Summer Fruits

By Dr. Leo Rebello

In summer, when heat becomes oppressive, exotic fruits bloom in plenty. But the Pepsi-Coca Cola generation knows very little about the health properties of these fruits. Given below are six fruits which are abundantly available in summer and their medicinal values.

Jambul or the Black Plum fruit is useful in spleen enlargement. The seed of the fruit is also used as a remedy in diabetes : it diminishes the quantity of sugar in urine and allays the unquenchable thirst. Juice of the tender leaves is given in goat's milk in the diarrhoea of children.

The luscious Litchi or Leechi or Chinese Hazelnut is a very delicious fruit. May-June is the season for Litchi. It is a subtropical fruit and cooling, demulcent and aphrodisiac. Thirst quencher and good in fevers.

Mango - this tasty fruit indigenous to India is the king of the fruit being highly rich in vitamin C and A. The ripe mango tones the heart, improves complexion, stimulates hunger, improves vision, and is helpful in liver disorders, loss of weight and other physical disturbances.

The tender leaves dried and made into a powder are useful in diabetes. Juice of the bark, two ounces, mixed with half ounce of lime water given for seven days is a sovereign remedy in acute gonorrhoea. In cases of asthma, diarrhoea, chronic dysentery, leucorrhoea, bleeding piles, round worms, etc. powdered seed or kernel is given in doses of about 20 to 30 grains with or without honey. The popular amchur (made from green/unripe mangoes) is very effective in scurvy and pyorrhea.

Muskmelon fruit is diuretic, nutrient, laxative and antilithic. It is therefore used in scanty urination due to sodium retention, constipation, stones and gravel in kidney and bladder. Rich in Vitamin A. It should be eaten with honey or salt and pepper. It is good to increase breast milk. It strengthens heart and increases longevity. Eaten with jaggery it cures all kinds of skin diseases. Seeds are used to dissolve excessive uric acid. The milk of the seeds with honey and dates is aphrodisiac and increases the secretion of semen and consequently the sexual desire.

Orange is one of Nature's finest gifts to man. The sweeter the orange, the greater its food value. Orange is an "anti-dote" to the bad effects of meat eating, as also in combating the inroads of agination. Orange juice by exciting peristaltic movement does not allow accumulation of food residues in the colon which lead to putrefaction and auto-intoxication. Orange is also good in typhoid fever, as also in bottle-fed baby diseases like scurvy, rickets and pellagra.

Watermelon is delicious and health building fruit. It is valuable on account of the large amount of easily assimilable sugar found in its juice. Its value further lies in its being an alkaline food, and may thus be eaten freely by persons with acidosis. Juice quenches thirst and is used in typhus fever as an antiseptic. It is a useful cooling drink in stranguary and affections of the urinary organs, like gonorrhoea, etc. also in hepatic congestion and intestinal catarrh. Total food value is in the juice, which is rich in Vitamins A., B and C. Guards against high BP.

Persons suffering from hysteria, insomnia, insanity and mental retardation may do the following:

Cut the water melon into equal halves. Scoop the pulp. Use the water melon cap (like helmet on the shaved head) for three hours. Do this 3 to 4 times a day for 4 days for first three diseases. For mental retardation it may be done once in the morning, once at night along with constitutional homoepathy, yoga and music therapy for long.