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CRC Handbook of Medicinal Spices

Author:

ISBN10: 849312795
ISBN13: 9780849312793

Publisher: CRC Press

Price: $139.95
Pages: 360
Edition:
Publish date: September 2002

Outline:
Includes the medicinal properties of over 60 spice plants Explores the culinary aspects of many medicinal spices Presents a chemical analysis of each spice Explains the biological activities of the most important phytochemicals Provides an alphabetical listing of reported indications for each spice Includes folkloric and proven reputations for a given ailment. Lists septic organisms killed or whose growth is curbed or arrested by each spice Offers recipes from around the world for letting food be your medicine Let food be your medicine, medicine your food. -Hippocrates, 2400 B.C. When the Father of Medicine uttered those famous words, spices were as important for medicine, embalming, preserving food, and masking bad odors as they were for more mundane culinary matters. Author James A. Duke predicts that spices such as capsicum, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, onion, and turmeric will assume relatively more medicinal importance again, as the economic costs and knowledge of the side-effects of prescription pharmaceuticals increase. After all, each spice contains thousands of useful phytochemicals. Pharmaceuticals usually contain only one or two. Discover the Science behind the Folklore Spices are important medicines that have withstood the empirical tests of millennia. Nearly 5,000 years ago Charak, the father of Ayurvedic medicine, claimed that garlic lightens the blood, reduces tumors, and is an aphrodisiac tonic. Today scientists say it thins the blood, prevents cancer, and increases libido. For centuries people worldwide have used spices to cure a myriad of ailments and to preserve foods. Now science is proving that these spices may preserve us with their antioxidant and antiseptic activities. Organized by scientific name, the CRC Handbook of Medicinal Spices provides the science behind the folklore of over 60 popular spices. For each spice, it lists: Scientific name Common name Medicinal activities and indications Multiple activities Other uses, especially culinary Cultivation Chemistry Important phytochemical constituents and their activities The handbook also includes market and import data, culinary uses, ecology and cultural information, and discusses at length the use of spices as antiseptics and antioxidants.

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