The biological properties of cocoa are widely misunderstood. A Science News article has recently reported that chocolate needs to be looked at in a new light. According to the article, consumers have treated dark chocolate as a good source of the antioxidant flavonoids that appear to reduce blood pressure and perhaps protect people from dangerous …
Capsaicin, the chemical responsible for the hot in hot peppers, now has an additional newly discovered function – it can also reduce pain. In fact, a group of scientists have used chilli to gain an insight into the mechanism behind how our bodies feel pain. Scientists Feng Qin and Jing Yao of the State University …
The word fungus brings to mind gross images, for the most. Green cotton-like growths on breads, damp mildews and diseases. Not to make things more gross, but mushrooms are also fungi (the plural of fungus). Fungi do not usually conjure the image of something deadly or toxic to man, though certain mushrooms are known to …
Aloe Vera Plant (courtesy www.keetsa.com) Aloe. The phrase “aloe vera” brings up the image of something soft and commercials that incessantly interrupt TV shows. While aloe is an ingredient many moisturizers boast of and can’t do without, the many healing powers of this plant remain largely unknown. The product can heal burns and cuts and …
Recently discovered: A toadstool that may take your biological amenities with it Unlike its name, most of the Amanita class of toadstools, provide you with no protein or other amenities. Instead the class bear the toxins that are responsible for more than 90 percent of mushroom-caused fatalities While mushrooms are a tasty protein-rich source and …
(www.acasatorta.wordpress.com) As a food-borne disease, botulism has been eradicated from the United States for the most, but its dangers still lurk in home-processed foods, specially in canned foods. The disease is caused by a very potent toxin that attacks the nervous system, paralyzing its victim. Produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum, the toxin kills by …
This post is an anti-climactic one. It talks about what a herb that was thought so far to have a certain effect, does not actually have that effect. While not the most encouraging, if you were a Ginkgo biloba fan, the importance of such a finding remains because at least it won’t mislead people into …
The first time I popped a jelly belly bean into my mouth, I was taken aback. It was a chilly mango jelly belly and I hadn’t checked. I both admired and resented the audacity of the tiny thing. Chilly – that sensation that makes our tingle is actually more complex than it seems and has …
(Image courtesy of www.sporeflections.wordpress.com) Can you imagine anything worse than being somewhere in public and realizing your breath is loaded with a smell so pungent that it’s offending everyone in a one mile radius from you? It may be fair to say that garlic tops the list there. Yikes. I’ve nightmares about this and think …
