The New Nation - Internet Edition

Medicine at our doorsteps: Shoti

Jamayet Ali

Shoti is a perennial rhizomatous herb with tufted large tapering elliptical leaves, short stem and pink or yellow flowers widely cultivated all over Bangladesh. It also grows wild in damp and shady places, gardens and fallow lands. Roxburgh says it is a native of Chittagong, but according to Ainslie, it is a native of the East Indies and Cochin China. The red powder Abir, used by the Hindus at the Holi festival, is often made from the rhizome of this plant, ground to a powder and left for sometime to saturate in water. Guibourt says: "The round Zedoary is grayish white, externally heavy, compact; grey and often horny internally, having a bitter and strong camphoraceous taste, like that of the long Zedoary, which it also resembles in odour. The odour of both drugs is analogous with that of ginger, weaker unless the rhizomes be powdered, when it develops a powerful aromatic odour similar to that of cardamoms." The rhizomes of this plant constitute one of the most important articles of native perfumery. Botanical name of Shoti is Curcuma zedoaria Rosc. The tubers are rich in starch. The shoti starch of commerce is a product extracted from the tubers and used as a substitute for arrowroot and barley. It is highly valued as an article of diet, especially for infants and convalescents. It is cooling and demulcent, and is often made into confections. It is also cultivated more or less throughout India and other warm countries.

Medicinal Properties: The rhizome is pungent, bitter, fragrant; heating; appetizer; vulnerary, anthelmintic, antipyretic, alexiteric; destroys foulness of the breath; useful in leucoderma, piles, bronchitis, asthma, tumours, tuberculous glands of the neck, enlargement of the spleen, epileptic seizure (Ayurveda). The rhizome has a bitter, sharp, hot taste, and a good odour; laxative, tonic to the brain and the heart, aphrodisiac, alexipharmic, emetic, emmenagogue, expectorant, carminative; useful in gripping of children, pains, inflammations, toothache (Yunani). The fresh root is considered to be cooling and diuretic, it checks leucorrhoeal and gonorrheal discharges and purifies the blood. The juice of the leaves is given in dropsy (Rheede).

The rhizomes possess aromatic, stimulant and carminative properties. Employed as a stomachic, and also applied to bruises and sprains. The root is chewed to correct a sticky taste in the mouth; it is also an ingredient in some of the strengthening conserves which are taken by women to remove weakness after child-birth. In colds it is given in decoction with long pepper, cinnamon and honey, and the pounded root applied as a paste to the body. The rhizome is used internally in Cambodia as a stimulant, tonic, and depurative; it is administered in the form of a tincture in malaise and vertigo, and given three times daily to women during the two weeks which follow delivery. The corms are chewed by Cambodian mothers who then apply them together with their saliva to the head and body of children suffering from convulsions. The leaves are used as plasters in lymphangitis, furunculosis, and adinites. The rhizome is not an antidote to scorpionvenom (Indian Medicinal Plants, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, Vol. IV, 2420, 2421).

Medicine: The rhizomes possess aromatic, stimulant, and carminative properties.

Employed in native practice as a stomachic, and also applied to bruises and sprains. "The natives chew the root to correct a sticky taste in the mouth; it also an ingredient in some of the strengthening conserves which are taken by women to remove weakness after child-birth. In colds it is given in decoction with long-pepper, cinnamon, and honey, and the pounded root is applied as a paste to the body" (Dymock). In the Kangra Gazetteer it said of what appears to be this plant that "it is ,given as a carminative medicine internally and applied on the skin as a plaster to remove pains" "The root is of a pale- yellow warm and aromatic, like turmeric, but bitter."

Special Opinions: "The rhizome of this plant is the Amba-haldi of the Bombay bazaar. Bruised with alum in water, it is applied to bruised joints and other parts to remove echimoses" (Assistant Surgeon Sakharam Arjun Rabhat, L.M., Girgaum, Bombay). "Small bits of the rhizomes are put in the mouth and chewed to allay cough" (Assistant Surgeon Arund Chunder Mukerji, Noakhally). "Demulcent, expectorant, and aromatic, dose about one drachm" (Civil Surgeon Jhon McConaghey, M.D., Shajahanpore). The rhizome is considered to be a cooling medicine, also and expectorant" (Surgeon-Major) J.M. Houston, Durbar Physn., Travancore, and Civil Apoth. John Gomes, Medical Storekeeper, Travandrum). "This is the Kochora of the bazaar. It is used as an odoriferous ingredient of the cosmetics used for the cure of chronic skin diseases and internally as a mild aromatic stimulant in fever and colds" (Assistant Surgeon Sakharam Arjun Ravat, L.M., Girgaum, Bombay). "The roots imported into Leh as kachur, judwar, and called by the Bhotes 'Bozbrga' employed in Yarkand for washing the body acting as a rubefacient" (Surgeon-Major J.E.T. Aitchison, Simla). "The rhizomes are used by singers as a masticatory for clearing the throat of tenacious mucus; they are also used in cases of irritation of the faces and upper part of the wind-pipe. The decoction is employed with sugar-candy, black-pepper, and liquorice in relieving cough and bronchitis" (Civil Surgeon J.R.Thornton, B.A., M.B., Monghyr). (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Watt, Vol. II , 670, 671).

Properties and uses: Rhizome is used as stimulant, carminative, expectorant, diuretic, demulcent and rubefacient. Decoction of fresh rizome is used for blood purification. Juice of leaves is given in dropsy. Roots are used in colds, coughs and fevers, flatulence and dyspepsia, fresh roots check leucorrhoeal and gonorrheal discharges. Essential oil from rhizome possesses antimicrobial properties and is effective on pathogenic fungi. (Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh, Abdul Ghani, Second Edition, 197).

