Brief History of Astragalus
Astragalus belongs from the plant genus ( genus is a rank like family, root, species and genus it comes in order) of about 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs. It belongs to the family of Fabaceae commonly known as legume, pea or bean family. It grows in moderate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Astragalus is known by many names but commonly known as Milkvetch, Huang Qi, Locoweed, Goat Thron etc., there are various species of Astragalus as mentioned above but the most Astragalus supplements contains Astragalus membranaceus. Astragalus is very famous in China and Asia due to its rich usage, it is found in China, Mongolia and North Korea. Its legendary history shows that it has been used in China for more than 5000 years.
Astragalus is a herbaceous perennial, it grows between 25 and 40 cm in height, it usually grows in grassy area and near mountain ridges; this herb requires ample of sunlight to cultivate, this plant is traditionally harvested after 4 to 5 years and the roots are collected during spring or autumn. The roots of Astragalus are sun dried and then slashed for distribution. The color of these roots is yellow and has a sweet, damp taste with fibrous texture.
Advance Research
Researchers are examining this herb as they believe it has an Telomerase (is an enzyme which adds DNA) activator as when constituted with other chemicals it can combat HIV disease as well as chronic syndromes or aging. However, National Institute of Health states, there are limitations to the usage of Astragalus as there are evidences that Astragalus herb alone or combination of herbs have potentiality in combating ailments of the heart, liver and boost the immune system. This indicates the treatment from this herb to various influences on many syndromes.
Traditional Use of Astragalus
In ancient times, Middle east used these as a natural gum “Tragacanth” which was prepared by inducing many species of Astragalus including A. Adscendens, A.gummifer etc. ; whereas, Astragalus membranaceus has been a part of history of china, who consumed this herb as an herbal medicine and it is still used as a traditional Chinese medicine. This herb medicine is known to benefit many health issues including heart aliments.
Modern Medicinal Uses
Astragalus is used for following syndromes
Adaptogen – it builds the immune system
Anemia - It was earlier studied that this herb increases blood count but the research was bleak hence, more research is incorporated.
- Helps decreases inflammation in the body, which helps to prevent diseases, build a strong immune system, and treat current disease
Rabbit tobacco is also known as lasting, everlasting, sweet balsam, white balsam, feather-weed, and sweet cudweed. Its scientific name is Gaphalium obtusifolium. These annual herbs reach a height of 1 to 3 feet and have erect stems with brown, shriveled leaves persisting into winter and stems covered with felt-like hairs in summer. The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, and alternate. The flowers, minute in whitish heads, appear in late summer to fall. Fields, pastures, and disturbed areas are the sites of this common native plant of the eastern United States. The Cherokee named it rabbit tobacco because they believe it was the rabbit who took attended the plant.
specimens with the corresponding scientific description, photographs, specific maps and there are drawings that document the research. This collected images of plants continue the artist’s fascination with documentation, community engagement and art as a way to address larger social issues. This exhibit was interning to me to see all the different plant and to know that plants in the city unknown to most there are often edible, medicinal or even poisonous plants.
For over two thousand years, people have been cultivating and consuming Asparagus officinalis. During this time some people have observed a peculiar manifestation of an odd odor in their urine shortly after ingesting this vegetable (Mitchel and Waring 2014). This particular stench has been described as smelling like boiled cabbage (Mitchel et al. 1987, Pelchat et al. 2011). Many experiments have contributed this smell to sulfurous molecules found in the urine after asparagus ingestion, the most common molecules found being methanethiol and dimethyl sulfide (Lison et al. 1980, McDonald 2011, Mitchel et al. 1987, Mitchel and Waring 2014, Pelchat et al. 2011). It is thought that the digestion of the chemical compound 1, 2-dithiolane-4-carboxylic
...ong, and shorter stalks are 20-100mm long. The flower length from the axils are one to three centimeters long. The optimum flowering time is from May through August. The fruit are pod shaped with seedlings coiled into two to three spirals with a strong net vein three to four millimeters long (montanaplant-life.org).
Benefits & Side Effects - Drugs.com Herbal Database. 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. Drugs.com.
