" Health is Wealth" and "Herb is Health and Wealth"
Medicinal preparations are of two kinds: One is Medicinal and another is Culinary.Generally medicinal preparations are Raw and culinary are cooked.Eating fresh raw leaves which are Sun cooked is the best way of using them. The true values are not destroed, as they are fully raw and fresh possessing high Biological values than the cooked preparations. The two important food factors viz. Vitamins and Minerals are intact in raw form. It is said that 1/4 of the raw food is equal to
3 /4 of other cooked food, so far as nutritional value is concerned.Fresh leves should be used as soon as possible after plucking. Leaves gathered previous day and dried or withered leaves lose their virtues. Chewing raw leaves is the first and best way to eat. Tasting drop by drop the raw juice stands second. Eating raw powder made from dried leaves occupy the third place. Eating cooked leaves is the last one. Chewing is the best way to take food. The advantage of chewing is they will be tasted well,digested well and fully absorbed by the system. First put few raw leaves into the mouth,chew them well,make it into a fine pasate. The 'cellulose' present in leaves is a undigestible matter. Hence chewing is very important. The paste should be mixed well with saliva. Don't spit the roughage as for as possible. It is fibre content highily useful to clean the bowels and cures the 'Constipation' naturally.
* Medicinal Herbs: Ephorbia hirta,Capparis zeylanica, Eclipta alba, Murraya koenigii, Coriandrum sativam, Ocimum basilium, Ocimum sanctum, Bauhinia tomentosa, Solanum trilobatum, Aegle marmelos, Evolvulus alsinodes, Citrus vulgaris, citrus asida, Lipia nodiflora are some of the Herbs.
*Greens: Amaranthus spinosis,Solanum nigrum.Cabbage, Lettuce, Spinache, Tops of Turnip, Ipomea, POrtulaca, Cephalandra, Tender Leaves of Drum sticks, Tender leaves of Tamrind tree,Sesbania grandiflora, Trigonella foenum are some of the Greens with high nutritional values.
* Salads: One can make a delicious dish out of the mild tasting and completely tasteless varieties. Tender leaves and sprouts can be used together. After washing,the leaf blades should be cut in to big pieces as far as possible. Never wash after cutting the leaves as they lose their nutritional values in water. Small leaves may be used without cutting. Addition of Lemon juice/Tomato juice/Orange juice/ make the salad more palatable and flavouring. Sweet curd and coconut may be added. This salad can be mixede with Cucumber/Snake gourd/ Carrot/ Onion/ Banana stem/ White Radish etc. Rest in the next post.
