Ajwain is the tiny, thyme-scented seed that goes into Indian breads, pakoras and bean dishes, and it's one of Ayurveda's and Unani medicine's best-known kitchen remedies for wind and indigestion. Here's what those traditions use it for, what little research there is, how it's taken, and why it's a firm no in pregnancy.
Asafoetida, or hing, is the pungent resin that Indian cooks add by the pinch to beans and lentils, and that Ayurvedic and Persian healers have long used for wind and sluggish digestion. Here's what traditions use it for, what the small trials found, and who should keep it to food amounts.
Caraway is the seed that flavours rye bread and sauerkraut, and Europe's classic after-dinner tea for wind and that over-full feeling. Here's what traditions use it for, what the studies on the caraway-plus-peppermint capsules show, how the EU says to brew it, and who should skip it.
Vitex is the peppery little berry of the chaste tree, used by women for over two thousand years and best known today for the days before a period. In Europe one vitex extract is an approved herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome.
Lavender is the classic calming flower, sipped as a gentle evening tea, added to baths and breathed in from the oil. In Europe the flower tea is an approved traditional remedy for mild stress and to help with sleep.
Gentian root and Swedish bitters are sipped before meals in European tradition to wake up appetite, digestion and bile flow. Here's the history, what the research does and doesn't show, the EU amounts, and why most Swedish bitters are short-term only.
Kiwifruit, prunes, psyllium, mineral-rich water, magnesium, toilet posture and belly massage: the vault's full guide to the natural options people use for constipation, with each one labelled by how good the evidence is and the warning signs that mean see a doctor first.
Peppermint oil, caraway and fennel, low-FODMAP, belly breathing, enzymes and gut-directed hypnotherapy: the vault's full guide to the natural options people use for bloating, with each one labelled by how good the evidence is and the warning signs that mean see a doctor first.
The kitchen herb behind many old-fashioned cough syrups and mouthwashes. Thyme has been used for chesty coughs, sore throats and digestion since ancient Greece, and it's still an approved traditional cough remedy in Europe.
A knobbly green gourd that is everyday food from India and China to the Philippines, and the famously bitter "cerasee" bush tea of Jamaica and the Caribbean. Few plants are used in as many traditional kitchens and medicine systems at once.
