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Avocado - Natural Benefits and Curative Properties

Botanical Name :: : Persea americana

Indian Name :: Kulu Niispati or Mlikhanphal

Other English Names :: Alligator Pear, Butter Fruit

Description

The avocado is a large fleshy pear-shaped berry. It has a single large seed surrounded by buttery pulp and a hard skin. It is yellowish-green to maroon and purple in color. The avocado tree is evergreen. It is shallow-rooted and there are no visible root hairs. It has spirally-arranged leaves, variable in shape and size and fragrant yellowish flowers

Origin and Distribution

Food Value

The avocado contains more fat than any other fruit except the olive. Its fat is of the highest quality, wholly free from the unpleasant butyric acid with which many fats are contaminated. It contains a sufficient amount of vitamin A to maintain high resistance against bacterial infection, a quality possessed by few vegetable fats

Avocado*

The protein of avocado is of the finest quality and is much superior to protein of bread and other cereal foods.Its composition is almost identical with that of milk. In fact, the pulp of the fruit is so free from fibre that it forms, with water, a fine emulsion which Closely resembles milk in consistency and appearance. With the exception of an excess of fat and the lack of vitamin C, it may serve as a very satisfactory substitute for dairy milk. Prepared thus, the avocado may be given safely to young infants and to the feeble invalids

Natural Benefits and Curative Properties

The avocado possesses virtues of extraordinary character. For purity, wholesomeness, ease of digestibility and adaptation to human needs, it has few rivals

• Digestive System Disorders :- The avocado is an excellent food remedy in acute digestive disorders. Its blandness is comforting to the hypersensitive surfaces of the stomach and duodenum, and its abundant vitamins reanimate the inflamed and crippled cells. The physicians in China have, for centuries, prescribed the juice of this .fruit for colic and chills in the stomach. The Japanese employ the same remedy to treat ulceration of the intestines.
  The avocado is an efficient aid in changing the intestinal flora to combat autointoxication, colitis, and biliousness. In cases.of hyperacidity with sour stomach, avocado and well ripened papaya should be used as a staple diet. These two fruits are most appropriate foods in cases of duodenal and duodenal ulcer, because they are bland or soothing to the sensitive membrane and pass quickly into the intestine.

• Bad Breath :- The avocado is far superior to any mouth lotion or remedies for bad breath. It effectively removes intestinal putrefaction or decomposition which is the real cause of a coated tongue and bad breath.
• Bright's Disease :- The avocado is especially useful as a staple food in cases of Bright's disease because of its small protein content and with none of the poisonous extractives present in the flesh of this fruit.
• Psoriasis :- The oil.of avocado is considered beneficial in treatment of psoriasis. It should be applied gently to the affected pans. It helps in taking the scales off.
• Beauty Aid :- The oil extracted from the avocado is employed in the preparation of cosmetics. A wide range of beauty aids with an avocado base are now available. These include creams, cleansers and, moisturizers to prevent the ageing effect of dehydration, skin foods, bath oils, shampoos which give a rich lather and act as a scalp conditioner and revitalize dull hair

Precaution

As avocados become sour when cooked and cannot successfully survive freezing, they should be eaten raw and as fresh as possible. If they have to be kept for a short time, they should be stored at room temperature and not in a refrigerator.