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

Infuse for 15 minutes. Strain and take one tablespoon four times a day as a cough suppressant. r 42. Mix together one tablespoon each elder, plantain, heartsease, and sundew ( Drosera rotundifolia) dry or fresh flowers. Place one tablespoon of the mixture and one cup of cold water into a pot. Infuse for two hours, then bring to a boil for five minutes. Cool, strain, and take ⅓ cup three times a day for one month.

r 43. Folowing the above method (#42), mix together one tablespoon each of elder and young wil ow bark and two tablespoons each of anise seeds and rose hips.

r 44. Mix three tablespoons raspberry root with one pint water and cook slowly for 15 minutes. Cool and take two to three tablespoons four times a day. r 45. Mix together one tablespoon each of thyme, pine buds, anise seeds, and fennel. Place one tablespoon of this mixture into a pot. Add one cup spring water. Place the pot inside a bigger one fil ed with hot water and warm up for 15 minutes in a “steaming bath.” Take ¼ cup three to four times a day.

r 46. Mix one tablespoon each of fennel, licorice root, pine buds, thyme, and anise seeds. Place two tablespoons of herbal mixture into one cup of water. Warm up in “a steaming bath” (as in #44) for 15 minutes. Infuse for 30 minutes, strain. You should have one-half of the liquid remaining. Add boiled water to make one cup. Take ⅓ cup three to four times a day.

Trips to the Fairyland @ 219

r 47. Mix one tablespoon each of calendula flowers, diced wild marjoram root, diced licorice root, plantain, anise seeds, and heartsease leaves. The method of preparation is the same as in #45.

r 48. Make “Mashed Onions.” Peel and dice 20 smal “baby” onions, add one pint boiling water, and infuse for 10 minutes until onions are soft. Add one cup olive oil and mix wel to make a puree. Take one tablespoon of “Mashed Onions” before breakfast.

r 49. Make garlic butter. Grate five to seven large garlic cloves and mix wel with three ounces salted, organic butter. Spread on a slice of rye bread or add to pasta or mashed potatoes. It is an effective bactericidal and soothing natural healer for bronchial asthma and respiratory diseases.

r 50. Make “Drunk Aloe” balsam. Mix ½ pound fresh aloe leaves and one pint Cahors (Port) wine with 12 ounces honey. You

can purchase an aloe plant in a nursery or purchase the leaves in some specialty supermarkets. Place an aloe plant on a windowsill in your house or on a porch. Do not water aloe for two weeks. Aloe can live

Caution:

without water for a long time—aloe’s

Do not use aloe in the

nickname is “a century old.” After two

presence of uterine

weeks cut the leaves; clean dust from

bleeding because it

them but do not wash them. Dice the

promotes a rush of blood

leaves and place in a glass jar. Add wine

to internal organs.

and honey, mix well, and infuse for eight

to nine days in a cool place. Strain and

take one tablespoon three times a day for the first two days. Then take one teaspoon three times a day until this medicinal balsam is gone. Aloe is an effective healer for bronchial asthma, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

220 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

r 51. My mother effectively treated bronchial asthma with the common ginger plant. Here is her nastoyka treatment. Wash ½

pound ginger, peel, and grate. Place it into a glass jar and add vodka to cover. Infuse it in a warm place indoors or outside in the summer. Shake the jar occasional y and when the liquid turns an amber color, strain and al ow it to settle. Dissolve one teaspoon in ½ cup spring water and take twice daily, after breakfast and after dinner. Continue for three days, stop for three days, and then resume your treatment, fol owing this schedule. Remember: When you take the ginger nastoyka remedy, do not consume meat. Also take a warm foot bath before bed.

Aromatherapy, the science of inhaling plant extracts as a healing process, is an ancient practice. In this century we have many new ways to enjoy this art. We can bathe in essential oils, add them to pure base oils to create massage lotions, burn them in aroma lamps, or heat them in light bulb rings to scent the room and create a soothing atmosphere. With the wide range of essential oils available to us, we may use various essences to suit our needs and moods. After years of research and experimentation, Swiss scientists have found that the most aromatic compound is found in grapefruit. It is so concentrated that a very small amount added to 250 gallons of water brings about an appreciable fruit scent. For centuries, in ancient Russia, folk medicine practitioners successful y treated patients with aromatherapy. They were guided by practical considerations and their intuition. Seventeenth-century Russian books, careful y archived under seven seals, contain information about special wooden chambers, like mini bath houses cal ed chepuchines, in which medicinal plants were steamed. This method of treatment was known as chepuchine sitting. Those suffering from colds, rheumatism, infections, and other ailments sat in these baths and inhaled the medicinal and aromatic vapors of the steaming plants. People in the Caucasus Mountains (Georgia, Armenia, the republics of the former Soviet Union) traditionally would wear a bulb of garlic around their neck as a talisman to prevent