The major use for herbal medicines is for the promotion of health and for therapy for chronic conditions, instead of being used for life-threatening conditions; except in the event of say advanced cancer or new infectious diseases when conventional medicine practices no longer are working an individual may use traditional remedies. While traditional medicines are often mistaken that because they are natural that they are safe, non-toxic, which is not always the case. In cases when an individual is taking herbs with prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, or other herbs that may cause some adverse side affects. As a flourishing commercial enterprise, it doesn’t matter why an individual uses traditional medicines, it provides important health care services for individuals that have access physically or finantually to allopathic
Is an important extract that contain the glucose were the body is in needed to form energy.
The vegetable asparagus is not a true fern, but people refer to the full-grown plant as a fern because of its small, delicate, fern-like leaves. Asparagus plants are either male or female, and the mature fern of the female produces attractive, bright-red [link u=asparagus-berries]seed pods[/link] but smaller spears.
They grow in temperate and subtropical climates and many are not native to the United Kingdom, they adapt well to our growing conditions and are available freely from local nurseries. Generally, most plants in the Liliaceae family have six segments or tepals. Several have bulbs, some have rhizomes.
As same as the helpful results that marijuana can provide to medicine, there are still a lot of herbs such as astragalus, berberis and some others which already confirm their benefits to be the cancer’ treatments. A lot of people, including my friends have say that their parent or relative use weeds from long time ago, but they are still good, and nothing has happened to them. It may be the truth because weeds they use in the past is less dangerous than today. Back to the years of sixty, the marijuana that people used is less harmful to their health.
Ayurveda is the general name given to the collective practices of ancient Indian medicine and is made up of many different components such as lifestyle changes, iridology, massage therapy, aromatherapy and importantly, the application of medicinal plants and herbs. As an ancient science, until recently not much research has been conducted on the efficacy of such treatments and practices. This has been due to both the lack of availability of concrete resources and debate on the validity of translations of first sources. Of all the herbs, the use of three of the traditional plant-based treatments- namely Neem (Azardirachta indica), Sage (various Salvia species) and Turmeric (Curcuma longa) - will be discussed due to reported high efficiency rates and frequent usage. These plants are reported to be highly useful in the field of Ayurveda and are not only the most frequently listed of all the herbs but also the most frequently researched. Although many cases have been documented to prove the usefulness of these herbs, there have been many cases that discourage the practice of Ayurveda by providing an argument against the safety and reliability of these herbs. Many of these claims now have recently been verified or shown to be false through proper scientific study. The use of neem and turmeric in particular has become highly controversial due to the concepts of biopiracy and biopatents and a brief introduction of that topic will be given with specific examples. Issues of safety and the general lack of scientific study will also be discussed. Negative effects of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic remedies that have been discovered through research are presented. Other benefits of using Ayurvedic plant-remedies such as cost effectiveness will also be analyzed.
Herbal remedies’ qualities are widespread availability, lower cost, effective for chronic conditions. Herbal remedies are the use of plants or plant extract to treat a person’ overall health. Herbal treatments are prominent for developing countries for instance, “in Africa up to 90% and in India 70% of the population depend on traditional medicine to help meet their health care needs” (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011), due to their low cost and availability. Herbal remedies have gained attention in the past decades, and expanding their uses due to the increased interest of natural therapies (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Herbs used on the remedies grow in the wild throughout the world, therefore making it easy to
In conclusion, herbal medicines have been around for a long time. Plenty of our drugs have ingredients from herbs and are still being used today. I would not recommend the use of herbal medicines due to complications it can have on the body unless the physician suggested the product. The more I read up on these herbal medicines the more precautions I came across. I believe these herbal medicines should be reviewed as a drug under the FDA to avoid any health complications for these
Frequently a person believes that herbal medicine is more naturally safe and soothing than drugs. Nevertheless, there’s no reasonable defense about this. Though many consumers trusted herbal medicine much more than the synthetic medicine because it’s safe and effective, but like anything else, it has its own limitations too. There are several hostile issues related to herbal medicine that has been quite alarming. Notwithstanding, majority of the most popular herbs are at least nearly safe.