TOOTHACHE TREE - INFORMATION : HEALTH BENEFITS AND HOW TO USE TOOTHACHE TREE


TOOTHACHE TREE, WINGED PRICKLY ASH, ZANTHOXYLUM ALATUM ROXB. ZANTHOZYLUM ARMATUM DC
Zanthozylum alatum or Z. armatum, is known as the Toothache tree or Yellow Wood (a translation of Zantho=yellow and zylum=wood) or the Winged Prickly Ash, (the tree has thorns) although it is no relation to the ash tree being a member of the Rutaceae family so a relative of the lemon tree and rue. It also has many other names and in Pakistan its fruits are known as timbar, tajphal, kabab khandan among other names. The dried fruits are a substitute for pepper and it is said to be one of the ingredients in Chinese Five Spice Powder. However some people have mistakenly called it the Szechwan pepper, which it isn’t; that being a relative, however. The fruit is easy to harvest as it grows in clusters. It grows in the Himalayan region and is native to Pakistan, India and Bhutan. It also grows in North America.
  It is called the Toothache tree as one of its uses in traditional medicine is to alleviate toothache. It is also used in traditional medicine to relieve mouth pain caused by food and to cure gingivitis or bleeding gums. The seeds of the fruit (each fruit comes with a hard outer skin and has a single seed in the middle) are ground with a pinch of black salt, a little fresh chilli, and ordinary salt, and given as a cure for stomach disorders. The seeds combined with the bark are combined to make an aromatic tonic and given when someone has a fever or cholera. Modern research has shown that an extract from the fruit may help with mouth irritation. The root of the tree is used for toothache, stomach ache, fever, boils and rheumatism and in Ayurvedic medicine, apart from these uses it is used to expel internal worms and heal piles and stop anorexia. It is used externally for various skin diseases and local people use a decoction or infusion of different parts of the tree to cure the common colds, coughs, fevers (as parts of the tree have diaphoretic properties, that is they promote sweating) and common stomach upsets. An infusion can be made with 1-2 tsps of tree bark to one cup of boiling water and should be allowed to steep for 15 minutes before straining and drinking three times a day.
  The fruit is also used to purify water, and the trees have religious significance and are reputed to have magical properties by some. The branches are often used as toothbrushes like walnut tree and Viburnum grandiflorum bark.
   The essential oil from the leaves is high in linalool and also has a significant amount of limonene, and is used as an insect repellant. However the oil quality varies depending on the altitudes the trees grow at according to one research study. This volatile oil may have anti-fungal properties, but research is still being carried out on this tree as two new flavonoids were reported from it in June 2010.
  The wood from the tree is close-grained and durable and used for making walking sticks among other items. The beauty industry is currently selling day cream which contains extracts from the Toothache tree; one such product also contains iris milk and chamomile.
  The bark contains the coumarins, xanthyletin, zanthoxyletin and alloxanthyletin, resin, tannin, volatile oil, and various alkaloids including laurifoline, g-fagarine and b-fagarine.

HIMALAYAN WILD PEAR ( PYRUS PASHIA) - INFORMATION , USES AND MEDICINAL BENEFITS


HIMALAYAN WILD PEAR, PYRUS PASHIA, PUNJABI PEAR
The Himalayan wild pear is also known as the Punjabi pear and the Indian Pear, and has the Latin synonyms, Pyrus kumaoni and Pyrus variolosa. Locally it’s known by many names such as shegal and kainth but is rarely found in bazaars as the fruit doesn’t travel well. It looks a little like the russet apple, and has an astringent but sweet taste when ripe. It is apparently best to eat when it is decaying slightly, and has a grittier texture than the cultivated pears. This means that it helps reduce the risks of colon cancer and can prevent the growth of polyps.
  The astringent juice is used medicinally to stop diarrhoea, but little else seems to be known about the ways locals use the fruit. Most of the vitamin C content is in the skin of the fruit, which is not eaten as it decays first, but the pear contains minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, calcium and iron.
   The wild pear tree grows commonly at altitudes of between 700 and 2000 metres and because the tree has thorns, farmers use it as a live fence to keep livestock in or out of their fields. It is also used for firewood and for items such as walking sticks and small agricultural and household implements. The tree is also used as rootstock for other pears and it is hoped that this will not cause them to die out.
   Their range extends from Pakistan to Viet Nam and from southern China to northern India and Bhutan. The trees flower from late February to mid-March and the pears begin to ripen during the first week of November and are over by the last week of December. Unfortunately they do not travel well so never reach the bazaar here, and locals who have the pears can’t benefit by selling them as they can from selling the kachnar buds and the wild fig. The wild pears can be dried and used, but it seems that people do not do this as a matter of course during the fruit season, so everyone loses out on a wild food source.
  Little research has been done into this wild pear, so its medical properties are so far unknown.

