Onion

The onion and its relative, garlic, are members of the lily family. They are some of the oldest known medicinal plants, rich in trace elements, minerals, and sulfur. Remedies using onion date back to 3000 B.C.E.

 Ayurvedic practitioners prescribed onion for cancer and leprosy. Onion stimulates the production of saliva and digestive juices, as well as the flow of tears!

The onion is a pungent, sweet bulb with heating and drying qualities. It is on excellent stimulant, carminative, and expectorant. The juice is disinfectant, rejuvenative, and antispasmodic. Onion has a rejuvenating effect on all tissues and body systems: the digestive, respiratory, nervous, reproductive, and circulatory systems. The main part of the plant used is the bulb.

The onion has been used to treat a brood spectrum of ailments, including but not limited to nerve rejuvenation, colds, skin disease, parasites, bronchial disorders, asthma, joint problems and arthritis, cysts and growths, fluid retention. Onion helps eliminate lead and other heavy metals from the body, and is beneficial for diabetics and patients with cancer.

To obtain health benefits from the onion it can be peeled and eaten raw, cooked, powdered, juiced, taken as a tea, decoction, infusion, in food, and as an oil. Onions are often combined with ginger, black pepper, cumin, coriander, eucalyptus to provide additional health benefits.

The stimulating effect of onions is said to aid in the secretion of digestive juices. Onion juice has been used to treat infected wounds, amebic dysentery, and, at one time, juice applied to the ear was said to cure deafness! Onions may also be used directly on the skin for natural relief from burns. Simply place slices of raw onion on the burned skin, or apply a homemade lotion of onion juice mixed with salt. This preparation is also effective for insect bites and stings. For an antibiotic treatment, peel and eat (raw or cooked) one-quarter of one sweet white onion, two to four times a day. The onion must be chewed, crushed, chopped, or bruised to access its antibiotic properties.