St John's Wort - No St John's Medical Assistance Needed

I have seen the herb St John's Wort ever since I can remember but in supermarkets, health shops and chemist as a processed medicine in various forms I thought it was about time it was looked into, after all, the products off the shelf all originate form the natural herb of St John Wort.

Why can't we find or grow our own St John's Wort and produce homemade tonics instead of paying high street prices? This is a versatile herb that can be used as a an effective medicine both internally and externally, as a drink, a flavourer, a dye and allegedly like so many other herbs brings out magical powers.

St John's Wort is also known as Tipton's Weed, Goat Weed or Klamath Weed. There are around 370 species of this herb from all around the world. St John's Wort is well known as an effective herbal treatment for many ailments. Medicinal use of the herb dates back to ancient Greece.

It can treat severe depression, alcohol cravings alongside bed wetting, and insomnia. It has been found to slow down or restrict the growth of HIV and AIDS in animals, watch this space. The oil extract of St. John's Wort is used for intestinal and stomach problems with the lotion form speeding up the healing of many skin problems, especially sunburns.

In Germany it is used for mild depression, especially in children and teenagers mainly based on the fact that it is cheaper and just as affective as more conventional medical remedies. Native Americans use it for anti-inflammatory, astringent and antiseptic symptoms.

It has yellow flowers and is a perennial herb, which grows wild in many meadows. It like well drained sunny positions where it will thrive. It used to be used to dispel evil by hanging plants over a picture in the house during St John's day after St John the Baptist. With this, the name St John comes from the history of its flowers and harvest on St John's day, 24 June. The word 'Wort' comes from the an Old English word meaning 'root.'

The plant seeds that are produced are small, numerous black three-celled capsules. The flowers have five yellow-petals that measure around 20 mm across coming out to bloom late spring and mid-summer. The leaves have distinctive dots that are translucent looking as if they have been perforated. There is a purple liquid extracted if the flowers or seedpods are squeezed, this can produce red and yellow dyes that are used from the herb.

St. John's Wort has been widely used by many cultures to exorcise demons and spirits. It is said that if you hang some around your neck it will scare off fevers. It is also believed in some circles that burning St John's Wort is effective for exorcisms. Still on the magical uses, it is also worn to strengthen the resolve of the wearer and him or her invincible in war.

Growing the plant is easy. You can transfer the plant as a whole into you own garden or grow it from seeds or cuttings. When harvesting you need to put it in a dark, warm place until it completely dries out. Once dried and will retain the active ingredients in the form of an herbal tea has long been enjoyed help with anaemia, headaches, jaundice, feminine problems and chest congestion. It has a pleasant, but slightly sour taste. Alternatively, you can use the herb in a press to extract the red oil it produces from the leaves. This will keep for a couple of years if kept in a dark container.

St John's Wort is used in some instances for flavouring distilled spirits. Finding this out give me mind to try it in a litre or two of my own homemade Bulgarian rakia next year.

Making your own St John's Wort infusion (technically tea) is simply a matter of putting 1 teaspoonful of dried St John's Wort in a small cup of hot water and steep for around 5 minutes. This should be drink twice a day one cup at the start and at the end of the day.

If you are into the natural colourings or dyes, you can use the top of the plant which make the yellow dye which is ideal for wool.

St John's Wort is a beautiful herb in many ways and certainly a herb to take serious with so many medical and other fringe benefits it possesses.

Dandelion Wine - Herbs and Wine a Combination for Health

I am a great fan of making wine at home and my passion for herbs rides just as high. Wine and herbs just seem to go together, a natural partnership that also sounds good. The health benefits from both wine and herbs are proven beyond all doubt, so why, away from food recipes are there not more combinations of them to produce a healthy herb wine? Well I can address that now with this dandelion wine recipe, although essentially it is an orange, banana and dandelion wine.

There are many recipes that give for wines, however, herbs wine recipes are rare. The reason being that herbs alone cannot make wine, they are mainly used, if at all, for bouquet. In order for the fermentation to take place, you need other ingredients to perform this act, usually sugar based fruits, mostly with natural compounds that create a healthy fermentation, i.e. grapes, pears, apples, plums etc. Other fruits and vegetables that lack natural yeast may need the addition of cultured yeast.

This recipe is a favourite of mine; I used to make when living in Yorkshire in the later spring when the dandelions are at there best. The dandelions have to be picked on a warm sunny day at around midday when they are fully open and the dew have evaporated; this is when the dandelions’ flavour is at its peak.