GREENGAGE, CALLED ALOOCHA IN URDU - HISTORY, USES AND HEALTH BENEFITS: GREENGAGE - VANILLA JAM RECIPE


GREENGAGES, ALOOCHA, PRUNUS DOMESTICA ITALICA
Greengages are basically wild green plums that have been domesticated over the centuries. They have a difficult to research past, and seem to have re-emerged in Britain in the 18th Century having been introduced from France by the gage family who resided at Hengrave Hall, outside Bury St. Edmonds.
  It is believed that the Romans first introduced the green plum into Britain, but all the material I have read says that these trees mysteriously disappeared after the Fall of the Roman Empire, so that must have been sometime in the 5th century as Rome was captured by the Germanic general Odacer or Odovacar in 476 AD. After this period Europe fell into the Dark Ages as the early Middle Ages were called. However no one has linked (as far as I can tell) the “Cataclysm” of 535 AD with the disappearance of these wild plum trees from the British Isles. It is known that there was a period of climate change from 535 to 565 or 575 due it is thought to a comet or meteorite impact or more likely the eruption of the Super Volcano Krakatoa which caused a similar weather phenomenon in the 1880s.
  Certainly the climate became colder at this time as scientists have found from examining tree rings around the world. This could have caused the death of the wild plum trees, or they might have been affected by disease which might also have been brought about by a volcanic eruption.
  The wild green plums continued to be grown in Italy and were known in Britain in the early 17th century although they were called Verdoch, undoubtedly from the Italian name for them, Verdocchio. John Parkinson, (1567-1650) was the apothecary to James I of England (James VI of Scotland) refers to these plums as Verdoch, so they were known in Britain before they were reintroduced from France in the 18th century.
  On her marriage to Francis I of France, (1499-1524) Queen Claude took trees of green plums with her from Italy to France. There they became known as Reine Claude (Queen Claude) after her. These are still grown in France with the best said to come from Moissac.
  There are several stories as to how greengages arrived in Britain in the 18th century, but all of them relate to the Gage family. A John Gage, an English Catholic priest, was studying in Paris in 1724 and sent some trees to his brother at Hengrave Hall. In transit the fruit trees lost their labels and the gardener planted them as green Gage in honour of his employer. British horticulturists developed these fruits until they became the green gages we have today. William Coxe (1747-1836), an English historian said of them, they are ‘universally acknowledged to be the finest plumb of this or any other country.” Other eminent men have also commented on the sweetness of this “exquisite” fruit.
  Greengages are a type of plum and related to other trees in the rose family such as the apricot and almond. They have similar health benefits to other plums being rich in vitamin C and the mineral potassium.
  In Pakistan there is a wild green plum aloocha, which is from the genus Prunus aloocha, which may be a close relative of the Italian variety. It is generally believed that greengages came from Armenia, although clearly the wild green plum that grows in Pakistan is a native species, or has become naturalized, perhaps having the same Persian origins as the aloo Bukhara or Persian plum.
  Greengages are best eaten as a fruit and do not take well to being pickled or made into chutney. They are good in jam (see recipe below), pies, tarts, fools and sorbets and the jam goes well with vanilla ice cream or spooned into custard.

GREENGAGE -VANILLA JAM
Ingredients
1½ kilos greengages
1½ kilos sugar
2 vanilla pods
15 gr unsalted butter


Method
Wash the fruit and pick out any blemished fruit or over ripe squishy ones. Slightly under ripe ones are OK.
Put them whole in a pan with 250 ml water and the 2 pods of vanilla. Simmer the mixture gently for about ½ an hour until the fruit is extremely soft.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar, stirring constantly until it dissolves.
Return the pan to the heat and add the butter. Stir and bring back to the boil.
Allow it to boil for about 10 minutes, and by then the stones from the fruit should have risen to the top so that they can easily be scooped out with a slotted spoon.
Continue boiling until setting point has been reached. (When you drip a small amount from the back of a metal spoon onto a cold saucer and it gels, it is set.)
Skim off any scum from the top of the mixture and ladle into hot sterilized jars.
Remove the vanilla pods, rinse and dry them then put in a jar of sugar and bury them in it. This will give you vanilla sugar to be used for desserts in future. You can also reuse the vanilla pods in another dessert after they have been in the sugar.
This has Taste and is a Treat.

