Candle nut

Herb :Candle nut
Plant Description

It grows to a height of 15-25 meters with wide pendulous branches.

The leaves of this plant are 10-20cm long, pale green in color, simple and ovate sometimes it is trilobed and rarely five lobed with an acute apex.

The fruit nut is round 4-6 cm in diameter and from inside the seed has very hard seed coat and high oil content.

Parts Used

Fruit and leaves are used in medicinal and culinary purpose.
Constituents

Candlenuts are high in oil content. It has bitter taste due to the presence of saponin and phorbol.
Culinary uses

Candlenut is mainly used in Indonesian and Malaysian cuisines, as it makes a thick sauce which is eaten with vegetables and rice.
Medicinal uses

* Candlenut herb is also popular for its medicinal properties. Several parts of this plant are used for traditional medicines as the oil is an irritant and used as laxative, also added to castor oil.
* It is an active hair stimulant and added to hair treatment systems.
* In japan its bark is used to treat tumor.
* In Malaya, it's the boiled leaves or pulped kernels are used in headaches, fever, flu, swollen joints and ulcers.
Medicinal Herbs: Caper

Coriander

Medicinal Herb : Coriander
Plant Desciption

It is an annual, soft, hairless, foetid plant growing to 1 to 3 feet high with erect stems which are slender and branched. It is a bright green, shining, glabrous plant. The bright, green leaves are fan shaped and become more feathery towards the top of the plant.

The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the flowering stems. The lowest leaves are stalked and pinnate while the segments of the uppermost leaves are linear and finely divided into very narrow, lacy segments.

The flowers are borne in small, shortly-stalked umbels, white or very pale pink, five to ten rays, asymmetrical, with the petals pointing away from the centre of the umbel longer than those pointing to the middle of the umbel. The seed clusters are very symmetrical and the seeds fall as soon as ripe.

The fruit is a globular dry schizocarp brown to yellow, 3-5 mm diameter, consist of two, single-seeded mericarp. They lose their disagreeable scent on drying and the longer they are kept, the more fragrant they become.

Parts Used

The parts used are the fruit, and the leaves.
Constituents

Coriander fruit contains about 1 per cent of volatile oil, which is the active ingredient. It is pale yellow or colourless, and has the odour of Coriander and a mild aromatic taste. It also contains malic acid, tannin and some fatty matter. They have a lemony citrus flavour when crushed, due to the presence of the terpenes linalool and pinene.
Culinary Uses

* All parts of the plant are edible, but the fresh leaves and the dried seeds are the most commonly used in cooking.
* The leaves have a very different taste from the seeds, similar to parsley but "juicier" and with citrus-like overtones.
* The small, woody root is used as a vegetable in some parts of China.
* Chopped coriander leaves are also used as a garnish on cooked dishes such as dal and many curries, but should never themselves be cooked as heat destroys their delicate flavour quickly.
* The fruits are also used (both whole and ground) in baking, sausages, pickles, candies, sauces and soups.
* Coriander seeds are also used in brewing certain styles of beer, particularly some Belgian wheat beers.
* They are usually dried but can be eaten green. Ground coriander is a major ingredient in curry powder.

Medicinal Uses

* Coriander is used to treat digestive ailments.
* It is a carminative and used for windy colic.
* It is stimulant, aromatic and carminative.
* One pharmaceutical use of coriander is to mask the tastes of other medicinal compounds or to calm the irritating effects on the stomach that some medicines cause.
* Coriander has been used as a folk medicine for the relief of anxiety and insomnia in Iranian folk medicine.
* If used too freely the seeds become narcotic.


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Caper

Medicinal Herb : Caper
Plant Description

Caper is highly variable in nature in its natural habitat.

This shrubby plant has many branch with alternate leaves, thick and shiny round in shape The flowers are sweetly fragrant, showy with four sepals and four white-pinkish petals.

Capers are harvested regularly from May to July.

It prefers full sunlight and warm climate and much treated like cactus, requires frequent watering in summer and very little in winter.

