The Healer’s Hideout

Essential oils are liquids which form as secondary metabolites in a plant. They are distilled by steam or by water from the leaves, stems, bark, or other elements of a plant. In nature, essential oils aim to protect the plant from herbivores, viruses, bacteria, and fungi, while also attracting certain insects to disperse its pollen. All essential oils have a characteristic strong odour and are highly volatile and concentrated. This is because they can contain up to 200 compounds, with only 2 or 3 compounds at high concentrations.

Herbs and Essential Oils

Herbs can be taken fresh or are often dried, crushed and placed into plastic bottles that you can find in your local supermarket. However, plants consist of quite a lot of water, and during this drying process, most of the active ingredients of the herbs will be evaporated along with the water. Then of course the herb becomes sort of useless in terms of its medicinal properties.

Therefore, using essential oils will help you regain all the beneficial properties of the herb in a much concentrated form because the active ingredients (such as the terpenes) are still present. 1 drop of peppermint oil = 30 cups of peppermint tea. As essential oils are very concentrated, you should dilute them in a carrier oil (like oil of jojoba or sesame oil) or water prior to use. Store all oils in cool, dark places to prevent them from being evaporated. Avoid touching the insert with your finger to prevent contamination of the essential oil with your body’s natural oils.

Aromatherapy

As most people should know, essential oils have often been used in diffusers to create a perfumed environment which purportedly can influence the mood of the occupants in the room. A study in Japan showed that diffusing the lemon essential oil around an office helped decrease typing errors by 54%. Or perhaps it could be the secret ingredient to making your house smell really nice when your relatives are coming over to visit. There are also other uses for essential oils, this includes massage, aromatherapy baths, and medicine.

Cooking?

First, the precautions.

• Use only extremely pure (therapeutic grade) essential oil in your dishes. Failing that, you can use organically grown, 100% pure essential oil that are classified as safe.
• Safe oils: Angelica, Basil, Bergamot, Chamomile, Roman, Chamomile, German, Cinnamon Bark, Citrus rind (all), Clary Sage, Clove, Coriander, Dill, Eucalyptus glob., Frankincense, Galbanum, Geranium, Ginger, Grapefruit, Hyssop, Juniper, Jasmine, Laurus nobilis, Lavender, Lemon, Lemongrass, Lime, Melissa (lemonbalm), Marjoram, Myrrh, Myrtle, Nutmeg, Orange, Oregano, Patchouli, Pepper, Peppermint, Petitgrain, Pine, Rosemary, Rose, Savory, Sage, Sandalwood, Spearmint, Spruce, Tarragon, Tangerine, Thyme, Valerian, Vetiver, Ylang Ylang.
• Do not ever use cheap essential oils that you find in those 2 dollar shops! This is because, a lot of nasty stuff have been added into them to lessen the cost, and you don’t really want to eat more chemicals than you need, do you?
• Again I’d like to stress about the concentration. You don’t need 20-30 drops of oil in your dishes, in fact, most recipes out there use only 1-4 drops at most.
• Add your oil into your food just prior to serving because essential oils are really volatile. Adding directly into your wok will cause the essential oil to evaporate immediately.
• Plastic: Essential oils can actually break down plastic, so prepare all your dishes in wooden/metal/porcelain containers.

Most people don’t realise that essential oils can be used for cooking. In fact most of our industrial products use flavouring additives which originate from essential oils. Also, if you do not have a kind of herb (eg lemongrass) that you need for a recipe, then you can substitute this for the lemongrass essential oil. Since essential oils are extremely concentrated, using them will give your dishes a unique taste.

Now for the fun bit:

Which essential oils go with which kinds of food?

Here are the 5 types of commonly encountered essential oils:

• Fruit: Such as lemon, orange and tangerine. They are full of flavour and evaporate quickly, so it’s advisable to add these towards the end.
• Acrid: Black pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. They have a characteristic strong taste, so try using them in moderation.
• Mints: Peppermint, spearmint. To add a hint of mint to your food, or for cooling down the body.
• Floral oils: Jasmine, lavender, rose. Add them to meats to get a hint of flowery flavour.
• Herbal oils: Basil, oregano, sage, parsley, rosemary. Rich and flavourful, a little goes a long way, so add them when you desire for that taste of herbs.

Meats — Citrus oils, basil, cinnamon, parsley, rosemary. Dilute the essential oils in cooking oil (1 drop essential oil to 1 tablespoon of cooking oil) and apply them on the meat as a marinade/tenderiser. I’ve just got myself a bottle of lemon essential oil today. Some lemon chicken tomorrow, perhaps?

Seafood — Black pepper, lavender, lemon, lime, orange, sage, thyme.

Water — For that zesty taste, try putting a drop or two of orange or lemon essential oil into a flask of water.

Cakes, puddings — Lemon, orange, clove, tangerine.

