograms on an as purchased basis.
SPONDYLADE: Still not available here in the US,
and only seasonally available in Amazonia, camu-camu, as our best
source of vitamin C, could be useful in AS. More convinced about
the potential for proteolytic enzymes than that of vitamin C,
I'd add the proteolytic Amazonian fruits (fig, papaya, pineapple)
and proteolytic ginger with the camu-camu, to make a new beverage
Spondylade, a pleasant beverage, well endowed
with proteolytic enzymes.
STAMINITEA: Kathi Keville, West Coast Herbaloist
I admire, lists the herbs most likely to get the male through
a male menopause - eleuthero, ginseng, licorice, and schizandra
-the same herbs suggested to increase male stamina, shall we dub
it Kathi's Staminitea,
the male answer to my Feminitea.
STOMACH SETTLER: 4 fingers ginger, a dash of
camomile flowers, dash fennel, dash orange peel, dash peppermint,
dash spearmint. Steep fifteen minutes and drink the tea, or blend
in your blender, dilute, with three cups hot water, and drink,
at your own risk.
STONE AGE TEA: Take mints rich in the following
terpenes (from Rowachol):
Menthol 32mg Borneol 5mg
Pinene 17 Camphene 5
Menthone 6 Cineole 2
Add turmeric and my major limoneneade constituents. Enjoy with
italian bread and olive oil!
STRIVE-for-FIVE-ADE: The first time I tried it,
it was two old carrots, one pink grapefruit, one lime, and one
apple, all almost dried out after too long in the refrigerator.
Peggy ordered this tightwad to dispose of them. So I peeled and
blended them adding enough water to cover the diced fruits. The
beverage was as bright an orange as I have ever blended. But I
finished it before lunch, having made a popsicle out of one glassful
(I sweetened it a bit with stevia powder, breaking open a Nature's
Herbs capsule and blending it in with the juice, hoping to tempt
the grandchildren into striving for five). It was as beautiful
and tasty as the orange sherbert my dad had tempted me with 60
years ago in Durham. Try mixing up various fruits, especially
thiose with proven biological activities you need. You can do
this with five vegetables also, spicing up with hot sauce, ginger
and turmeric, maybe even garlic and onion for another Strive for
Five Ade, but I don't recommend the frozen vegetables nearly so
strongly as I recommend the frozen fruit juices. You can concoct
a beverage or frozen food farmacy sherbert for almost any ailment,
while attaiuning thefive fruits and five vegetables so highly
recommended for the prevention of all the major killer disease
in the US. Using Stevia powder is recommended for those like me,
who like their fruit juices, especially citrus, a bit sweeter
than they are on the tree. Hypotensives and ulcer prone- types
might rather sweetenen with licorice extracts.
SUNNY SOUP: There's one good mood elevating reason
to snack on sunflower seed with your bean and watercress soup.
These are the three richest sources (ZMB) of antidepressant phenylalanine,
sunflower up to 4.8%, blackbean and watercress to 2.3%. Pigeonpea
and soybean are close behind with up to nearly 2.1%. To get 500
mg phenylalanine from sunflower might require a pound of fresh
low-phenylalananine sunflower, but a 100 g USDA serving of dry
sunflower seed could provide 480 mg. You might make a Sunny Soup
for Depression, with ground sunflower seed, plus blackbeans and
watercress for phenylalanine, and mustard greens and a mix of
beans and spinach for tyrosine, also an antidepressant and monoamine
precursor. If the soup don't do it, you could resort to your hypericum
tincture.
SUNZAC: I once read (J. Long. Res. 2(3):p. 17.
1996) of an alternative called Serezac, described as a natural
nutritional support system for people who have used antidepressants
like Prozac and other prescription drugs. I would recommend instead
"Sunzac", with evening primrose, hypericum, mustard,
and sunflower, which would provide respectively a great dietary
source of tryptophan {for cerebral serotonin}, the best herbal
antidepressant, the best source of antidepressant tyrosine, and
a smiling sunny dietary source of antidepressant phenylalanine.
SUPER SALAD: When I go to my database seeking
superlatives, purslane comes out best for the antioxidants and
antioxidant vitamins, and for calcium and magnesium. Conversely
jute (Corchorus olitorius or mulakiya to Arabs) excells
for a diversity of amino acids and is highest for folic acid.
