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Archive for January, 2007

How to prepare Ginger Lozenges

January 16th, 2007

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Medicated candies prepared from rhizomes of luya, Zingiber officinale, for sore throat, cough and as breath freshener, dissolved in the mouth as needed.

Materials:

Ginger rhizomes, powdered;
confectioner’s sugar,
gum Arabic powder, USP;
cornstarch,
water, mortar and pestle,
spatula,
spoon,
knife,
tray,
wax paper,
aluminum foil

Proportion: 2 tablespoon powdered ginger for every cup of confectioner’s sugar.

Procedure:

1. Mix powdered ginger, confectioner’s sugar, a little gum Arabic powder in a mortar and pestle.

2. Add water, a few drops at a time, enough to form a mass/ball.

3. Line a tray/plate with cornstarch lightly. Transfer the mass/ball to the starch-lined tray.

4. Flatten the mass/ball to desired thickness, or make a long roll.

5. Divide the flattened mass or roll, as the case maybe, into equal portions, as desired.

6. Allow the discs to dry (air-dry or place in an oven briefly); then wrap each one in aluminum foil.

Source: www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph

Posted in Zingiber officinale

Tags: Aluminum Foil, Candies, Confectioner, Cornstarch Water, Cough, Ginger, Ginger Lozenges, Gum Arabic, Mortar And Pestle, Powdered Ginger, Rhizomes, Sore Throat, Spatula, Spoon, Starch, Sugar Gum, Tablespoon, Usp, Wax Paper, Zingiber officinale

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How to prepare Capsicum Liniment

January 16th, 2007

Von

A liniment prepared from mature fruits of Capsicum frutescens L; applied by massaging gently a few drops on painful muscles and joints, morning and night.

Materials:

Siling labuyo fruits,
Vegetable oil,
Wide-mouthed glass jar with cover,
Medicine bottles,
Labels

Procedure:

1. Macerate siling labuyo fruits in vegetable oil, enough to cover all the fruits, for one week. Keep the jar covered.
2. After one week, strain to separate the fruits from the oil. (The macerated fruits may be discarded; or leave the maceration mixture in the jar and just decant portions of the oil as needed, from time to time).
3. If the resulting product is turbid (cloudy), heat the oil gently at low temperature (do not boil) until the product becomes clear.
4. Transfer to medicine bottles.
5. Label properly.

Source: www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: Capsicum, Capsicum Frutescens, Glass Jar, Joints, Labels, Liniment, Low Temperature, Macerate, Mature Fruits, Medicine, Medicine Bottles, Mixture, Painful Muscles, Time 3, Vegetable Oil

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Uses of Siling Labuyo (Capsicum frutescens)

January 14th, 2007

Von

Scientific name: Capsicum frutescens L.

Common names: Pasitis (Tagalog); silit diablo (Ilokano); lada (Bikol); katambal (Bisaya); African chillies, Cayenne., Chile (Sp.); chileng-bundok (Tag.); kasira (Mag.); katumbal (Bis.); kitikot (Bis.); lada (Sul., Bik.); lara (Sul.); paktin (IF.); pasitis (Tag.); rimorimo (Bik.); sili (most dialects); sileng-labuyo (Tag.); siling-palai (Tag.); Spanish pepper, red pepper, cayenne, chile pepper, chillii (Engl.).

Indications and preparations: Liniments from crushed fruits for muscular aches and joint pains.

Sileng-labuyo is ubiquitous in the Philippines. It is a native of tropical America, but is now pantropic.

This pepper plant is erect, branched, half-woody, and 0.8 to 1.5 meters in height. The leaves are oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3 to 10 centimeters long, and pointed at the tip. The flowers are solitary or occur several in each axil, and are stalked, pale green or yellowish-green, and 8 to 9 millimeters in diameter. The fruit is commonly red when ripe, oblong-lanceolate, and 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters long. The seeds are numerous and discoid.

The fruit has a very sharp taste and is extensively used as a condiment. It is mixed with or made into pickles, and is a principal ingredient in all curies in India. The leaves are very extensively used as a green vegetable. They have a very pleasant, somewhat piquant flavor. The leaves are excellent sources of calcium, and iron and a good source of phosphorus, vitamin B, and vitamin A.

The fruit contains an active ingredient, capsaicin, 0.14 per cent; and capsaicin, 0.15 – 0.5 per cent; starch, 0.89 – 1.4 per cent; pentosans, 8.57 per cent; and pectin; 2.33 cent. The fruit is official in the Argentine and United States Pharmacopoeias; and also in the British, and Indian Pharmacopoeias.

According to Drury Cayenne, pepper is believed to be wholesome for persons of phlegmatic temperament, being considered stimulating. When eaten fresh, it is an excellent promoter of ligaments in tropical countries. The bruised berries are employed as powerful rubefacients, being preferred to sinapisms in sore throats. They are also given, with the best results, as a gargle. Chilli vinegar (made by pouring hot vinegar upon the fruit) is an excellent stomachic. Chillies are employed, in combination with cinchona, in intermittent and lethargic affections, and also in atonic gout, dyspepsia accompanied with flatulence, tympanitis, and paralysis.

