Life and Spirituality

“Let your food be your medicine” Hippocrates W hile the young may suffer from health issues, several health problems are more common with age. Modern medicines can relieve many common conditions but they often come with adverse side effects that can leave a person compromised in health and worse off in the long run.  Before modern medicines became prevalent, humans treated many ailments with flowers, leaves, roots and barks of plants and trees. Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medicinal science, makes use of herbs and plant materials without substantial extraction of active ingredients as modern medicine does. These are called Ayurvedic medicines. The additional compounds in a medicinal or edible plant are an organic whole and a part of life that supports other life. It therefore helps to balance the chemicals in a way that is more conducive to life than a pure chemical in isolation would be. A modern example in wide use as food is sugar, a pure chemical isolated from juice

C hrysanthemums are blooming in the garden and I took a picture of some white ones just a little while ago. They are delightful flowers to have around the garden because they come in so many shapes and colors and bloom profusely. After the season is over, one can cut them down and they will come up again the following year. Chrysanthemums sometimes called mums belong to the family Asteraceae, the most widely prevalent flower family on the planet. In many parts of the world these flowers are connected to peace for the soul after departure from this life and are therefore an ideal gift for funerals and caskets of the departed. Therefore it is not recommended that these be gifted to anyone on other occasions unless one wishes to rush them to their graves. In some countries they gift this to mothers but it would be wiser to gift pink roses or carnations in any color to a mother. The flower petals may be used as a garnish in various recipes and in China they eat both

Jungle Geranium A friend of mine from Engineering School days, Ramakrishnan Ramanathan,  recently put up a photo of a flower that I instantly recognized as one that has been growing in my garden for years on a flowering bush. It is not very common in our area and no one knows the name here, however, the plant is native to South India and it seems popular in Florida too, so I asked him the name. He gave a complicated botanical name, Ixora something as well as the common one Jungle Geranium. The next step was to look up on the net if the plant has any medicinal use. I am a fan of herbal medicine and like to know the uses of plants growing at home. As a matter of fact, the plant has several uses, one being to treat loose stomachs. Next time I know where to head for after a visit to the very spicy snack shop nearby that invariably gives me a runny tummy. Apparently the plant used properly also prolongs age. The interested reader may read more about it at http://www.medicalhealthgui