Medicinal Values: The rhizome possesses stimulant and carminative properties. A decoction of the rhizome administered along with pepper, cinnamon and honey, is beneficial for colds. In indigenous medicine, it is prescribed as a stomachic. It has a local effect on the digestive organs similar to, milder than, ginger and has been occasionally employed as a gastro-intestinal stimulant in flatulent colic. Zedoary is used in the manufacture of liqueurs, stomach essences and bitters and in perfumery and cosmetics (Wealth Of India, Raw Materials, Vol. II, 406).

India recalls measles vaccine after child deaths

AFP, New Delhi

India has recalled over four million doses of a measles vaccine supplied by a south Indian drug manufacturer after four children died following inoculation with the drug, reports said Friday.

All state governments have been instructed to stop use of the measles vaccine manufactured by the Indian Immunological Limited until further orders," Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Further supplies from the manufacturer have also been halted, he said. The government late Thursday ordered the recall of some four million doses of the vaccine already supplied by Hyderabad-based Indian Immunologicals Limited out of an overall order of nine million, the Indian Express daily said.

The recall came after four infants who received the measles vaccine in the southern state of Tamil Nadu died on Wednesday.

Parents said their babies started frothing at the mouth and nose and died within 15 to 20 minutes of being administered the vaccine, news channel NDTV reported.

The state health minister has said the children might have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine, noting that some 20,000 children in Tamil Nadu were inoculated against measles with the same drug Wednesday.

Samples of the vaccine have been sent to a national laboratory for testing and a team of health experts is examining how the vaccine was stored and how health workers administered it.

For now, Tamil Nadu state has suspended its measles vaccination programme and inoculation programmes in other states are also likely to be hit by the recall.

An Indian minister expressed concern that the development could jeopardise India's larger immunisation efforts, sometimes beset by rumours about the safety of the injections.

In the past, India's attempts to eradicate polio have been delayed after some Islamic clerics spread rumours the vaccines would harm Muslim children.

Experts say sex abstinence program doesn't work

Will Dunham

Programs teaching U.S. schoolchildren to abstain from sex have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins, health groups told Congress on Wednesday.

The Bush administration, however, voiced continuing support for such programs during a hearing before a House of Representatives panel even as many Democrats called for cutting off federal money for so-called abstinence-only instruction.

"Vast sums of federal monies continue to be directed toward these programs. And, in fact, there is evidence to suggest that some of these programs are even harmful and have negative consequences by not providing adequate information for those teens who do become sexually active," Dr. Margaret Blythe of the American Academy of Pediatrics told the committee.

These programs, backed by many social conservatives who oppose the teaching of contraception methods to teenagers in schools, have received about $1.3 billion in federal funds since the late 1990s.

Currently, 17 of the 50 U.S. states refuse to accept federal funds for such programs.

Experts from the American Public Health Association and U.S. Institute of Medicine testified that scientific studies have not found that abstinence-only teaching works to cut pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases or the age when sexual activity begins.

The American Psychological Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also issued statements to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform criticizing the abstinence-only programs.

Comprehensive sex education programs should emphasize abstinence as the best way for a teenager to avoid pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease (STD), Blythe said.

"Those adolescents who choose to abstain from sexual intercourse should obviously be encouraged and supported in their decisions by their families, peers and communities. But abstinence should not be the only strategy that is discussed," Blythe said.

Lawmakers cited government statistics showing that one in four U.S. teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease and 30 percent of U.S. girls become pregnant before the age of 20.

Republicans said even if some abstinence-only programs do not work, others do, and it would be wrong to end the funding.

Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems "rather elitist" that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. "I don't think it's something we should abandon," he said of abstinence-only funding.

Charles Keckler of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the Bush administration believes abstinence education programs send the healthiest message.

Stan Weed, director of the Institute for Research and Evaluation, a Utah-based group that researches abstinence programs, disagreed with the other health experts, saying research cast doubt on the effectiveness of broader, comprehensive sex education programs.

Panel chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said, "We are showering funds on abstinence-only programs that don't appear to work, while ignoring proven comprehensive sex education programs that can delay sex, protect teens from disease, and result in fewer teen pregnancies."

"Meanwhile, we have no dedicated source of federal funding specifically for comprehensive classroom sex education," Waxman added.

Reuters, Washington

Gorge for a boy, diet for a girl - that's just wrong, baby

A study from Exeter University reveals how we can help to determine the sex of our offspring by what we eat. "If you want a boy, eat a healthy diet with a high calorie intake, including breakfast," says Fiona Mathews, the lead researcher of the study.

Yet as a nation we are becoming heavier by the day - 56 per cent of British women are classed as overweight or obese. So is it sensible to give all women of childbearing age who want a baby boy carte blanche to pack away the calories?

Gaining those extra pounds may be fine for women whose weight is normal, but not for those who are already too heavy. Doing so could increase their risk of raised blood pressure and pregnancy-related diabetes if they conceive.

Although the researchers say that it would be ethically wrong for women who want a baby girl to go on a low-calorie plan, that is precisely what those women would be tempted to do.

This could reduce their fertility - a rather obvious own goal - and affect nutrient intake at a time when a diet containing adequate vitamins and minerals, essential fats, protein and energy is crucial for development of the foetus, whatever its sex, as well as the mother's health.

This research should be viewed with caution. After all, Victoria Beckham has three bonny boys and she, for one, seems clearly to contradict the study's findings.