On a dry weight basis, jute can contain 2.1% alanine (2nd highest),
4.6% aspartic acid, but purslane is much richer in beta-carotene,
at 4,700 ppms, cf ca 500 for jute; jute was my richest source
of folacin; 1.7% glycine (top 10), 0.9% histidine (top 12); 1.8%
for isoleucine, 3.2 for leucine (top ten), 0.5% methionine (top
20), 1.7% phenylalanine (top 10), 2.0% for proline (top 10), 44
ppm riboflavin (3rd), and 1.4% serine (top 12). The purslane is
in the top dozen for calcium (2.1%) on a dry weight basis, far
highest in beta-carotene, top 12 for citric acid, highest for
magnesium at nearly 2%, seventh for potassium at 8.1%, highest
for tocopherol at 0.23%, and great for tryptophan at 0.35%.
The recipe I had for lunch in the 95-degree Beltsville summer
was based on the purslane Sleeper Salad. It had two cups chopped
raw purslane, one cup toasted pita bread crumbs (with garlic),
one cup tomatoes, two onions, a little olive oil and lemon juice;
and a dash of garlic salt. Purslane which dominated the salad
has some 3,500 ppms tryptophan on a dry weight basis. If sleep
was more importnat to me than taste, I'd have added some better
tryptophan sources, like evening primrose bran (not yet available,
so I just use mortar-ground seed). That way I'd get some GLA and
some tryptophan (9,000 ppms). Since watercress has almost twice
as much tryptophan as purslane (ZMB), I'd go heavier on the watercress.
The jute, I'm told on good authority would be too slimy (and perhaps
too tonic) to add to our sleeper salad raw, but is great lightly
toasted or stir fried and with lemon juice. Dr. Aref Abdul-Baki,
Research Scientist with ARS of the USDA, who shares my enthusiasm
about both these potherbs, says that lightly pre-cooked jute would
make a marvlous 50-50 mix in the recipe (if vitamin diversity
were your intent rather than sedation). If you wre after a good
vegetarian source of folic acid, you might mix the jute greens
with spinach in a mixed bean soup, loaded with lentils and cowpeas.
I'm such a nut that I think that a soup calculated to contain
your RDA of 400 micrograms folate per day will offer more protection
against cervical dysplasia, fetal alcohol syndrome and spina bifida
than a capsule containing 400 micrograms of folate.
SUPERSALICYLATE TEA: Mix as available equal parts
birchbark, cayenne, pipsissewa, queen of the meadow, willowbark
and wintergreen. (If fearful of the FDA, only use GRAS ingredients).
Cover with water and bring close to a boil. Flavor with various
mints rich in eugenol, menthol and/or pulegone.
TICO OUZO: Vodka or less favorably rum in which
lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and anisillo (Piper
auritum), as they call the root beer leaf in Costa Rica,
has been steeped. Because they may have both the alcohol and the
safrole plotting against the long time viability of their livers.
I write this in mid-August, 1995, just a couple days after Mickey
Mantle died, at least in part due to alcoholic liver damage.
TRANQUIL TRIPTOFANTASY: Follow a customary recipe
for poppyseed pastry, but mix in with high tryptophan seeds {Mix
to taste ground seeds of the following (highest reported tryptophan
levels in rounded ppms): evening primrose (9,000 ppm), winged
bean (8,000), white mustard (5,000), pumpkin (4,500) sunflower
(4,000), lablab (4,000), sesame (3,500), chickpea (3,500)}. Taken
with milk before bed, this could help insomnia in adults; taken
at breakfast, it could help some hyperactive children.
VIRICIDES: Making a computer query for antivirals,
I came up with bilberry leaves (up to 20%), motherworth (up to
9.0%), oregano (to 8.2), rosemary ( up to 3.4%), coriander (up
to 2.0%), and fennel (up to 1.2%), in decreasing quantities of
maximum potential viricidal compounds (dry weight basis).
WEED FEED: (a mixture of reputedly slimming edible
weeds, like chickweed, dandelions, evening primrose, nettle, plantain,
and purslane {the latter with l-dopa and noradrenalin}, spiced
up with catabolic hot sauce and slimming lemon juice) which could
possibly slim our waistlines, and reduce our budget, including
the national herbicide budget and the national cancer and heart
attack budgets.