CITRON ( CITRUS MEDICA) - AMAZING FRUIT: HEALTH BENEFITS, USES AND HISTORY OF CITRON


CITRON, CITRUS MEDICA
Citron is not a citrus fruit that you may be familiar with as it is seldom seen in its fresh state. It is grown commercially for its peel which is candied and used in cakes, puddings, biscuits and sold as candied peel to home bakers. It looks generally like an overgrown lumpy-skinned lemon, although the strange “fingered” citron is like a hand. This variety has only a little pulp and is grown for its peel alone. There are three basic types of citron, the ones which have purplish flowers and are very acid, the sweet variety which has white flowers and the third kind which is bitter but pulpless. The green immature fruits are picked for candying purposes, not the yellow-skinned ripe fruits which take three months to ripen.
   It has a long history and is believed to have originated in the Indian subcontinent where wild ones still grow, but it was cultivated in Medea, in the Persian Empire in 4,000 BC as seeds have been discovered in Nippur and ancient Babylonian city which dates from that time. It is thought that the citron is the oldest of the cultivated citrus fruits, and is in the orange sub-class of the Rutaceae family, although it does seem to the untrained eye and nose to be more of a lemon.
  The citron has a very long and somewhat complicated history as it is connected to the Jewish ritual of the Feast of the Tabernacle, during which Moses ruled that the cedar cone should be used, in Greek this was kedros. The Greeks called the citron they grew in their colonies in Palestine kedromelon, and so when the cedar cone fell out of favour for use during the Feast, the citron was used in its place. The Romans called the fruit the Malus medica, meaning apple of the Medes and later Malum citreum, citrus apple and we know that it was cultivated in Medea between 700 and 500 BC. This Greek cultivar is and was known as the Etrog citron and this was the variety best known in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was used to quell seasickness, for stomach disorders and other intestinal disorders, as well as the juice with wine being used as a purgative and an antidote to poison.
  Dioscorides knew about it in the 1st century AD and so did Pliny although it is also mentioned by Theophrastus around 346 BC. This gives rise to the belief that Alexander the Great and his army introduced it to Greece and the Mediterranean. In AD 300 it appears in Chinese writings which describe a gift of 40 Chinese bushels of the fruit being received as a gift from the Roman Empire. It has been described in writings of 301 AD as being a commercial food item in Rome and a staple.
   Most of the citron trees have evergreen, long leathery leaves and the trees grow from 8 feet to 15 feet high. The fruit can be oblong or oval and it is fragrant. However it can vary in size and shape even when grown on the same branch.
Etrog citron
   The Spaniards are thought to have taken the citron to Florida and it was introduced into Puerto Rico in 1640. Commercial citron producing began in California in the 1880s but was abandoned after cold weather damaged crops, so the industry only lasted for around 30 years. The fruit is still commercially produced in Puerto Rico, where it is pulped and sent in brine to Europe and the USA to be candied. It can be seen in Florida, where it is grown as a curiosity. It is not the hardiest of citrus trees and is susceptible to fungus and cold.
   It still grows in the Greek islands, particularly in Crete, Naxos and Corfu. The old citron factory in Halki, Naxos, has been turned into a citron museum and visitors can see how the fruit is processed. It also grows on the Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily and the French island of Corsica, where it has a long history of cultivation. It is also grown in the Caribbean and South America, and in the Indian subcontinent, although it is not extensively cultivated in these regions.
   In India the fruit is pickled, while the peel flavours rice in Indonesia, where the peel is also eaten raw. The fruits are made into jams, marmalades and fruit bars, and in Spain the peel is used to flavour otherwise unpalatable medicines. In China and Japan the whole fruit is used to perfume the air of a room and may be carried around by people. Dried fruits act as moth repellants in clothes and household linen. (They smell better than moth balls.)In some of the Pacific Islands oil is distilled from the twigs and leaves of the citron trees, which is called “Cedrat Petitgrain oil” and is used in the perfume industry. The flowers also yield an oil after distillation which is also used in this industry to a more limited extent. Citron is also used to flavour some vodka. In India the wood from the trees is used for agricultural implements and walking sticks as it is hard and durable.
   It has been used in traditional medicine systems for centuries and the essential oil from the peel is thought to have antibiotic properties. In India and Pakistan the seeds from the fruit are used to expel internal parasites, and a decoction of the shoots of the wild trees are used for stomach problems and in Malaysia, the decoction is sprinkled around homes to get rid of evil spirits. The fresh peel is eaten to stop bad breathe and used in cases of dysentery, while in China, the candied peel is used to improve digestion, as an expectorant and tonic.
 An infusion made from the leaves is believed to be anti-spasmodic, and good for cramps.
  Citron contain ascorbic acid which converts to vitamin C in the body and three of the B-complex vitamins, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin, and the minerals calcium, phosphorus, iron, and also carotene.
  In Iran a tisane is made from the leaves and the fruit is used to flavour fruit salads, and it can also be found in marinades for meat. The Musk citron may be a cross between a lemon and a citron, as it has very thin peel and very acid juice. This one is also known as the Bajana, but there are many varieties of this fruit which is not as widely known as other citrus fruits such as the grapefruit, pomelo, lemon and orange.