Grandmother's Home Remedies From the Kitchen and Backyard

When we were kids, our grandmother used to treat us with items from the kitchen shelf for minor ailments. They mostly cured us of the ailment like stomach upset, burning urination, bee stings, cough and all. They were very simple and they worked. There was only one Doctor in our home town then and visits to the doctor was when we were very ill.

These are some of grandmother's home remedies from the kitchen shelf and the backyard. Hope you will find them useful.

Children love to play outside, even in hot burning sun... and grown-ups need to work under the open sun sometimes which causes dehydration and subsequent burning urination...

A simple remedy by grandmother for burning urination is to make us drink glasses of hot water...!!!

Boil water and drink one or two glasses of hot water. The water can be as hot as possible to drink like coffee or tea. Within five to ten minutes you will find relief from burning urination

Ginger juice mixed with honey is one of the most common remedy advised by grandmother for cough.

• Take a piece of ginger and remove the skin
• Extract the juice using a mixer grinder
• Leave this extract undisturbed for about ten to fifteen minutes
• Drain out the juice.
• You will find a white paste-like deposit at the bottom. Discard this deposit
• Mix a spoonful of honey (or sugar) and drink

For stomach upsets and loose motion, we used to take a tablespoon of fenugreek seeds and swallow it with drinking water two or three times in a day, which normally cures stomach upset and loose motion. Curd rice or rice kanchi (Rice Cereal with lots of liquid) is the menu during stomach upsets.

Here is the grandmother's remedy for acidity and gas problem

What you need

• Half a fresh lemon
• One teaspoon of baking soda
• Salt to taste (optional)
• One glass of drinking water

Squeeze out the juice from the lemon. Add salt and lemon juice to the glass of water. Add one teaspoon of baking soda, stir and drink the bubbling water immediately.

Cuts and bruises were normal in children. Apply a small amount of turmeric powder over the bruise. The wound will be cured within few days.

Playing in the dust and eating things like raw mangoes or raw tamarind fruit some times cause very sore throat. Our grandmother used to bring a burning wood and asked us to spit on it and inhale the vapor. The relief from sore throat was instant.

For ear ache, collect a raw bark from the stem of a Banana tree and heat it over flame. Squeeze out the juice and add few drops in your ear. You will find relief from ear ache.

Keeping a garlic clove in your ear will give relief to ear infection. Do not shuck the garlic, which may cause burns in your ear.

Collect the edible stem of the banana tree. You can find a matured stem after harvesting the banana. Cut the stem into small pieces. Using your mixer grinder, extract the juice.

Drinking this juice is a sure remedy for kidney stones. You can add a little bit of salt if you feel like.

When you are stung by a bee, do not panic

• Simply remove the bee and let it fly away (anyhow it will die after stinging)
• The bee's stinger will remain in the area where you are stung
• Do not press. Just pull out the stinger. You can use a nail cutter or a needle
• You will find little swelling in the area
• Cut an onion into half
• Rub over the area where you got stung

You will get relief shortly.

For puffy and reddish eyes, pluck a fresh crape jasmine flower and keep it on your eyes. This flower is known to have medicinal properties and will cure puffy and reddish eyes. Take care that the milky juice from the stem do not get in to your eyes.

Grandmother used to make this paste from custard apple seeds to get rid of lice

• Collect custard apple seeds
• Crush them into a powder. It is very difficult to make a fine powder of the dried seeds.
• Add little water and make a workable paste
• Apply this paste on your hair before going to bed
• Wash thoroughly in the morning
• Three to four applications of this paste will get rid of all lice from the hair.

A word of caution here...

Custard apple is a very tasty fruit, but the seeds are toxic. So, take care to cleanly wash all equipment you have used to make the paste. Also take care not to get this paste in your eyes or mouth.

Blocked nose or nasal congestion may be due to cold, fever or allergies and you may find it very difficult to breath. Here is a simple home remedy used by grandmother to clear nose blockage.

• Take a grain of black pepper and insert a needle in it
• Hold the black pepper over flame
• Inhale the pepper smoke
• Your nose blockage will be cleared instantly

Take necessary treatment for the ailment you are suffering from which caused the nasal congestion.

For  diarrhea, we used to take roasted cumin seed powder with buttermilk.

How to make buttermilk

• Take one cup of curd and add equal amount of water
• Beat the mixture well in a mixer grinder. Do not over do, or the butter will melt
• Remove the butter from the top
• Butter milk is ready

• Take a Teaspoon of cumin seeds and lightly roast them
• Powder the roasted cumin seeds

Drink roasted cumin seed powder with buttermilk. You can drink as much buttermilk as you like. It will make up for dehydration. You can also add sugar or salt to your own taste.

A simple cure for indigestion

Take about half a teaspoon of asafoetida powder, mix with one glass of water and drink. This will solve the indigestion problem.

Take light food only. Normally we used to take Rice Kanji (Homemade Rice Cereal) when we are suffering from stomach problems.

Grandmothers used to find remedies for most of the ailments from the kitchen shelf and from the plants in the backyard. Most of these home remedies were forgotten and buried with grandmothers. Hope you will find these recipes useful. I Wish to update this instructable whenever I come across such home remedies in future also.