Parts Used

Flower bud and root bark.
Culinary uses

* Capers can be used as sauces and salads in meat and other dishes.
* It gives a pepper taste when garnish on salad and other dish.
* It is a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisines and the mature fruit of this plant is salted, prepared and marketed as capper berries.
* Capers are also a special ingredient in Italian cuisines It is added to pizza, pasta salads, chicken dishes and pasta sauces

Medicinal uses

* The root bark of caper has been considered and used as astringent, expectorant, diuretic and stimulating tonic.
* It is also considered healthy in gastro-intestinal infections, diarrhea, gout and rheumatism.
* The flower buds of caper are affective in cough and for eye infection.
* Its roots and bud makes a soothing herbal tea.
Medicinal Herbs

Capsicum

Medicinal Herb : Capsicum
Plant Description

Cayenne is a bush like dark-green annual plant, obtaining a height between 10 to 20 inches. The stems are furrowed, branching, and angular.

The simple leaves are on medium to long petioles and are usually wrinkled, entire, and ovate to oval. The pendulous flowers are white to violet, solitary, arising from the axillary nodes.

The fruits are long, cylindrical, and mostly ovoid, and when ripe are either scarlet or yellow, with a smooth shiny surface. The many seeds are yellow, smooth and round, with a spiny protuberance on the edge.

The plants grow at altitudes from sea level to 1,800 m above MSL in the tropics. Their pungency is influenced by several factors, such as high night temperatures and drought or over-watering.

Parts Used

The parts used are berry fruits. Removal of seeds and veins results in a less pungent and more brightly coloured product.
Main Constituents

The pungent constituents found in Cayenne are the capsaicinoids, present only in the fruit of the plant in small amounts, as low as 0.001 to 0.005% in "mild" and 0.1% in "hot" cultivars. Capsaicin is a phenolic compound, the vanillyl amide of isodecenoic acid

Apart from capsaicin, the taste of paprika is mostly due to essential oil; paprika scent is mostly do to a range of alkylmethoxypyrazines. Paprika also contains sizable amounts (0.1%) of vitamin C. Paprikas derive their colour in the ripe state mainly from carotenoid pigments, which range from bright red (capsanthrine, capsorubin and more) to yellow.

Capsicum or Cayenne (Capsicum Frutescens) is rich in vitamins A, C, iron and calcium. It contains vitamin G, magnesium, phosphorus, and sulphur; it also has some B-complex, and is rich in potassium.

Aroma and flavour

The pungency for the red peppers and the colour value for the paprikas are the most important parameters. The hot flavour of chilies is caused by the substance capsicin which is concentrated mainly in the placenta (i.e. the connective tissue between the fruit and the seeds) and the seeds.

Hot peppers, used as relishes, pickled or ground into a fine powder for use as spices, derive their pungency from the compound capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-enamide), a substance characterized by acrid and burning taste, that is located in the internal partitions of the fruit. The capsaicin stimulates gastric secretions and, if used in excess, causes inflammation. It is a tasteless, odorless white crystalline substance. Its level varies widely in capsicum peppers, from less than 0.05% in the mildly pungent types to as high as 1.3% in the hottest chilies. Most of the capsaicin in a pepper is found in the interior ribs that divide the chambers of the fruit, and to which the seeds are attached.
Medicinal Herbs

Chilies have a chemical effect on our bodies as they stimulate the appetite and cool the body. The chili flavour revolutionized the cooking of tropical countries. Red pepper is used in a large variety of products, often in the meat and pickling industry in the form of crushed red pepper or ground red pepper. It is used either in the ground form or as oleoresin in any product that has some heat or pungency. A fine powder made from especially mild varieties of pepper, C.annum, is known as paprika. Paprika is used more extensively whenever a red to orange colour is desired such as in processed meats, snack, foods, sauces, gravies, salad dressings etc.
Medicinal Uses

* Cayenne is stomachic, carminative, stimulant, antispasmodic, analgesic, alterative, astringent, hemostatic, and antiseptic in nature.
* Cayenne is widely considered to be the most potent and safest stimulant known.
* Cayenne has a strong effect upon the circulation, initially acting upon the heart and the large arteries, followed by a stimulant activity upon the arterioles and then the capillaries.
* It exhibits a protective effect on the respiratory system.
* The capsaicin has substantial antigenotoxic and anticarcinogenic effects, and is an important dietary phytochemical with potential chemopreventive activity (Surh et al 1998).
* The powder is used in any catarrhal affliction as in colds, cough, asthma and urinary catarrh.
* Capsaicin is used primarily as a topical cream for pain caused by conditions such as arthritis and general muscle soreness.
* In cases of dyspepsia, flatulence and constipation, Cayenne promotes the digestive secretions and stimulates peristalsis.
* Cayenne is also indicated in tired, painful muscles, joint stiffness, and coldness in the extremities.
* Cayenne is applied topically as a powder on wounds to arrest bleeding, working rapidly to form a clot and seal off the wound.
* Cayenne is of great use in the treatment of indolent ulcers, abscesses, and sores.
* Cayenne is also an important among remedy to stop the process of mortification and gangrene, arresting decomposition and decay through its antiseptic properties.
* It is also helpful in menstrual cramps.

