SLC S21 Week 2 - Basic Herbal Remedies for Daily Health

It is my pleasure to take part in this week natural medicine, I recently developed interest in natural medicine in addition to the knowledge I had in drugs and I can say it's really useful.

After reading the course outline, I decided to take part in this week contest.

Herbal Tea Preparation: Prepare a herbal tea for digestion or stress/anxiety. Documenting the steps, proportions, and effects felt after drinking them.

I will choose moringa for my herbal tea preparation. Moringa leaf has a lot of health benefits it helps in so many illness depending on the quantity and the method of preparation.

Today, I will be preparing moringa tea for indigestion.

So I used moringa leaf for indigestion issues and it's usually works out. It is very easy to prepare just boil some few leave of moringa in the water The quantity of the water will depend on the quantity of the leaf and then at the boiling point of 100⁰C it is set to drink.

Moringa also known as the miracle tree is one of the best nutritious plants in the world. Little wonder it has an additional name miracle tree, it has one in a million contents or uses. It is a tree that one should not lack either in your backyard or in your frontage and that is a reason I personally plants moringa in my home.

It contains vitamins, amino acid, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, mineral and fibre etc they are many.

I choose moringa because it is rich in fiber Both the soluble an insoluble form which helps in any digestion issues including constipation.

Steps preparing it

• I first of all plug the moringa

• I washed it

• I have a special kettle I use in boiling herbs so I wash the kettle and put the moringa to kettle

• Boil it till 100⁰C

A washed portion of moringa	A glass of moringa

Proportion; a glass of moringa tea in the morning and night before bed time.

Feelings; It reliefs me of bloated stomach and constipation. Then aside from the digestion issues, It helps me to stay energetic throughout the day It gives me full energy throughout the day and helps me sleep fine.

Herbal Storage: Research the best ways to store herbs at home; take pictures of your storage method and explain why it works.

There are different ways of storing herbs depending on the type of herbs. In as much as herbs is concerned, proper storage should be maintained so as to retain the potency of the herbs. Therefore storage condition of herbs should not be overlooked.

Dried herbs; It should be stored in an air tight containers that is if it is probably dried to avoid moulds from growing on it. Then the container should be dry as well so as not to make it wet thus, losing potency. Then since it is dry stored in a container, it should be carefully label the name and date it was put in the container so as to keep the shelve life in view as some dried herbs can not stay for a longer period.

Fresh herbs; Most times because of storage condition I preferred plugging the fresh leaf directly from the trees anytime I want to use them. But most times I do store them in three different ways.

1. Refrigerator
2. Soak the steem in water
3. Wrap it in a big leaf and place it on a dry surface.

All this method should not stay for longer days.

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3	4

The label number are order of how to wrap the herbs on the leaf.

Liquid herb Now for those herbs that is in liquid form, there are ways I do preserve them too. There are those different liquid herbs that is extracted with water or with alcohol, the water can be either boiling or cold water. So whatsoever liquid is being used to extract helps with, I will transfer the liquid content in a bottle close it very well and the one that needs to be in the refrigerator, I will take it there the one that is in alcohol I'll keep it in a try place. The most important way is that I'll put it in a bottle and close it properly to avoid it bring pouring out or any insects or anything being crawled inside the bottle to condemn the herbs.

Liquid herbs in a plastic rubber ready to be refrigerated

Powder herb for the powder forms already this helps is being dried and grind to powder form therefore it needs to be start probably away from moist so he's it a tight container to cover it so as to avoid water from entering its then I will also label the name and date as storage helve life is short.

Dry powder tumeric

In conclusion; I stored my hips either in a container or in refrigerator depending on the forms of the herbs

Home Remedy Creation: Create your own herbal remedy for a common cold documenting the ingredients, preparation steps, and your experience.

Cold is a common condition that is very rampant due to our different weather climates and with this there are some ingredients or some herbs you don't need to lack in your kitchen personally I don't lack this herbs in my kitchen.

When it comes to combination of herbs I always look at the indication of it. I also look for the active ingredients and how really it will work with a particular condition most especially the common ones. So I'll first identify the disease condition whether it is a bacterial infection whether it is a virus anti-inflammatory or fungal then I'll be able to know which herbs goes for it.

Cold is and antiviral disease so I will go for a combination of herbs that will go well to attack the virus.

So after considering this in aspect of cold and possibly what could cause it or another condition that it could lead to I come up with the ingredients below.

Clove, garlic, ginger, tumeric

All of this ingredients have similar indications like they are all antibacterial, antivirus, anti-inflammatory, antifungals and antioxidant. They have similar content but then there is a particular reason why I like combining the four ingredients in treatment of cold you can check the reason below due to their different contents.

Ingredients	benefits reason
Clove	serves as effective expectorant in treating upper respiratory problem like cold and cough
Ginger	helps to fight virus
Garlic	boost immunity and reduces the severity of cold.
Tumeric	Curcumin will help to reduce the levels of extracellular infectious viruses.

So you can see from above the reason why I chose this four ingredients, so while clove will be working on treating the cold, ginger will be fighting this particular virus that causes cold, while garlic work will be to build immune system while reducing the severity of cold and then turmeric will reduce the level of the virus being sprayed to the different parts of the respiratory tracts.

Preparation steps

• Wash all the ingredients, chopped it

• Add to kettle and boil it for about 15 minutes

• Drink a glass of it as your tea.

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Experience

After drinking eats I sweat so much my airways will open and then I had a running nose for few minutes and it was gone I was really relieved sneezing was also part of the healing effect and after sneezing several times I was fine I was able to breathe my nose trails were open and inside me I feel relieved and even warm.

Herbal Infusion Experiment: Infuse two different herbs (one for digestion and one for stress/anxiety) in water. Document the process, duration, and your thoughts on the end result.

From the lecture I have learnt that in fusion is very easy to prepare and then it needs to be kept for about 48 hours to be very potent and effective.

So during the week I prepared infusion with two ingredients one was for stress and anxiety while the father was forced to patient that is digestive issue.

For digestion; bitter leaf Extract

Document the process; I wash the leaf, who is it a little it in a bowl add water to it cover it and keep it for about 12 to 15 hours then sieve it and drink a glass shot of it.

Duration; for 3 days

My thoughts on the end result; it's usually give a faster relief especially if you are having a mild diarrhoea. Few days ago I took it for constipation and the result was very effective so I will recommend you to take but then too much of everything is always a disease so too much of taking helps especially this one that is really raw is not very good to the body and so a glass shot of it is enough.

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4

1. Wash bitter leaf

2. Squeeze it and soak it in a bowl

3. Filter it and store the liquid herb for subsequent use

4. Take a glass shot daily for 2 days.

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For stress/anxiety; zobo leaf

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Document the process; I washed the dried zobo leaf added to some meals of water I soaked it for 48 hours that's for 2 days then I filter it, pour it to a bottle, cover it and I do consume one glass of it in the morning and one glass of it at night before bedtime.

Zobo infusion drink

Duration; I take a glass two times a day for 5 days.

My thoughts on the end result; because of the business due to some work and house chores I do try to manage stress everyday. So some weeks I do take this zobo drink to help relieve me of some stress of life. I'll say it helps me sleep very fine most especially when I come back home and take it at night before bed time, It helps me sleep very fine and wake up well refresh in the morning.

I believe my little knowledge share is helpful, thank you for visiting my blog.