Grow Your Own Drugs

[Stravaig]

Easy recipes for natural remedies and beauty fixes by James Wong.

I like James Wong and always enjoy his columns in newspapers. Husband was dropping off some stuff in our usual charity shop and spotted this book, based on a BBC series and published a long time ago (2009) and he bought it for me. I don't do beauty stuff. Haven't even worn make-up since the 1970s. Don't see the point and I don't like the artificial look.

Anyway, this book is interesting. You can make a varicose vein treatment out of conkers. (Don't ingest.) Juniper is good for urinary tract infections and can lower blood pressure. I'm glad that I don't suffer from nearly all of the complaints/diseases the book gives you cures for. But it really is fascinating to learn so much about plants most of us take for granted.

We bought seeds yesterday so I can make a start on my container herb garden. Parsley can cure wind as well as being an insect repellent. Wow, I never knew that. How have I survived so long without this type of information?

[Myrkk]

I love James Wong and also have his book. It’s amazing what you can use that we just pass by each day. My favourite is Hawchup. A ketchup substitution I make out of haws. The most beautiful fushia colour and good for your heart health.
I did my PGDip presentation on them. The research into it is quite fascinating, so many compounds that are showing promising effects. One odd bit of info I came across during the research was that apple pips are toxic, in large enough quantities, fatally. Now how many pips have we all swallowed in our lifetimes lol.

[Stravaig]

I don't even know what a haw is.

[Geoff]

Fruit of the HAWthorn

[Myrkk]

Sorry my bad Stravaig. As Geoff said and as I think are shown in his profile pic. The lovely red berries you get on the hawthorn bush in autumn. They’re wonderful for heart health.

[Geoff]

Profile pic is a crab apple called "Gorgeous".

[Myrkk]

Ah yes, now I’m on a bigger screen I can see the leaves better lol

[Stravaig]

Fruit of the HAWthorn

Not necessarily that obvious, Geoff, A horse chestnut tree doesn't produce horses nor does a crab apple tree produce crabs.

[Primrose]

One thing's for sure. The waste water system would have been a lot less poisoned by all these natural compounds in olden days compared with all the modern drugs being excreted down ur toilets these days by half the population. But it,s surrising how many of our modern drugs had their origins in herbs and other plants. Visit any historic monastery these days and you,ll find the herb garden was always one of its most carefully tended areas.
In this uncertain"new world" we really can't afford to let all this knowledge get lost.

I've read this as late as the First World War, in certain tropical areas, moss was still being used as an efficient agent for helping to cleanse flesh wounds.

[Westi]

I totally agree Primrose & a lot of their drugs were originally noted being used by wildlife. I strongly suspect there is a lot of nature's remedies being lost due to the demise of the jungles with all the land clearing & burning. The cure for cancer could be amongst these, but with the habitat removed it will be lost forever.

[Primrose]

I'm surprised the pharmaceutical companies arnt more behind the Save the rainforests" movement for this very reason, although I suspect some of the compounds discovered can now be produced by "Artificial" means.

[Myrkk]

One company that will remain nameless tried to get the rights to turmeric a good few years ago. Happily they were denied.

[Primrose]

I didn't know that Myrkk. Just shows you can't take you eye off the ball for a moment in this sharp dealing world. Meanwhile, any offers for the almost commercial quantities of moss in our lawns that all this year,s rainfall has caused? . We could almost be starting the beginning of a new peat bog!

Perhaps the regularly flooding English meadows are already in the first stage of replacing the Irish peat bogs?

[Myrkk]

Maybe bag it up and see if any wreath making courses would be interested in it Primrose? I did one a few years ago and they were at great pains to tell us not to go picking it from the forest but only get from accredited sources. Surely someone’s lawn is a good place to get it from

[Stravaig]

There's the start of something big on our landlord's roof. I'm going to tell him. It's not bothering us at all but a stitch in time and all that... If it's left to grow freely I reckon he'll have some guttering problems and maybe even damp to deal with.