During this time of Coronavirus, we have used many herbs to build our immunity, but one wonderful herb that everyone is talking about is Giloy. This herb is useful not just for Corona, but is also excellent to treat dengue, chikungunya, diabetes and other chronic ailments.
You will meet many people these days who recommend taking Giloy or the kadha made from Giloy. The question naturally arises about how effective it really is.
I recommend it heavily for all kinds of ailments, especially for those that have left you baffled or for which you need intensive investigations in a large hospital. This wonder herb is today’s Sanjeevani booti, a kind ofRamBaan. This wonder herb works to cure all kinds of ailments without any side-effects. However, it is beneficial only when it is used in the right way, and it’s decoction prepared in the correct manner using the right part of the plant.
Giloy, known by the scientific name, Tinospora cordifolia, is a kind of climber and you don’t ever use its leaves, but only the stem. The leaves do not have much clinical importance, so the stem of the creeper is what you should concentrate upon.
How do you recognise that the plant is a genuine one and is, indeed, the Giloy plant? There is a simple test to ascertain this. Just cut the stem and you will see that the inside pattern of the stem resembles the wheel of a cycle. Because of this design on its stem, it is also called Chakrangi. The stem is rather dry from outside, but as soon as you cut it, you will find that it is almost wet and very tender and fresh from inside.
Try and obtain a stem which is thick, almost as thick as your thumb. It is not of much use if you use a tender shoot of the plant, because that does not have all the properties of the mature plant.
The next step is to prepare a decoction from the stems. Take a 1 foot long stem of the plant and chop it into 1 inch pieces.
Now crush these pieces with a blunt object and soak overnight in two cups of water. Boil this and allow it to become half its original quantity. Now, your giloy decoction is ready to drink. If you don’t find this drink appetising, or you have a problem with bloating or gas when you drink it, you can add some ajwain to it to improve its taste and make it easier to digest.
In shops that stock Ayurvedic medicines, you can also get it in tablet form. You can have this tablet, but the best form in which it is readily absorbed by the body is when you drink the decoction prepared by boiling its stem in water as outlined earlier.
However, if you are not able to procure the fresh stem, then you can go in for the tablet form.
There is another medicine available in Ayurvedic shops called Amrit Ras. This is quite beneficial as it has a lot of herbs mixed in it and is especially useful for those patients who have a problem with their blood platelet count. You can also use this when you are suffering from weakness.
Go ahead and take Giloy. It increases your immunity and safeguards you from all kinds of ailments. It is high in anti-viral properties and neutralises all kinds of viruses. For instance in Dengue fever, it kills the virus which decreases platelet counts; once the virus is dead, the platelets increase once again. So Giloy is a proven anti-viral that also attacks a whole lot of other bacteria which can be present in your body.
However don’t just eat it in any form — there is a way to prepare it and only when it is taken in the right proportion and prepared in the right manner, does it become a Sanjeevani booti.
My experience with Giloy is that it is such a wonderful herb that even if you are ill with a strange illness and your consultant and hospital is still trying to figure out what is wrong by conducting various tests, you should go ahead and have it — chances are that it will cure you before your test reports come in!
Dr Parmeshwar Arora, a renowned ayurvedic doctor and a lifestyle coach for more than 20 years, has been working tirelessly all through the Covid-19 crisis to spread awareness on how people can defeat the virus. Presently he is Senior Consultant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and heads his organisation Ath Ayurdhamah located in Gurgaon.