TURMERIC – THE AYURVEDIC SPICE OF LIFE
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The earliest evidence of the use of spice by humans was around 50,000 B.C. The spice trade developed throughout the Middle East in around 2000 BC with cinnamon and pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for embalming and their need for exotic herbs helped stimulate world trade. In fact, the word spice comes from the same root as species, meaning kinds of goods. By 1000 BC China and India had a medical system based upon herbs. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition, and preservation. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that the clove, indigenous to the Indonesian island of Ternate in the Maluku Islands, could have been introduced to the Middle East very early on. Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen in the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in what is now modern-day Syria, dated to 1700 BC. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices. Read more: > HERE <
Turmeric: The Ayurvedic Spice of Life
Great Healers, in one form or another they are sought out by all of us. Somewhere inside we all seek balanced happy lives and so we seek that which will grant us health and joy. This article is about Turmeric, one of the planet’s great healers. This healer is not obscured in some esoterica and not distanced by a cosmic price tag. As usual with great healers, it is very close to you and readily accessible, in fact, it is probably in your house right now, though it may be hard to believe that such a common item is one of the world’s best all around herbs.
Ayurveda is as full of commonsense as it is humming of the mystical and so, especially since it is an oral tradition, it is with the common people of India, like the spice sellers and the village mothers, that many traditions of herbal knowledge are learned and passed from elder to child for countless generations. In this way
the ability of Turmeric is proven and its legacy grows. I have learned so much about ‘common’ herbs from ‘common’ people that I could never have learned elsewhere, a fact predicted by Paracelcus who in 1493 wrote:
“The physician does not learn everything he must know and master from a high college alone. From time to time he must consult old women, gypsies, magicians, wayfarers and all manner of peasant folk and random people and learn from them, for these people have more knowledge about such things than all the high colleges.”
A World of Turmeric
“I have found a plant that has all the qualities of Saffron, but it is a root.”- (Marco Polo on Turmeric, 1280 AD)
As far as documented evidence, it is used daily in India for at least 6000 years as a medicine, beauty aid, cooking spice, and a dye, though I am sure its use goes back at least 30,000 years. Ostensibly it was used to worship the Sun during the Solar period of India, a time when Lord Rama Chandra walked the Earth. Especially in South India, you can see people wearing a dried Turmeric rhizome bead the size of a large grape around their neck or arm. This is an ancient talisman tradition used to ward off evil and grant to the wearer healing and protection.
Buddhist monks have used Turmeric as a dye for their robes for at least 2000 years. It was listed in an Assyrian herbal circa 600 BC and was mentioned by Dioscorides in the herbal that was thee Western herbal from the 1st to the 17th century.
As mentioned above, Europe rediscovered it 700 years ago via Marco Polo and it is used in traditional Brazilian medicine as a potent anti-venom to neutralize the bleeding and lethal poison of Pit Vipers.
For at least 1000 years Chinese Medicine has used Turmeric especially for the Spleen, Stomach, and Liver Meridians. They use it to stimulate and purify, and as an anti-biotic, anti-viral, and an analgesic. As such it is used to stimulate and strengthen the blood and decrease blood pressure, to clear abdominal pain and stagnation in men, women and children, and to remove stagnant Chi, the pain due to stagnant Chi, and excessive wind element. They consider it one of the better herbs for women because it stimulates the uterus and clears menstrual stagnation, dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea due to congested blood arising from a lack of heat or simply a deficiency.
Personally, with the way that Turmeric can move the Chi, I use large therapeutic doses of Turmeric with Yin asanas as an herbal equivalent of an acupuncture session.
Unani is the name of the ancient Persian system of medicine that has connected Ayurveda with the Greek Medicine for thousands of years. In visiting Unani Hakims from the Nile to the Narmada I have appreciated the way they keep their herbs cleaner than other herbalists. In Unani Turmeric is considered to be the safest herb of choice for all blood disorders since it purifies, stimulates, and builds blood. You have heard of the phrase „Hot to the 3rd degree.“
When the ancient Polynesians made their fantastic voyages in canoes across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii they took with them the roots, cuttings, and seeds of about 25 of their most valuable plants. Known as Olena, meaning yellow, Turmeric was one of these plants. Their tradition is carried on today by the Kahuna of Hawaii, the ‘Knowers of the Leaf’ or rhizomes as the case may be. As in other cultures, they use Olena as food, medicine, dye, and for ceremonial purification. The juice is used in earaches or to purify the sinuses via the nose. The root is also eaten to treat most pulmonary problems such as bronchitis or asthma. The Indian practice of applying the root paste to the face to cure any blemishes is popular in this tradition as well. For ceremonial purification prayers are chanted as the mixture of fresh Olena juice and sea water is sprinkled on people, places and objects to remove negativity and restore harmony. Read full article: > HERE <
HILDEGARD OF BINGEN´s SPICE´s
The Galangal plant (Galanga, Blue Ginger) is a rhizome with culinary and medicinal uses (Lao: „Kha“, Thai: ข่า „Kha“, Malay: lengkuas (Alpinia galangal), Traditional Mandarin: 南薑, Simplified Mandarin: 南姜, T:高良薑/S:高良姜, Cantonese: lam keong, 藍薑, Vietnamese: Riềng). It is used in various oriental cuisines (for example in Thai cuisine Tom Yum soups and Dtom Kha Gai, Vietnamese Huenian cuisine (Tre) and throughout Indonesian cuisine, for example, in Soto). Though it is related to and resembles ginger, there is little similarity in taste. Read More: > HERE <
Galangal – was highly recommended by Hildegard of Bingen. She said that it was given by God to provide protection against illness. “The spice of life,” as she called galangal, appears in many Hildegard formulas.
Hildegard regarded galangal mainly as a potent aid to digestion and quick reliever of pain, such as the pain associated with angina pectoris, heart attacks, and gall bladder symptoms. The heart symptoms are secondary to the gastric distress, which, if relieved, eases cardiac pressure. Hildegard wrote:
“ Whoever has heart pain and is weak in the heart should instantly eat enough galangal, and he or she will be well again. [Physica] „
Oil Of Galangal
Galangal appears to have been used in China during antiquity. It is mentioned in the Ayur-Vedas of Susrutas,10) also by Plutarch.11) The Arabian physicians used it for medicinal purposes and thus, no doubt, assisted in its introduction into western Europe. Thus Rhazes, Avicenna, Alkindi1) and other physicians who lived during the 9. and 10. centuries, mention galangal in their writings as an esteemed remedy. Its importation is reported in the 9. century by the Arabian geographer Ibn Kurdadbah,’2) and in the beginning of the 12. century by the Sicilian geographer Edrisi,3) In the Delia decima etc., a commercial treatise of the first half of the 14. century by the Florentine merchant Pegolotti, galangal is described as occuring in two varieties, viz., the light and the heavy.4) Marco Polo reports on the cultivation of the plant in China and Java.5) In 1563 Garcia da Orta, a physician in Goa, describes two varieties of galangal, a smaller variety coming from China, and a larger one from Java.6) The first good illustration was published by Rumpf in 1754.7)
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The Codex Alimentarius (Latin for „food code“ or „food book“) is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety. Its name derives from the Codex Alimentarius Austriacus.Its texts are developed and maintained by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body that was established in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The Commission’s main aims are stated as being to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the international food trade. The Codex Alimentarius is recognized by the World Trade Organization as an international reference point for the resolution of disputes concerning food safety and consumer protection. Full Text > HERE <
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