It has always seemed SUCH a waste to me - the squeezed out citrus peels. Yes, we compost them but I have always had a sneaking feeling there was more to them than my annual batch of Pomelo-Ginger Marmalade. And we get through such an absurd amount of citrus here in Asia, where lime is added to everything and stupid cheap, and the little tangerines are in season most of the year.
Enter Dr Zach Bush. I freely admit to being a groupie after hearing him speak online several times during the beginning phases of Covid-19. And it was from him that I learned about the incredible healing powers of citrus skins - and that they can and should be boiled out and used as a natural medicine.
In fact, I distinctly remember the interview where Dr Zach Bush suggested that this would be HIS go-to preventative medicine for most things viral and contagious.
Never one to just go on someone else's say so, I did some reading:
Dried tangerine peel (Citri reticulatae) is used as traditional Chinese medicine, pericarpium called chen-pi to cure a wide array of ailments, including bronchial asthma, dyspepsia, and cardiac circulation, (China Pharmacopoeia Committee, 2010). A number of scientific studies report it as a rich source of many flavonoids, especially flavanone glycosides and polymethoxy flavones, which play a great contribution in protection against life threatening diseases such as cancer, atherogenesis, (Tripoli et al., 2007; Benavente-Garcia and Castillo, 2008) and neuro-degeneration disorders (Youdim et al., 2004; Hwang et al., 2012). Source
The citrus flavonoids have been found to have a health-related property, which include anticancer, antiviral and antiinflammatory activities, reduce capillary fragility, and restricts human platelet aggregation (Huet, 1982, Benavente-Garcia et al., 1997). Source
...a reduced risk in development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis have consistently been reported in numerous epidemiological studies (Glass et al., 2010). These natural compounds possessed neuroprotective ability and resulted suppression of activated microglia-mediated neuroinflammation. Source
Let me see.... neuro-protective, anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-bacterial....? 🤔
SOLD.
So how do I use them in my day to day?? They're biter and taste pretty awful if you chomp on them just like that.
I boil them out with a few slices of fresh ginger, for maybe 15 mins. Make sure your limes-tangerines-oranges-lemons-grapefruits are organic. It can become VERY bitter, so just 3-4 limes per pot of water is tons.
When they're cooked through, turn off the heat and add some coconut sugar, or raw natural honey, or pure maple sypup.
Drink it down warm of you have a cold coming on.... vastly improved by a large splosh of rum, whiskey or brandy!
Or keep it cool in the fridge and make it a daily preventative health drink.
So simple, so easy and SUCH a helpful thing we can do for ourselves. AND you can still compost the citrus peels later, after they've been used for your natural medicine.
I'm thinking more about the Chinese customs of preserved cumquats and candied peel as expensive health gifts at the Autumn festval, and I'm constantly thinking how progressive their ancient healing culture was. I mean, what better to share as the days get cooler and colds & sniffles abound?
If you've not seen or heard much from Dr Zach Bush before, I highly recommend him! Lots of valuable content online to share and enjoy... this one seems rather relevant to the citrus peel preventative medicine thought.
Get Your FREE Hive Account
I wish I could grow ginger. I wonder if I could make a kind of tropical microclimate. 🤔
Sure you can!! A tiny wee version of @riverflows polytunnel and you can grow all the ginger you like! Jsu a simple timber frame with roll up plastic on one or two sides for hot weather so it doesn't cook...
It IS rather amazing having all this tropical herbal yummy stuff gwowing like weeds everywhere - I KNOW that the arid dry Australia 'thing' would never appeal anymore have had a tropical garden.
I look forward to your posts about creating microclimates.... 😆
!ENGAGE 10
ENGAGEtokens.I find Zach Bush incredibly inspiring! And he makes me hopeful too, just coz he's so passionate.
Boiling lime peels. Gotcha. Will do. Yup. I have a tree LOADED with them - and we've been drinking them like no body's business. I make a fertiliser from them for the citrus trees but dont put them in the compost as the worms aren't meant to like them, unless that's an urban myth - they seem to steer clear of mine in the worm farm though.
Funny, every time I see limes I think of you! Always reminding me of their value for immunity.
Just gotta get some ginger in.
Zach is educated, cohesive, a joiner of dots, pasisonate, community and all about empowerment, education and natural medicine - seriously what's not to love??!! I'm guessing after boiling out the string and bitter tasting oils, the worms will be fine with the remains of the citrus. Thai worms don't seem to be that picky... 😆
Poly tunnel will be great for ginger!!
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.I’ve been consuming a lime or two a day for about two months and I love the little things. This little concoction sounds great, I wish I could get them cheap and organic though. I have to get conventional ones at the moment, so I don’t think I want to boil them but that’s a great way to use the citrus peels!
Funny thing with our compost pile, it’s been doing so well and warm that a little avocado tree is trying to grow! Poor thing will die in the frost but it was really nice to see. Hopefully next year I can get one to grow earlier and potentially be strong enough to possibly survive!
I think you could easily pop that brave little avocado into a pot and bring it inside for the winter - give it a chance. Isn't nature miraculous??? Yes, after 2-3 years they DO tolerate a little frost and cold conditions - they thrive on it here in the Thai mountains where it's not uncommon to reach 1-2C overnight in Deember-January.
Limes have such brilliant flavour, no? Glad oyu're enjoying them too.
!ENGAGE 25
With the winters here in Boston, it’s near the frost temperatures from November to about March, I don’t know if the little guy will make it! We unfortunately live in a small condo with no garage so we try not to keep any plants inside the house, we tend to trip on them lol.
I used to prefer lemons but after this summer I am definitely on the lime train! They have such a good flavor, better than lemons I think. I enjoy lemon but the flavor isn’t as good in some of the lemons as it’s consistently been with the limes.
ENGAGEtokens.This post has been manually curated by @steemflow from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share 80 % of the curation rewards with the delegators.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
Read our latest announcement post to get more information.
Please contribute to the community by upvoting this comment and posts made by @indiaunited.
Appreciating your constant support @steemflow - thank you.
!ENGAGE 15
ENGAGEtokens.We have another version of the lime in the Philippines called Kalamansi and we extract the juice to make it into tea. Good for flu, colds or when someone is coughing. They are smaller than lime but has a very powerful citrus taste. I will try lime with ginger just like what you said. Thanks for sharing.