Warm fomentation of both leaves and fruit is applied for rheumatic pains. The leaves of some varieties are used as a dressing for wounds and sores. A strong infusion of the fruit of the hotter kinds is applied as a lotion for ringworm of the scalp.

Chillies are used in native practice in typhus intermittent fevers and dropsy; also in gout, dyspepsia, and cholera. Externally, they are used as a rubefacient and internally, as a stomachic.

Source: www.bpi.da.gov.ph, www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph

Posted in Siling Labuyo

Tags: Axil, Bikol, Bisaya, Capsicum Frutescens, Cayenne Pepper, Chile Pepper, Curies, Green Vegetable, Ilokano, Ingredient Capsaicin, Joint Pains, Liniments, Ovate, Pepper Plant, Piquant Flavor, Principal Ingredient, Red Pepper, Silit, Sources Of Calcium, Tropical America

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Uses of Aloe vera (Sabila)

January 14th, 2007

Von

Scientific name: Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f.

Common names: Dilang buwaya, acibar (general); Curacao aloe, aloe.

Indications and preparations: Sap from fresh leaves for alopecia, falling hair, burns, psoriasis, complexion care. Pounded leaves poultice for contusions and localized edema.

Sabila is used for ornamental and medicinal purposes in the Philippines. The stems of sabila grow from 30 to 40 centimeters in height. The leaves are fleshy, mucilaginous, and succulent, 20 to 50 centimeters long, 5 to 8 centimeters wide; gradually narrowed and the base, pale green, and irregular, white-clothed, and the margins having weak prickles. The inflorescence is erect, and usually twice the height of the plant. The flowers are 2 to 3 centimeters long, yellow, with the segments about equal the oblong tube.

The leaves contain barbaloin 25 per cent, isobarbaloin 0.5 per cent, emodin, resin, and traces of volatile oil; in the Sicilian variety, with sicaloiu. It also contains cinnamic acid, d-arakinose and oxydase.

The juice of the fleshy leaves is usually mixed with gogo by the Filipino women to prevent falling of the hair and to cure baldness. The juice from the leaves mixed with wine preserves the hair, according to reports. Also the juice mixed with milk cures dysentery and pains in the kidney. The leaves are used by Filipino herbalist to poultice edema of beriberi patients. The alcoholic tincture of this inspissated juice is used in India and in the Antilles to cure bruises or contusions and ecchymosis.

Source: www.bpi.da.gov.ph, www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph

Posted in Sabila

Tags: Baldness, Beriberi, Bpi, Burm, Centimeters, Common Names, Contusions, Dysentery, Falling Hair, Filipino Women, Herbalist, Inflorescence, Localized Edema, Medicinal Purposes, Pcarrd, Ph Www, Poultice, Tincture, Uses Of Aloe Vera, Volatile Oil

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Uses of Lagundi (Vitex negundo)

January 13th, 2007

Von

Common names: Dangla (Ilokano); five-leaved chaste tree, horseshoe vitex.

Indications and preparations: Leaves and flowering tops decoction, syrup, tablets and capsules for coughs, colds, fever and asthma.

Family: Verbenaceae

Description: A shedding shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall, bark surface slightly rough, peeling off in papery flakes, pale reddish-brown. Leaflets 3-5, narrowly elliptical Fruit spherical to broadly egg-shaped, 3-6 mm long, purple or black when mature.

Ecological distribution: Found in humid places or along watercourses, in waste places and mixed open forest. Eastern Africa and Madagascar to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, throughout the Malesian region, east to the Palau Islands, the Caroline Islands and the Mariana Islands. Widely cultivated in Europe, Asia, North America and the West Indies.

Parts used: Leaves and flowering tops.

Traditional uses:

roots and leaves – for pain, bitter tonic, expectorant and diuretic;
sap from crushed leaves – for coughs and sore throat;
leaf decoction – for wounds, ulcers, aromatic baths, and internally to promote the flow of milk, to induce menstruation, against gastric colic, and against flatulence.
seeds – boiled and eaten to prevent the spread of toxins from poisonous bites of animals;
flowers – for diarrhea, cholera and liver disorders

Special precautions: Make sure to have the five-leaved varieties, as there are other varieties of lagundi.

Lagundi Syrup: A sweetened preparation from the leaves of Vitex negundo L.

Materials: cooking pot, ladle, cup strainer, medicine bottles, labels, lagundi leaves, sugar/honey, water.

Proportion: 1 cup chopped lagundi leaves to 1 cup water

Procedure:

1. In an uncovered pot, prepare a decoction of the lagundi leaves.
2. Cool and strain.
3. Measure the amount of decoction that you produced. One-third of this volume will be the amount of sugar/honey that you are going to use.
4. Add your sweetener, stirring gently. You may put the mixture back on the stove, with low heat, until all he sweetener is dissolved/blended with the mixture. This is your syrup.
5. Transfer the syrup into the sterilized medicine bottles. Seal and label properly.
6. Store your bottled lagundi syrup in a clean, cool, dry place away from light.

Further information in: de Padua,L.S., N. Bunyapraphatsara, R.H.M.J. Lemmens (Editors). 1999. Plant Resources of South East Asia 12(1) Medicinal and Poisonous Plants. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands.771 pp.

Source:www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph

Posted in Lagundi, Syrup