Boldo

Medicinal Herb : Boldo
Plant Description

Boldo is a native to the central region of Chile and Peru. This small shrub is also naturalized to the Mediterranean region.

Boldo is an evergreen tropical shrub cultivated in Mediterranean region, which grows to the height of 6-8 meters and produces small berry like fruit.

This plant bears scented flowers which are either male or female, as only one sex is found on one plant.

Boldo is slightly bitter and aromatic herb, and has diuretic and antiseptic properties.

Parts Used

Leaves
Constituents

It contains a lot of alkaloids, flavonoids, ascaridole, camphor, linalool, limonene, b-pinene, resin and tannin. Boldo leaves also contain some volatile oil
Medicinal uses

Boldo is used extensively for its medicinal uses. Boldo is helpful in curing.

* Common cold
* Indigestion
* Headache
* Gout
* Intestinal gas
* Liver disorders
* Syphilis
* Gallbladder
* Menstrual pain

In Latin America and Spain boldo leaves are excessively used to relieve stomach pain, and particularly to support gallbladder.

Boldo is also thought to be an affective herbal medicine for gallstones.

The leaves of this herb are made into tincture or infusions or made into tablets and capsules to be taken as medicine.

Boldo is a good liver protective agent, as it protects liver from damage from drugs and toxins; apart from this it detoxify liver.

Boldo is also an affective agent against parasites and worms, and has been used to treat malaria.
Medicinal Herbs

Bistort

Medicinal Herb : Bistort
Plant Description

A number of tuberous roots are produced from the S- shaped root stock from the upper side where there are large oval leaves with heart shaped bases of bluish green color on the upper side and ash grey tinged purple, underneath both leaf stalks and blades which is about 6 inches long.

The flower stalk is 12 to 18 inches high and is very erect, slender, unbranched and bears leaves smaller than the root leaves. The flowers are produced in May and June and again in September and October.

The fruit is three seeded; the ripe fruit is small brown and shinning.

Parts Used

Root stock and rhizome

Constituents

Bistort is said to contain tannin, and lot of starch. It also contains some gallic acid and gum.
Culinary uses

* American bistort (polygonum bistortoides) is an important source of food used by American Indians living in the mountain west. Its roots are edible either raw or fire roasted. Its flavor is similar to chestnuts.
* Seeds of bistort herb are dried and used in ground flour to make bread. They are also roasted and eaten as cracked grain.

Medicinal uses

This herb is used in various bodily ailments.

* Its powder is used to apply on cuts and wounds to stop bleeding.
* Effective in jaundice.
* Expel the venom of the plague.
* Helpful in measles and smallpox, and in other infections.
Bistort root is one of the strongest astringent medicines in whole of the vegetable kingdom and highly styptic. It is an old remedy to treat internal and external bleeding including.

* Excessive menstrual flow.
* Hemorrhaging from the lungs and stomach.

Its high astringent helps to treat diarrhea, hemorrhoids, bedwetting, spongy gums and vomiting.
Its can be used internally in diarrhea, dysentery, peptic ulcers and irritable bowl syndrome.
Externally it can be used to treat wounds, fissures and burns.
Medicinal Herbs

Africa Pepper

Medicinal herbs : Africa Pepper

Family Name: Solanaceae
Botanical Name(s): Capsicum frutescens L.
Popular Name(s): African red pepper, American pepper, Chili pepper, Chilies, Garden pepper, Red pepper

Parts Used: Fruits
Habitat: Africa pepper is found in Africa, Asia and South America. It is available in other parts of the world also.
Description: Africa pepper grows to a height of 3 feet or more. The plant possesses a stem which is woody at the lower areas but is branched at the upper parts. The leaves are ovate and petioled. The flowers are white to yellow in colour. The plant bears fruits which are in the form of pods having many seeds. The ripen fruit is red or yellow in colour.

Uses: Africa pepper has antiseptic, antibacterial and carminative properties. It has beneficial antioxidant and cardiovascular effects and it benefits gastrointestinal functions. It is used in bursitis, diabetic neuropathy, osteoarthritis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and in a number of other diseases.
Medicinal herbs
medicinal-herbs: aconite.