Does Strange Plant Hold Secret of Youth?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 862, 4 January 1930, Page 16

Does Strange Plant Hold Secret of Youth?

ow to live to be a bun_ dred years old and yet l if not look older than forty 1 is ’ doubtless, the life ambition of a large propormm tion of the human race. Ponce de Leon, the Spaniard who sought the fountain of perpetual youth in Florida, was disappointed, but if he had gone to India instead, he might have learned of a strange plant called “Hydrocotyle Asiatica,” long famous for its reputed qualities for promoting longevity. It is a small, herbaceous plant that creeps along the ground like a sweet potato or strawberry vine. The fan-shaped leaves are bright green in tint. The flower is small and purple in colour. Nanddo Narain, a sage of India, asserts that the plant provides a missing ingredient in man’s diet without which man can never wholly control disease. The root has a narcotic quality and is used as a medicine in treating various diseases, but it is to be used only in conjunction with other herbs or medicinal products. The leaves only are recommended for producing longevity, and but one or two a day are said to be sufficient. The leaves are regarded as a brain food rather than a stimulant. Their taste is slightly pungent. While the plant has been known for a long time to the natives of India and Ceylon, yet only recently have the French and British Governments commenced an investigation of its properties as a food and medicine, and its alleged power in increasing the human expectation of life. A German scientist has reported favourably on its rejuvenating attributes and several doctors of the Indian Medical Ser-

vice have given their favourable opinion. Miss Mary Forbes, an Englishwoman who has made a special study of the plant, spent several years of her life in India and was constantly reminded of its valuable properties. After leaving India with a few of the plants and a quantity of seed, she first went to France and tried to grow them in the southern section, where it was sunny apd warm. They failed to thrive, however.

A French chemist who conducted an examination of the plant found that the leaves contained a peculiar property that has a marked energising effect upon the cells of the brain. The French have been growing the plant successfully in Algiers, a hot climate being imperative. The British Government has given a grant of money and land for a college of Ayurvedic research iu Ceylon, as the Hydrocotyle Asiatica is regarded as one of the most valuable medicines in that science. Miss Forbes has introduced the plant to America and four original plants have increased to 20 healthy specimens.

The natives of Ceylon firmly believe that the reason why the elephants in their wild state keep their youth and strength for hundreds of years is their fondness for the hydrocotyle plant which grows in profusion in the jungles. Some of them insist that an elephant in the wild state will live indefinitely, arguing that no one has yet found the skeleton or body of a wild elephant. Nature has provided food for both the body and the brain. The hydrocotyle, Miss Forbes thinks, is one of the brain foods. She has found by experience that a leaf or two, eaten raw each day, has a rejuvenating effect. She warns, however, that a correct diet must be followed in conjunction, with neither overeating nor undereating. The body must also have a daily sunbath, and as regularly as the water bath.

With proper use of the hydrocotyle, in 1 Miss Forbes’s opinion, there will be less danger of a nervous breakdown, better control of disease and a postponement of old age.