Fruits for Health: Recipes for Cough Syrup, Teas, Face Masks and More

Image Gallery Looking for a natural way to soothe a sunburn, quell a cough or even knock out a migraine? “Grow Your Own Drugs” has the plant for the job! Author James Wong distills the knowledge of herbal practitioners with the most up-to-date scientific findings on herbal medicine to provide reliable information about plants, flowers, fruits, roots and the host of natural remedies you can make from them. You don’t need a state-of-the-art laboratory or a stock of exotic plants — just a kitchen stove, a few minutes, and ingredients as common as the fresh foods on your counter. COVER: READER’S DIGEST

The following is an excerpt from Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong (Reader’s Digest, 2009). Packed with elegant photographs, this lively, practical guide will shift your focus from seeing plants as just a pretty backdrop to life to seeing them as solutions in life. Wong includes instructions for concocting all types of herbal remedies — infusions, tinctures, salves, decoctions — along with an index of the top 100 medicinal plants and more than 100 recipes that unleash the power of plants to treat everyday ailments. 

(For your convenience, we’ve converted all ingredients from British to American measurements. — MOTHER) 

Cherry Cough Syrup Recipe

Honey is the magic ingredient in this soothing syrup, but the cherries and lemon add a zingy punch of vitamin C.

Ingredients: 

3 3/4 cups cherries (leave the pits in)
1 lemon, sliced
1 cup honey 

Instructions: 

Place all ingredients in a pan with enough water to cover. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes, or until the cherries are soft. Remove from the heat and strain out the solids, then allow to cool. Pour into a sterilized bottle.

Take 2 tablespoons, as required, to soothe coughing. Keeps for several days in the refrigerator.

Cranberry and Apple Crush Recipe

Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a sharp, sour fruit grown mostly in wet meadows in North America. Although perhaps best known as an accompaniment to Christmas dinner, it has a long history of treating cystitis and other urinary tract infections. It is thought to work by preventing bacteria from sticking to the lining of the urinary tract and increasing the acidity of urine. If you suffer recurrent bouts of cystitis, regularly drinking homemade cranberry juice can help prevent further outbreaks (commercial juices are usually high in sugar). Cranberry is also used to help relieve the symptoms of acute attacks of cystitis, but you check with your family doctor first to make sure it is cystitis and nothing more serious.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cranberries
3/4 cup clear apple juice
1 cup water 

Instructions: 

Put all ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. Simmer until cranberries are soft. Strain. Drink as often as necessary, adding a little sugar to taste.

Elderberry Throat Gel Recipe

Elderflowers are often made into health-giving cordials and teas, but tiny black elderberries (Sambucus nigra) are less commonly used — perhaps because they have a very short season. However, the berries contain many of the same essential compounds as the flowers and are traditionally used as an anti-inflammatory to soothe coughs, sore throats and bronchial infections, and to make sinus conditions looser. Elderberry has powerful antiviral properties that combat various flu strains and have been shown to shorten the duration of flu attacks, so it is extremely useful for children and the elderly during winter months.