Coffee as an Herbal Medicine
Sultana.
* Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee. All of Latin America’s coffee industry emerged from one tree in a Dutch botanical garden.
* In Jamaica, the rats often chew the fruit off of the coffee berry. The kernels fall to the ground and are gathered to make a brew called “rat coffee”.
* In Sumatra coffee leaves are dried on of bamboo strips over a fire, then powdered and infused. Coffee leaves are reputed to have as much caffeine as the beans.
* In Turkey the inability of a man to give his wife enough coffee is considered grounds for divorce. (no pun intended)
* The name Coffee comes from Caffa, an Abyssinian province.
* By the 1400s Mecca had several coffee houses.
* Most Arab coffee was shipped through a port called Mocha. Arabs were forbidden to export the plant but in the 1600s the Dutch smuggled out some coffee starts to the island of Java. This was presumably the first “cup of java”. In 1652 the first Coffee shop was opened in London
* After hearing that coffee was “the Devil’s potion”, Pope Clement VIII tried a cup and declared it to be “so delicious that it would be a pity to allow the Muslim infidels to have exclusive use of it.” He then baptized the coffee to make it a Christian beverage. Even Martin Luther agreed with this. About the same time J.S. Bach wrote his Coffee Concerto.
* Coffee was brought to Hawai’i by Don Marin in 1813 or by a “Frenchman” to Manoa Valley in 1823, depending on who you ask.
AND FINALLY, FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SLEEP… A FEW QUOTES:
* From the 19th century Eclectic Physicians: “Coffee, in strong infusion, without cream or sugar, is one of the first agents to be thought of in opium narcosis… and electricity, and particularly flagellation, resorted to….” – – King’s American Dispensatory (Doctors after my own heart)
* A morning without coffee is like sleep. – – Graffitti
* Far beyond all other pleasures, rarer than jewels or treasures, sweeter than grape from the vine. Yes! Yes! Greatest of pleasures! Coffee, coffee, how I love its flavor, and if you would win my favor, yes! Yes! Let me have coffee, let me have my coffee strong! – – Johan Sebastian Bach
* Coffee! Thou dost dispel all care, thou are the object of desire to the scholar. This is the beverage of the friends of God. — In Praise of Coffee,” Arabic poem (1511)
* He that would drink it for livelinesse sake, and to discusse slothfulnesse, and the other properties that we have mentioned, let him use much sweat meates with it, and oyle of pistaccioes, and butter. Some drink it with milk, but it is an error, and such as may bring in the danger of leprosy. – – Old Arab Text
* Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love. – – Turkish Proverb
Tanskanen A, et al. 2000. Heavy coffee drinking and the risk of suicide. Eur J Epidemiol; 16(9):789-91
Tavani, A., et al. 2000. Coffee and cancer: a review of epidemiological studies, 1990-1999. Eur J Cancer Prev 2000 Aug;9(4):241-56
Abbott, R.D., et al. 2003. Environmental, life-style, and physical precursors of clinical Parkinson’s disease: recent findings from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. J Neurol. 2003 Oct;250 Suppl 3:III30-9
Ragonese P., et al. 2003. A case-control study on cigarette, alcohol, and coffee consumption preceding Parkinson’s disease. Neuroepidemiology Sep-Oct;22(5):297-304
Urgert R. et al, 2000. Heavy coffee consumption and plasma homocysteine: a randomized controlled trial in healthy volunteers. Am J Clin Nutr Nov;72(5):1107-10
Medicine at Your Feet: Healing Plants of the Hawaiian Kingdom by David Bruce Leonard ~ available here: http://tinyurl.com/HerbalMedicineAmazon
David Bruce Leonard is a deep ecologist, body-worker, Qigong practitioner, acupuncturist, martial artist, and plant lover. He has studied medicine with teachers in Asia, North and South America, and Hawai’i.
David believes that our health and the meaning of our lives are inseparable from our interactions with the natural world.
He has worked in a bank, on an oceanographic whale research vessel, and has been seen in public attempting to dance Argentine tango.
David is available for workshops and consultations in the creation of men’s groups and support circles. Private coaching sessions for men or couples are available. He can be reached via his website http://www.DavidBruceLeonard.com.