A betel vine and some memories...

We have a small betel vine in our house, which my wife got from her school ignored by the school watchman, it was going to die off. She brought it and planted in our house and now it is fresh and with lot of beautiful tender leaves.

Some scientific facts: Betel leaf consist of moisture 85.4 percent, protein 3.1 percent, fat 0.8 percent, minerals 2.3 percent, fiber 2.3 percent and carbohydrates 6.1 percent per 100 grams. Its minerals and vitamin contents are calcium, carotene, riboflavin, niacin, thiamine and vitamin C. Recent studies have shown that betel leaves contain tannins, sugar and diastases and an essential oil. The essential oil is a light yellow liquid of aromatic odor and sharp burning in taste. It contains a phenol called chavicol which has powerful antiseptic properties. The alkaloid arakene in it has properties resembling cocaine in some respects.


Betel leaves are also a household remedy for cough and cold for small children. The juice of betel leaves can be given to infants if they have cough and used to be prescribed by even doctors from JIPMER. Chewing betel leaves with lime used to be a good cosmetic practice by women in olden days, though the practice is now limited to marriage functions etc. Chewing betel leaves also is supposed to be good for the teeth provided you dont add tobacco leaves along with betel leaves.

I still remember my grandmother's sister who used to regularly chew betel leaves with her specially prepared areca nut preparation. As children, we used to compare our red tongues as to whose tongue was more red.

Betel leaves also have a spiritual place in Indian tradition and we offer the same to elders as a mark of respect. May be it was known to our ancestors that this herb had such wonderful medicinal values, it was made part of the traditions ! But sadly, the herb is becoming less cultivated these days, as very few people use it now a days.

Hibiscus - a common flower and some interesting facts!

Today I thought I will write about the common Hibiscus flower which are so common to most of us. There are varieties and varieties of hibiscus with different colours, different petal arrangements and so on. Here is the photo of a flower from our own mini-garden!


Now some interesting facts about the flower. This is used as flower, a vegetable, a herb, a cosmetic and what not! The vegetable roselle is a hibiscus variety and is used in South India for making chutneys, pickles and even curries. Hibiscus juice is another attraction where hibiscus flowers are immersed in lemon juice and processed to get a very tasty juice concentrate!. Women use hibiscus leaves and flowers for hair-care by making a shampoo of it and this is a natural treatment for hair fall and dandruff. Just pick a handful of leaves and a few flowers and scrub on a rocky surface (usually ponds are lined with rocky plates in Kerala) with a bit of water and you get a rick, bubbling shampoo. It is no-cost and healthy too. Again petals of hibiscus are used in treatment of fever and its roots have properties which cure cough. Dieters or persons with kidney problems often take it without adding sugar for its beneficial properties and as a natural diuretic. It is made by boiling the dehydrated flowers in water; once it is boiled, it is allowed to cool and drunk with ice. So go home and make some hibiscus juice right away!

Hibiscus flowers have also other values. The red flowers are offered the Goddess of Kali and Ganesh. As kids, we used to remove the petals from the flower and then blow through the tiny openings at the base of the petal and the petal will blow up a bit like a balloon. It seems children in Philippines make bubbles with hibiscus flower and leave extraction by blowing into the solution by using hollow papaya stalks.

Now some humour also. Wearing a single hibiscus flower on only one of your ears is symbol of being a lunatic person in Kerala (India). (Normally depicted in films though I have not seen any lunatics doing this in real life). But if the wearer of the flower on a single ear is Hawaiian woman it has a different meaning. A single flower tucked behind the ear indicates that the woman is available for marriage. Interesting ...isn't it?