Honey — Cinnamon, clove, lavender, basil, chamomile or lemon

Besides this, essential oils are getting researched as a food preservative as they have very effective antimicrobial effects. Tests have shown that essential oils are effective as preservatives for meats, seafood, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and even chocolate!

So go ahead and try these out in your kitchen, and I look forward to hearing about your culinary adventures!

I love my curries. My struggles for freedom last year have basically yielded a good thing, that I learnt how to make better curries. And what’s a good Indian curry without turmeric?

Turmeric, also called kunyit in Malay, is often used in traditional medicine to treat cough, diabetes and inflammatory diseases. When you get a cut/burn on your hand, apply some turmeric on it, and it should help with the healing.

The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, which makes up 2-5% of the original turmeric. In recent years, scientists have discovered the benefits and medicinal properties of turmeric. The effects of turmeric are numerous, and they include:

1. Increased wound healing– Turmeric (curcumin) promotes cell growth by increasing collagen deposition on the skin. Collagen is that protein in the skin that gives it that “youthful” look, and is now often quoted in cosmetic advertisements.

2. Antiinflammatory response– The immune system is the most important natural defense our body has against diseases. Turmeric can enhance antibody responses, and stimulates cells of the immune system while reducing signals (cytokines) that tell the body to start “inflaming” the wound.

3. Anticancer– Turmeric suppresses formation and proliferation of tumour cells by inducing cell death. It also stops cancer cells from migrating around the body to form more cancer cells. In addition, anticancer drugs can get a little boost from turmeric if needed, making them more effective.

4. Diabetic cataract– Diabetes is a pretty dangerous disease to get, what with all those high glucose levels. Diabetic cataract is the onset of blindness caused by a pretty advanced stage of diabetes. Now, scientific trials have shown that turmeric can actually delay/prevent the formation of diabetic cataract in rats.

5. Autoimmune diseases– When your immune system goes mad, immune cells start attacking your normal red blood cells for no reason, and this leads to the formation of an autoimmune disease. Turmeric has been shown to suppress multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease by interfering with specific biochemical pathways.

6. Antioxidant properties– Turmeric can play a part in reducing free radicals which are responsible for inflammation, heart disease and cancer. In fact a study has proven that curcumin in turmeric has an antioxidant property which is 10 times stronger than Vitamin E.

However, these results are obtained from animal trials, whereby translating to a human system might be difficult. Such is the case whereby a clinical trial revealed that after the oral administration of curcumin tablets, little of the original substance is remained in the body to actually carry out its beneficial effects. Yet, some other studies noted that this small amount might actually be enough. Curcumin is also extremely safe and well tolerated. A dose of 12g/day has shown to have no side effects, if any.

Now, not only as a natural foodstuff and colouring for curries, turmeric is slowly making its way to a clinic near you.

Alternative medicine is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices,and products that are not presently considered to be part of Western medicine.It is estimated that 2/3 of the world prefer to use alternative medicine, which come in many forms, among them:

• Aromatherapy
• Acupuncture
• Herbs
• Ayurveda

Perceived Benefits of Alternative Medicine

1. It is simple, natural and safe enough for the average person to follow.
2. You feel in control of yourself and well-being. Who needs a doctor to tell you to do this and that?
3. Negative effects of conventional medicine. Drugs just don’t seem to work as effective as they do sometimes (or have undesirable side effects), and though antibiotics have helped many people over the years, more resistant bugs are being created all the time. Sometimes, doctors are too busy or too authoritative. To top that you gotta pay through the nose for your medical bill.

However, most alternative medicines and their techniques are still not scientifically proven because:

• Trials are often statistically not valid because most practitioners are unwilling to divulge their secrets.
• All alternative medicines work the way they do because of a certain (or many) active ingredients, which is often hard to isolate and identify, and change with harvesting season and preparation methods.

Problems with Alternative Medicine

1. Delayed diagnosis. In actual fact, some herbs or treatments might be ineffective for some illnesses! Yet, staunch believers of alternative medicine literally “soldier on” until they have to turn back to Western medicine when the disease gets unbearable. By then, it’ll already be too late.
2. Quack Doctors. A great example here would be acupuncture. A well placed needle can result in healing of the disease and no side effects. But quack doctors, as they’re known, might push the needles in too deep, resulting in scarring, wounds, or worse, puncturing of internal organs. And, unlike Western doctors, you don’t have to graduate with a pHd to be called a Chinese/Thai/etc doctor. Basically you won’t know whether the therapist is any good or not; only through word of mouth (which might not be true).
3. It’s all about the faith. Alternative medicine might actually turn out to be more expensive than conventional therapy, or might not even work just as well. Yet, most people don’t seem to notice it.

Final Words

Try alternative medicine, if possible. Use them at your own risk. However, do not ever neglect to take your prescriptions. A tried, tested and scientifically proven method is often much safer than ones that have not been proven or have inconclusive tests.