“An elderly relative of mine discovered your Nettle Cordial in a local farm shop. Having read somewhere that Nettles are “good for the skin”, and having suffered from eczema for many years, she purchased a bottle. Within a couple of months her eczema was very much better and now six months later, her eczema has completely gone. She is convinced it is the Nettle Cordial”
Hazel Lacey, London

  
 

Herbs for Health

Nettle

Nettle, has remarkable properties but unfortunately we have to keep them secret.    Drugs companies don’t like you finding our that simple edible plants can allow you to do without their toxic products so they lobby the government to prevent people like us sharing this information with you.    You have to find out for yourself what nettles can do for you.    Sorry.   But here are a couple of places you might like to start looking:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nettle
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/stinging-nettle-000275.htm

References: Chrubasik S et al. Evidence for antirheumatic effectiveness of a herba Urtica dioicae in acute arthritis: a pilot study. Phytomedicine 1997; 4: 105-108

Mittman P. Randomised double-blind study of freeze dried Urtica dioica in the treatment of allergic rhinitis. Planta Med 1990; 50: 44-47

Randall C et al. Randomised controlled trial of nettle sting for treatment of base-of-thumb pain. R Soc Med 2000; 93: 305-309.

Coriander

Coriander is an important ingredient in detox cordial, both for its aroma and for its ability to chelate heavy metals from body tissue, so that they can be excreted in the urine. Anyone with amalgam fillings is likely to have too much mercury – the second most toxic element known (after plutonium) - in their body, and in particular in their nervous tissue. Pharmaceutical chelating agents such as DMPS or Kelmer can bind with mercury and drag it out of deep tissues as if with pincers (the word chelate comes from the greek work for “crab”), and the resulting increase in mercury in the urine can be easily measured. A few years ago a Japanese scientist and acupuncturist named Dr Yoshiaki Omura investigating conjunctivitis noticed some odd results, which correlated to his subjects eating a popular Vietnamese soup containing lots of leaf coriander. Through a series of deductions and coincidences, he realised that the coriander was acting as a chelating agent which proved to be as just as effective as pharmaceutical agents in removing heavy metals, and unlike other chelating agents it also crosses the blood/brain barrier.    However if you are mercury toxic coriander is not recommended and chelation of any sort should be approached with great care.

Reference:
Yoshiaki Omura Acupunct Electrother Res 1998 (21) 2; 133-6 (chelation of mercury and other heavy metals)

Ginkgo

Ginkgo has been known as a medicinal plant since at least 2,800 BC, and has also been subjected to very thorough scientific scrutiny in recent decades. Of particular interest are its effects on circulation and on cognitive function, which appear to be linked.

Much of the research on cognitive function has been done on patients suffering from various kinds of dementia, but work has also been done on the young and healthy. One well-known trial gave healthy young volunteers aged 19-24 years measured doses of 120mg, 240mg, and 360mg of standardised Ginkgo extract, and then subjected them to a battery of cognitive tests designed to assess their performance, showing significant improvement in speed of attention at both 240mg and 360mg single doses. Other studies show lower doses to be more effective than higher doses, especially when taken over a long period.

Thorncroft Ginkgo Green Tea when diluted as recommended contains the extract of about 350 mg of Ginkgo leaves per litre.

References
Kennedy DO et al. Psychopharmacology 2000, 151:416-423.

Subhan Z, Hindmarsh I. Int J Clin Parmacol Res 1984;4:89-93.

RigneyU et al, Phytother Res 1999;13: 408-415 (these three articles all investigate the effects of ginkgo on healthy volunteers)

Green Tea

Like Ginkgo, Green Tea has been considered to have health promoting properties by the Chinese for over 4000 years. Its beneficial effects are now known to be due mainly to the antioxidant properties of the catechins it contains.
Green tea is also known to help with weight loss – see http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=55970

References:
Ahmad N et al. Green tea polyphenols and cancer: biologic mechanisms and practical implications. Nutr Rev 57(3): 78-83, 1999.

Brown MD. Green tea (Camellia sinensis) extract and its possible role in the prevention of cancer. Altern Med Rev 4(5): 360-370, 1999.

Bushman JL. Green tea and cancer in humans: a review of the literature. Nutr Cancer 31(3): 151-159, 1998.

Chen et al. Green tea epigallocatechin gallate shows a pronounced growth inhibitory effect on cancerous cells but not on their normal counterparts. Cancer Letters 129: 173-179, 1998.

Dulloo AG et al. Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. Am J Clin Nutr 70: 1040- 1045, 1999.

Gupta S et al. Prostate cancer chemoprevention by green tea. Semin Urol Oncol 17(2): 70-76, 1999.

Imai K et al. Cancer-preventive effects of drinking green tea among a Japanese population. Prev Med 26(6):769-75, 1997.

Ji HT et al. Green tea consumption and the risk of pancreatic and colorectal cancer. Int J Can 7; 255-258, 1997.

Kono S et al. Relation of green tea consumption to serum lipids and lipoproteins in Japanese men. J Epidemiol 6(3):128-33, 1996. Lin JK et al Cancer chemoprevention by tea polyphenols. Proc Natl Sci Counc Repub China B 24(1):1-13, 2000.

Mukhtar H et al. Tea polyphenols: prevention of cancer and optimizing health. Am J Clin Nutr 71(6 Suppl):1698S-702S, 2000.

Nakayama M et al. Inhibition of the infectivity of influenza virus by tea polyphenols. Antiviral Res 21: 289-299, 1993.

Picard D. The biochemistry of green tea polyphenols and their potential application in human skin cancer. Alt Med Rev 1: 31-42, 1996.

Sasazuki S et al. Relation between green tea consumption and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis among Japanese men and women. Ann Epidemiol 10(6):401-8, 2000.

Stich HF. Teas and tea components as inhibitors of carcinogen formation in model systems and man. Prevent Med 21: 377-384, 1992.

Yang CS et al. Tea and tea polyphenols inhibit cell hyperproliferation, lung tumorigenesis, and tumor progression. Exp Lung Res 24(4):629-39, 1998.

Weisburger JH. Mechanisms of action of antioxidants as exemplified in vegetables, tomatoes, and tea. Food Chem Toxicol 37(9-10): 943-948, 1999.

Weisburger JH. Tea and health: the underlying mechanisms. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 2200(4): 271-275, 1999.