Honeysuckle, Chrysanthemum and Turmeric for Health and Beauty

by Letha Hadady-If you have complexion troubles or cloudy vision two garden flowers can make your life easier. They are also useful cold and flu remedies.

Honeysuckle is a flowering shrub that blooms late spring and all summer with a penetrating sweetness from delicate blossoms containing honey. You might grow this lovely, fragrant flower in your garden. It likes temperate climates and a well-drained soil. Honeysuckle, a perennial, needs full sun, but tolerates light shade. Best planted in the fall as a hedge, spacing the shrubs three feet apart, water them freely during summer and sparingly during winter. Feed the plants monthly during the growing season with a balanced fertilizer, and propagate new plants from softwood cuttings in late spring or from cuttings in late summer.

In traditional Chinese medicine, honeysuckle is also a powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic useful for killing staph, strep, TB, salmonella, and pneumonia germs. Honeysuckle is strong protection against colds and flu fevers, and painful sores in the eyes, nose, throat and breast. It may be helpful in intestinal and urinary tract infections.

Dried honeysuckle flowers, available in Chinatown food and herbs shops, are called Jin Yin Hua. They can be brewed as a tea or added to you morning green tea along with ginger and mint. Used alone, the flowers are too bitter and may cause nausea. Overuse causes diarrhea because honeysuckle is a cooling, moistening antibiotic (unlike echinacea.) If you have a dry cough, dry mouth, and thirst from smoking or a high fever, it is the best herbal antibiotic.

Honeysuckle and dandelion tea reduces itching and redness of eczema. Honeysuckle and skullcap, another bitter liver-detoxifying herb, reduces boils and skin sores. Steep a handful of the dry herbs in 2 cups of boiling water for 5 minutes and drink up to 1 cup daily. Use ½ that dose for children. Adjust the dose to avoid diarrhea.

Honeysuckle is a major ingredient in most Chinese cold and flu pills. It is a great anti-inflammatory detoxifier. The flower is very bitter, so if you add it to your green tea daily as flu protection, add mint and ginger too. If you develop diarrhea, reduce the dose and increase ginger. Using any antibiotic regularly also requires additional yogurt or acidophilus in your diet in order to support digestion.

Avoid the granulated Chinese instant beverages that combine honeysuckle and chrysanthemum flowers for treating fever and sore throat. They contain lots of cane sugar. You might as well brew the real herbs and avoid the sugar. Chinese chrysanthemum flowers (Jue hua) are wonderfully sweet and tasty by themselves. They have been used as a tea for headaches, eye aches and computer-related dry eyes, cloudy vision and sun and heat stroke. Steep a pinch of the dried yellow flowers in glass teapot and watch them open. You won’t need sugar. They are naturally sweet. If you have diabetes, you can add a few drops of stevia to protect the pancreas.

To ensure proper digestion, you may enjoy adding 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder to a cup of yogurt at bedtime to protect immunity and beautify your complexion. Complexion beauty begins with a healthy colon that has necessary digestive bacteria. Turmeric is an antibiotic mild enough for daily use. It cools painful arthritis and eases tight tendons. It has anticancer benefits and repopulates the colon with vital bacteria destroyed by antibiotics.

Remember for protection against colds, flu, and sore throat: Honeysuckle tea with mint and ginger. For cloudy vision and tired, burning eyes: Chrysanthemum flower tea. For comfortable digestion and a nice complexion: Yogurt or green tea with turmeric.

Letha Hadady is the author of Asian Health Secrets, Personal Renewal, Healthy Beauty and Feed Your Tiger. A columnist for Heal India magazine and an expert on national radio www.airamerica.com, her website is www.asianhealthsecrets.com.