Herban Pearls
These are a few of my favorite herbs, and their functions, all part of a short-lived column that I had called “Herban Renewal’.
Herban Renewal Friday: A great Women’s herb is Rehmannia, the cooked variety (Chinese foxglove root). Helps insomnia, dizziness, palpitations and irregular menstruation (night sweats too, ladies).
For the Home Pharmacy: Yu Nan Bai Yao. Stops bleeding, and I mean like nothing else around–just pour it on and the flow stops. South Vietnamese soldiers used it to stop gunshots. You can buy it in Chinatown.
Herban Renewal 4–Cinnamon bark! For ‘waning vitality’, including weak back, impotence, frequent urination, cold limbs; for wheezing and other signs of aging. Amazing herb. Not for those w/ flushed face.
Herban Renewal Thursday–Tangerine Peel, for abdominal distention, bloating, belching. nausea and vomiting. Who knew my first herbalist would be my Russian-born grandmother? She used to hang the curly-cue cut rinds in her kitchen and make tea from them. You can too.
Herban Renewal Time: Loquat leaf is great for dry cough (hard to cough up phlegm) accompanied by chest pain and dry throat. Also for nausea. You can buy it as a honey-based syrup in chi-town and keep it in the med. chest for those nasty dry winter colds. Add ginger juice to reduce nausea.
Herban Renewal Monday: Reishi mushroom. During Solzhenitsyn’s time in the Gulag he was said to have foraged for it in the woods, using it to cure himself of cancer. It’s ancient and primal and virtually oozes healing energy. Pricey but worth every shekel.
Heban Renewal Thursday: Barley sprout for undigested starchy foods, resulting in…feeling massively stuffed! But it’s Txgiving, so go out and eat one for the gipper.
Feel free to send me your favorite herb!
Cheers, Daniel at Blue Phoenix