India Herbs

My maternal grandmother was an enigmatic woman.  I remember Ammumma very vividly.  She bore the disposition of a noblewoman, an almost pompous facade when she carried herself.  The skin around her eyes were dark and wrinkly, like that of a prune, yet they were kind and deeply glowed like a fireplace on Christmas eve.

“Why do you need to see a doctor for? The clinic is in my kitchen..!” she quipped as I clutched my abdomen, grimacing as the pain shot through my lower body like the excrutiating feeling of a single rattan strip slapping against bare skin.  I was eleven years old then.  The night before, I had a hot plate of “char kway teow”, a local delicacy made of from flat rice noodles, fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, prawns, cockles, egg, bean sprouts and Chinese chives.  I hate cockles.  I had forgotten to tell the cook to avoid adding it in.  Yet despite my devoted repulsion of the hermaphroditic mollusc, my uncontrollable hunger( bordering to the point of passing out) blinded my judgement and logic.

And so, while most people were delightfully snoring away in the middle of the night, I was spending a good portion of it in the toilet, throwing up while suffering a splitting headache and a severe case of diarrohoea; or as how my dear father would put it, “giving the dog a bone”.

Ammumma smiled and held out her hand to me.  When I put my hands in hers,  I felt a softness under her hard-skin, caused by the constant pounding of the tools of her trade, the pestle and mortar, for more than half a century.  Her hands were old, bony and mottled, yet they gripped me with an unexpected strength and a sense of familiarity that reminded me of my mother.

As she led me to her kitchen, the aromatic scent of herbs and spices floated throughout the room.  I stood in the centre and as I turned around the center of the room, a momentary sense of euphoria took over me as the musky aromas wafted uniformly and aroused my senses.

She sat me down on a weathered wooden stool and brought over a small jar of fine table-sugar and a small stem of ginger that was barely the size of my thumb.  She placed a tablespoon of sugar and the ginger-stem into her trusted pestle and mortar. Then, in a swift move that defied her age and assembly, she ground the contents vigorously into a fine paste in less than 2 minutes and left it to marinate under the sunlight that seeped through the louvered windows of her kitchen.  As the mixture swathed in the warm rays of the sun, a light yet delightful bouquet sifted itself across the heavily scented kitchen.  She scooped an ounce of boiling water she was preparing in a claypot and added it to the mixture. After stirring it gently in the mortar, she emptied the mixture into a tea-sock made of cheescloth and squeezed the decotion into a metallic tumbler, traditionally used to serve freshly brewed coffee in her home.

She told me to drink it immediately and as I swallowed the pungent brew, it expolded into plethora of flavours. Almost irresistable, I even dare say. 

“Go and lie down under the fan in my room and take a short nap,” she said. I did.

3 hours later, I awoke feeling rejuvenated.  No more nausea.  No more diarrhoea.  No more headache.  I ran back to the kitchen to see her brewing some ginger-tea.  I asked her how she did it.  She replied,”Respect GOD’s gifts of Nature and they will return that respect.”  I had no idea what she was raving about.  ”You’re mad,” I said to myself silently.  However, it was to make sense in the future.

In my formative years and thanks to a degree in biochemistry and microbiology,  I found out that ginger has been used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine for eons.  Gingerols, the active components of ginger, represent a potential new class of platelet activation inhibitors.  The rhizome itself has strong anti-inflammatory properties that block the manufacture of prostaglandins in the body, decreasing the inflammation of blood vessels in the brain.  It has a strong stimulating effect on the heart and circulation, increasing thermogenesis especially during cold weather.  Ginger also helps fight anxiety, mental instability and restlessness, all stumbling blocks to enjoyable sex.  Elevated quantities of gingerol serve as an effective stress neutralizer by helping to reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol while improving appetite and digestion and relieving nausea.  Ayurvedic doctors rely on ginger as a “carrier” herb that enables other herbs to react more effectively in the body.

Which prompted me to think that…………..there was method behind Ammumma’s madness after all.

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