Onion (Allium Cepa)

   Was cultivated 6000 years BC in the Nile Valley.The onion contains Na, K, Ca, P, Fe and small quantities of vitamins like A, B1, B2 and C.

   As a medicine it is recommended raw because through boiling it loses a large part of its main actions.

• Intern: the onion is an energizer. It is also useful for edemas, cirrhosis, pleurisy, and it has antiseptic features.
• Extern: it is an active remedy for stomatitis, aphtha as it has a powerful effect on staphylococcus.

Therapeutic features:

1. Excess of uric acid: leave overnight two crushed onions, until it is obtained a paste, in half a liter of boiled water. In the morning, filter and drink a cup of this product with some lemon juice and sweeten with honey.
2. Abcess, furuncle: for them to grow mellow apply on the swollen parts ripe onion and hold for 10-15 minutes. Repeat this 4-5 times a day.
3. Burns: for a slight burn apply on the wounded part a crushed onion mixed with a pinch of salt.
4. Diabetes: follow regular onion cures as it works on the pancreas. Consume raw or cooked onion at all 3 meals, daily, for a week. Repeat the cure every 3 months.
5. Diarrhea: boil 200 grams of onion leaves for 10 minutes in a liter of water. Consume half a liter of the obtained liquid daily.
6. Edema: pass through the rasp 300 grams of raw onion, then mix it with 400 grams of honey and 600 grams of white wine. Stir and take 2-4 spoonfuls a day.

7. Hemorrhoids: cut the onion in two and wash it, let it cool off and apply on the painful spot.
8. Cough, bronchitis: boil 3 cut in half onions for 8-10 minutes in half a liter of water. Filter and sweeten with honey, drink half a cup a day.
9. Against freckles: massage the face with apple vinegar in which a crushed onion was left to macerate for 4 hours. It can also be used onion juice mixed with warm water.

Benefits of Garlic

   Garlic is a plant native to Africa and central Asia. It was discovered and used by the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Jews, Greeks and Romans. Garlic earned a renowned place in the modern natural medicine. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance when the population was facing great plagues, garlic was used very often as a protective medicine. It gained its fame owing to some wrongdoers who fended off the plague by using antiseptic garlic vinegar. As a result, garlic was known as the best antidote against the plague under the name of "the vinegar of the four thieves". The diuretic qualities were discovered by Bartholius, who recommended it for treating ague, while Sydenham would recommend it as a dropsical treatment.

   The active compounds of garlic are volatile oil, the mixture between sulfide and allyl oxide in an almost pure state, two very important mineral antibiotic components (sulfur, iodine, zinc, and manganese) and vitamins B and C.

   The main therapeutic qualities of garlic describe it as being antiseptic, antibacterial, stimulating digestion, reducing high blood pressure, glandular regulator, diuretic and even cancer deterrent.

   Internally, garlic is not used so much due to the strong smell that remains in the mouth. Yet it is still being used often for treating various afflictions: the consumption of 2-3 cloves of garlic a day has wonderful results in treating pharyngitis and intestinal infections. It also counteracts flu complications and helps treat gout and insures a general state of health.


   Externally, garlic enemas are effective against intestinal worms. Other usages of garlic are:

    - ground and mixed in grease or oil it is recommended as an ointment. This mixture is named "devil's mustard" and is used and is used at treating white tumors;
    - the mixture obtained from a clove of garlic mixed with camphorated oil used in rubbing the back and chest with is effective against scabies;
    - the disinfection of wounds can be successfully done by grinding a clove of garlic and mixing it until a solution is obtained (10% garlic juice and 1-2% alcohol) or by making dabs or garlic (30 g of ground garlic put to sit in 500 ml of vinegar for 10 days);
    - the mixture obtained from a clove of garlic mixed with camphorated oil is successfully used in treating asthenia and rheumatism;
    - for the individuals who are hypertensive it is recommended that they take a mixture prepared from garlic (2-3 cloves of garlic are grained and left to sit in 1 liter of alcohol for about 15 days). The resulting mixture is consumed by taking two spoonfulls everyday before eating;
    - cases of bad acne get better by rubbing the inflamed spots with half of garlic clove;
    - wounds [and] blackheads can be treated by applying poultices made of ground garlic. Results are visible after two weeks. Poultices of warm oven-cooked cloves of garlic can be further used to protect healthy skin.
   Garlic juice is another useful treatment obtained from this herb. It has noticeable results in treating: hypertension, infectious diseases, lung problems, bronchitis, tuberculosis, asthma, intestinal parasites and can even deter cancer occurrence.

