Index Home Our tryst with health-care, and use of plants as healers is long. While more well developed health systems used these in their formulary, remote and untouched communities also had their unique herbal remedies. In this blog we explore the less known plants, as well as nations that showcase these in their postage stamps. Pacific… Continue reading My postage stamp garden of unusual herbs & plants
Month: December 2023
Fifteen famous herbs and their use for health
Index Home List of medicinal plants is long. This list gives space to both rare as well as common. Some of these plants, have beautiful and colourful flowers. Others have pungent leaves, or tasty berries. While some of them found their way into modern medicine, others are more popular as ornamental. We devote this blog to… Continue reading Fifteen famous herbs and their use for health
Cinchona comes to rescue the world
Index Home Man has known malaria for centuries. It is a fever, that comes with shaking chills, a lot of pain, and turns white of the eyes yellow. Sometimes this fever also affects the brain, intestines, and kidneys. While, its cause was known only in 1880s, ancient physicians knew this fever well. It would strike, go-away… Continue reading Cinchona comes to rescue the world
Award for the most popular health plant goes to…
Index Home We all may look at tall and mighty in awe, but we love the grounded. This surely is true for the most popular health plant in the current times. If google-search hits are a reliable metric, this award goes to Aloe vera. In the post-covid world, Aloe vera has become a real money-spinner. Pundits… Continue reading Award for the most popular health plant goes to…
Ingredients in Traditional Chinese Medicine
Index Home For Indians, lands beyond the Himalayas were always an enigma. Till the beginning of 20th century, parts of Tibet were still unexplored. While, a couple of Chinese pilgrims did travel through India between 4th and 7th centuries, there is no such Indian account of Chinese society. Further, almost all foreign invasions into India were… Continue reading Ingredients in Traditional Chinese Medicine
Eleven Herbs from High hills in postage stamps
Index Home I grew up in the Himalayas, highest hills in the world. Like all children, we would walk down to the school or run up and down the hills to play. A striking find across the hills are a plethora of plants all around us. We enjoyed not only the tall pines and deodars, but… Continue reading Eleven Herbs from High hills in postage stamps
World AIDS day 2023: Let communities Lead
Index Home HIV stigma, perpetuates inequality Stigma befriends some diseases.In ancient times it was Leprosy, followed by Syphillis, and in the modern times HIV. In ancient times, individuals with a flat-nose, a tell-tale sign of leprosy, were disqualified from becoming priest. By 1450s, we feared and hid sexually transmitted syphillis. Advent of antibiotics and changing sexual… Continue reading World AIDS day 2023: Let communities Lead
Changing symbolism and slogans in HIV-AIDS philately
Index Home Part 1 (1981-2007) Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Scientific evidence shows that the virus sneaked into human beings around 1920s. We realised its existence, about six decades later, in early 1980s. Mankind had just emerged from successful small-pox eradication, when in 1981, Center of disease control (CDC) reported a cluster… Continue reading Changing symbolism and slogans in HIV-AIDS philately