It is very easy to make although unless you can get dried dandelions, you will have to wait until spring to start it.

You will need:

4 pints fresh dandelion flowers (yellow petal only)
3 lbs granulated sugar
Two slightly over ripe bananas
4 oranges
1-gallon water
Wine yeast and nutrient

Method:

Boil the 1 gallon of water and pour the over the flowers that should be in a plastic bucket. Make sure you pour directly onto the flowers to cool the water slightly before touching the plastic. Cover with cloth and leave to steep for two days. Pour the mixture back into a cooking pot or pan and bring to a boil.

Add the orange peelings from the four oranges without the white pith and continue boiling for a further ten minutes.

Strain through a clean cloth into a plastic bucket with the sugar and stir to dissolve.

Add the juice of the oranges when cooled then the yeast.

Pour the juice into a gallon demijohn and fit a fermentation lock. Keep in a warm place, e.g. airing cupboard and allow to ferment out completely.

Rack the wine, which means siphon off the wine leaving the sediment behind into another container. Clean out the demijohn and transfer the wine back in topping up with cooled boiled water. Store in a cool place and the wine will soon clear. Rack again and either store in bottles or the demijohn, topping up as before if needed.

You will now need a further six months to a year before it will be ready for drinking. It is a light wine full of flavour and the bananas give it the body unlike many other herb-based wines that don’t have this characteristic.

NOTE:
You can substitute other herbs in this recipe, or even a mixture of your favourite herbs; sage, mint, parsley and rosemary go well individually or as combinations.

One thing is for sure, you can't buy this in a supermarket and even if you could, your homemade version would be much, much better. You would also know that it is free of chemicals and preservatives and the nominal cost of producing it is an added bonus.

Herbs Full Circle

Herbs have come full circle and will return time and time again as the favoured natural source of medicine

Modern medicine wouldn’t be where it is today without its herbal input..

For as long as anyone can recall we have used herbs not only for food, but as a remedy for disease, pestilence and this has had a major contribution to survival throughout all that time.

Evidence of herbal remedies dating back thousands of years across the world has been found by Archaeologists. What remained constant was the fact that so many different cultures globally actually used very similar methods. This knowledge was shared around amongst communities and passed down through generations. Eventually they were recorded in writings and now many of today's business used these roots to produce synthetic drugs. Aspirin, for instance, was created as a copy of the natural pain reliever found in willow bark.

The beauty of natural herbal cures is the lack of side effects, which is a trait in synthetic drugs. This is probably the biggest pulling factor to many people shying away from man made drugs and looking to turn full circle back to their roots for natural treatments and herbal remedies.

Some cultures of course never really diverted into other field of cures for illnesses. The Chinese have always used herbal remedies and now have turned it into huge businesses.

We find ourselves right now going back to herbal roots a natural way of life. It is now a revolution in herbal education that we are going through and with the benefit of modern technology in processing, herbal medicine has an assured place in the health of all Nations.

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A Herb Based Product to Aid Sleep Patterns

The use of herbs for sleep is something that has been know for centuries, ranging from lavender stuffed pillows to a variety of herbal teas, to many to mention. It is quite disturbing that thousands of people who have trouble sleeping just don't first consider natural remedies to try and cure insomnia. Sometime however the use of herbs is not enough to cure the problem and other sleep inducing ingredients need to be added to 'force' sleep initially.

Sleep is something we all need to function properly and finding a sleeping aid that uses herbs as a component is not difficult, there are hundreds of products on the market and many have been used by countless people.

The prove of a good natural sleeping remedy is one that has been on the market for quite a few years and has a effective results, after all, a product that fails to deliver what is promises will soon be found out and not be on the market for long.

Some product helps you achieve an extended sleep and go a long way to helping you achieve good long-term sleep pattern. There are a few around, but which is the best, herbal based, most effective and which are safe to use? Products that include natural herbs are always going to be the safest way forward to help create natural sleep.

There are products that many different natural herbs as well as three other ingredients that are non-prescription based to aid natural sleep. It also contains amino acids that recreate good sleeping patterns through improved hormone release. With the blend of the 7 natural herbs this is a formula that is proven to have worked by many who have used it.

In a nutshell, Force sleep it a sleep aid that works for you immediately and if taken in the long term it may go a long way into helping your natural sleep patterns to become normal again.