Indications:

    - several drops of garlic juice digested with a small quantity of sugar are efficient in stopping a bout of asthma;
    - a wad of cotton soaked in garlic juice calms an ear ache;
    - eliminating the intestinal worms, a mixture of 20 ml of garlic juice with 200 ml of warm milk drunk early in the mornings is very efficient as a treatment.
        Another less known benefit that garlic has is its aphrodisiac effect. Research has shown that garlic is capable of improving the blood flow through the veins and also the sexual performance in men. Unfortunately, garlic consumed in normal quantities is unable to reach spectacular results, but the edible products containing garlic may aid you in this sense. 

Aloe Vera health benefits

   Also called "the elixir of youth" by the Russians,"the herb of immortality" by the old Egyptians or the "harmonious remedy" by the Chinese, Aloe vera is without a doubt the medicinal herb most widely known for its noticeable impacts on health and at the same time the ingredient most widely used in the cosmetic industry. Not one study conducted so far was fully able to explain the wonders which lie within this herb and how its compounds work together in a miraculous way to bring about the treatment or the alleviation of some of the most serious illnesses like cancer or AIDS.

Description

   Aloe vera or "Aloe Barbadensis" is a plant which originated in North Africa and spread to the fertile lands with mild climate. Its physical aspect is similar to that of the cactus; the thick rind hides a succulent core formed mostly of water.

   The aforementioned herb gained worldwide recognition and has been intensively used from the oldest of times due to its extraordinary features. A clear proof of this fact is a clay plank found in the antic city of Nippur, Babilon (the Irak from today) dating from year 2200 b.c. From Greek physicians like Celsius and Dioscorides to Romanians (Pylni the Great) and Arabs (Al-Kindi) to C.E. Collins, the one who published the first modern medical thesis in United States (1934), "aloe vera" has always been an issue with a long history behind it. Just about every important civilization used it for its benefical effects over health and beauty. Egyptians would mix aloe with other herbs while preparing remedies for internal and external anomalies. After the Second World War, aloe vera was introduced in treating the victims of the catastrophies from Nagasaki and Hiroshima because of its ability of mitigating the pain of the patients and renewing skin tissues.

Proprieties of aloe vera

   The most oftenly used substance from this herb is the aloe gel, a thick viscid liquid found in the interior of the leaves. The leaves are used in the treatment of burns and the aloine - a bitter milky yellowish liquid is used as a laxative. The herb contains: 20 minerals (Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Chromium , Selenium), 12 vitamins (A, B, C, E, folic acid), 20 aminoacids from the 22 which are necessary to the human body, over 200 active components including enzymes and polysaccharides. All the active substances enumerated before contribute to the therapeutical value of the herb. We shall move on to presenting the main effects that the herb has over the human body: it toughens up the immune system owing to the 23 peptides contained by the aloe vera, it accelerates and regulates the methabolism, purifies the human body from toxins, bringing about a feeling of calm. Moreover, aloe vera has an antiseptic effect (by distroying the bacterias, viruses and fungi), disinfectant capabilities and can also stimulate the cell-renewing process. Aloe vera nourishes and supports the digesting of aliments. Cutting across the human organism, aloe vera manages to bring the human body to a general balanced state.

Treatments

   Aloe vera has proved its efficiency from the simplest allergies to the treatment of wounds and skin infections and even to its usage in alleviating more serious afflictions. With the help of this herb a wide variety of internal and external afflictions are controlled, like: asthma, virosis, arthritis, arthrosis, gingivitis, bronchitis, pharyngitis, intestinal inflamations, constipations, obesity, sprains, muscle strains, cutaneous inflamations. The efficiency of the herb was also proven in the cases of anemia, deficiency illnesses, insomnia and depressions and the B-sisterole from the Aloe vera brings about the lowering of the cholesterol level. Also, this herb is used for controlling the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, diabetes, hepatitis and pancreatitis and multiple sclerosis.