Curd
An Ancient Wonder food, curd or yoghurt is strongly antibacterial. Although it has nutritive content similar to fresh milk, it has extensive special values for therapeutic purposes. During the process of making curd, bacteria convert milk into curd, and predigest milk protein.
These bacteria then inhibit the growth of hostile or illness-causing bacteria inside the intestinal tract and promote beneficial bacteria needed for digestion. Buttermilk, which has same nutritive and curative values as curd, is prepared by churning curd and adding some water, removing the fat in the form of butter.
The germs, which give rise to infection and inflammation such as those, that cause appendicitis, diarrhea and dysentery, cannot thrive in the presence of lactic acid found in curd and buttermilk. A daily intake of 225 grams of curd reduces colds and other upper respiratory infections in humans.
Moringa (Drumstick)
The Moringa (drumstick) is a fairly common vegetable grown all over India. It is valued mainly for the tender pod. It is antibacterial and a wonderful cleanser. The leaves of drumstick tree are especially beneficial in the treatment of many ailments due to their various medicinal properties. They are full of iron and used as food.
Moringa (Drumstick) soup prepared from leaves and flowers, as well as boiled Moringa (drumsticks), is a very valuable antibiotic food. It has been found highly beneficial in preventing infections of all kinds such as that of the throat, chest and skin. This is because drumstick has antibacterial properties very much like penicillin and other antibiotics.
Eggplant Leaves
The eggplant, also known as brinjal, is botanically a fruit but extensively used as a culinary vegetable. It is wholesome and is grown all over India in all seasons of the year. This vegetable is an antibacterial and antiphlegmatic food.
The leaves of this plant are an antibacterial food. They are an effective medicine for several infectious and viral diseases. They can be beneficially used in the treatment of whooping cough, bronchitis, congestion in the lungs and difficult expectoration. Haifa tablespoonful of fresh juice mixed with honey should be given three times daily in treating these conditions. The juice extracted from the root may also be mixed with leaf juice to increase its medicinal effects.
Garlic
Garlic was the first antibiotic food that was used against germs. The garlic, a garden vegetable of the onion family, has been cultivated from time immemorial. It has been variously described as a food, a herb, a medicinal plant, an antiseptic, and a magical antidote to evil by various people at different times throughout the ages. It is an important condiment crop.
Garlic is one of the nature’s strongest, antibacterial foods. Tests show that garlic kills or cripples at least 72 infection bacteria that spread diarrhea, dysentery, tuberculosis and encephalitis, among other diseases.
Dr. Tariq Abdullah, a prominent Indian garlic researcher from the Akbar Clinic and Research Center in Panama city, Florida, said in the August 1987 issue of Prevention magazine: “Garlic has the broadest spectrum of any antimicrobial substance that we know of its antibacterial, anti-fungal, antiparasitic, anti-protozoan, antiviral.” Researchers have even found raw garlic extract in rats were more effective than the common antibiotic tetracycline.
Infections like cholera, typhoid and dysentery caused by organisms can readily become resistant to antibiotic therapy. They are all life threatening and are still endemic in many countries today. Garlic is one of the most effective remedies for these disorders. Its action has been confirmed against the specific classes of bacteria responsible for these diseases in laboratory test.
Garlic has another important benefit. Antibiotics usually kill all bacteria in the human system, including some that are beneficial. This can create many new problems. After a short while, harmful bacteria may occupy the vacant sites left by the beneficial bacteria, which have been removed. It is quite common for patient on antibiotic therapy to find that another infection, such as Candida, takes over. A sore mouth or throat can often be the sign that a secondary infection of another type has occurred after a course of antibiotic. In case of garlic, while the harmful bacteria may be successfully eradicated, the beneficial bacteria do not seem to get eliminated.
Garlic works as an antibiotic in various forms. Raw garlic taken orally kills infectious bacteria in the intestines directly. Crushed garlic in water as a douche or a clove of garlic inserted in vagina kills infectious organisms in the vaginal tract. Garlic nose drops directly kill the viruses, which cause cold or influenza. Bacteria and viruses in the lungs and bronchial tract can be killed by Garlic’s sulphur compounds, absorbed either through food, or inhalation or poultices, and then excreted through the lungs.
According to Dr. F. W.Crosman, an eminent physician, garlic is a marvelous remedy for pneumonia, if given in sufficient quantities. This physician used garlic for many years in pneumonia, and said that in no instance did it fail to bring down the temperature as well as the pulse and respiration, within 48 hours. Garlic juice can also be applied externally to the chest with beneficial results, as it is an irritant and rubefacient.
Garlic can also be used beneficially in the treatment of earache and discharge from the ear arising from middle-ear infection. A few cloves should be warmed and mashed with salt. This mixture should be wrapped in a piece of woolen cloth and placed on the painful ear. Simultaneously, two or three cloves of garlic should be chewed daily for few days.
Garlic oil is also a popular remedy for earache. If garlic oil is not available, a few peeled cloves of garlic can be put in a tablespoon of any sweet oil, except groundnut oil. This oil should be heated, till the oil becomes brown with charred garlic pieces. The oil should then be filtered and cooled and a few drops should be put in the affected ear for immediate relief.