Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Livin, Svetlana Konnikova [classic fiction .TXT] 📗

Middle East and northern Africa. Europe first tasted oranges in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is thought that Vasco de Gamma brought oranges from Palestine to Europe. Even the name orange is in Russian apelsin and came from German apfel, which means Chinese apple (apfe, apple; sin, China). Oranges were cultivated in China 2,200 years before the new era.

The beautiful and tasty southern fruit received high praise in Europe. Europeans began to build special “houses” for growing oranges. These hot houses or green houses are called orangerias in European countries, from the French word orange.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century the glory of the orange shone throughout Russia as well. In 1774 Alexander Menshikov, a fellow of Peter the Great, built a palace named Oranienbaum, which means orange tree in German, with large hot houses to propagate oranges. In 1789 Russian Empress Catherine II ordered that the small town where the palace stood would be named Oranienbaum, complete with its own city emblem displaying an orange tree in a silver field.

Lemons and oranges became popular in Russia as effective natural healers, used widely to treat catarrh of the larynx, to “knit” the bones, to treat rheumatism and scurvy, and to remove toxins from the stomach. 80 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

Navigator James Cook brought large quantities of lemon juice to his ships for his sailors during long journeys. In 1795 a special law was mandated that sailors were to have a glass of this medicinal drink every day. The high percentages of vitamins C, A,

and B make citrus a real miracle food, an antiseptic healer, and a guardian of our health.

R 81. Make a tangerine infusion. Wash three or four tangerines, peel, and dry the skin. Combine the dried tangerine peel with ½ cup cold water in an enamel pot. Bring to a boil and add one tablespoon honey or sugar. Continue to boil for five minutes, then filter and take one tablespoon warm three to four times a day. This soothes symptoms of a cold, flu, bronchitis, or pneumonia.

R 82. Combine one cup milk, one tablespoon honey, one teaspoon butter, two eggs, and three to five drops vanil a extract. Boil milk in an enamel pot and cool. Mix honey and butter. Whip eggs, mix in a bowl with honey and butter, and slowly stir in the warm milk and vanil a extract. Drink one cup a

day for seven days. It wil soothe respiTangerine Trivia

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You can use all remedies with elder and rose hips when you have a flu. R 84. Potato vapors can bring relief. Boil five to six potato skins in a pot with 24 ounces water. When mixture is at a rol ing boil, remove from heat and inhale the steam. This simple procedure greatly relieves congestion and improves breathing.

R 85. To reduce fever, you can use linden flowers alone or in herbal compositions: Combine one teaspoon linden flowers, ½ teaspoon mul ein, ½ teaspoon elder with two cups boiling water in a glass jar. Steep for 10 minutes, filter, and drink ½ cup three times a day. You might want to stay home during this treatment because it promotes excessive perspiration.

R 86. Combine three to four tablespoons of lungwort with one quart of boiling water and steep overnight in a warm place. Reheat in the morning, filter, and take one tablespoon five or six times a day. This herb is soothing and relieves inflammation in the chest.

R 87. Combine two tablespoons elder flowers with one pint boiling water. The method of preparation is the same as in #85. Drink ½ cup three times a day. Drink hot for feverish and mucous conditions of the lungs or upper respiratory tract.

Elder is considered a universal treatment in people’s

medicine. From the seventeenth century it became a

popular remedy to reduce phlegm and encourage perspiration. Ripe elderberries are rich in vitamins, especially A and C, and were used widely in Europe in producing wines and medicinal syrups, which people took as preventive measures against winter colds and respiratory

ailments.

82 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

R 88. Use oat straw medicine as febrifuge (fever reducer). Combine three tablespoons oat straw with one pint boiling water. The method of preparation is the same as in #85. Oat straw is an excel ent tonic for the whole system. It is used to treat physical and nervous fatigue and excessive stress. It is ideal for those people with weakened immune systems who suffer persistent colds.

R 89. Fil ¼ of a 12-ounce glass jar with Greater celandine and add boiling water to the top of the jar. Steep, cool, filter, and drink ½

cup. This tea