Powder five cloves and five black peppers finely. Add a cup of hot water and salt to it. Use this mixture when the condition is acute

HIgh blood-pressure can be cured by the daily in-take of pepper powder mixed with butter, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach for 48 days.

Chewing a piece of tamarind with salt and pepper is effective for curing morning sickness and indigestion.

Take ripe papaya fruit (sliced) mix it with a little each of cummin seed powder, pepper powder, and salt and eat it daily. This will cure constipation, indigestion, and worm trouble.

Tonsillitis can be cured as follows: Grind together the leaves of "Thumbe" plant, a little pepper and garlic and let the patient eat it for 3 days.

For tooth-ache grind tulasi leaves along with a little pepper and place this paste between the affected teeth or cavity.

During a cholera epidemic take 10-15 leaves of tulasi and chew and eat them along with a little pepper daily in the mornings. This acts as a prophylactic dose against cholera.

Take 50 gms. of garlic and grind it fine. Add to it 3 gms. each of “Pippali” (Piper longum), burnt asafoetida (hing), saindavalavana, common salt, pepper, ginger, cummin seeds and grind it to a fine paste. Prepare half inch size tablets out of this paste. Swallow two of these tablets, one in the morning and another in the evening together with a little water or the decoction (kasaya) of the roots of shoe flower plant. (84 days). This will help to cure paralysis, rheumatism etc.

Grind together one onion and 3-4 cloves of pepper in a little water, strain and put a few drops in the nostril opposite to the side of head-ache.

When the weather turns cold, it's tempting to dive fork-first into rich, heavy comfort foods. Want of meals that are delicious and satisfying, it's more important than ever to make sure that what you're eating is also well-balanced and nutritious.

- Cold weather foods tend to be fattening. Think of the toasts, gravies, mashed potatoes, stuffings, meat, heavy breads and rich desserts of winter. They're a lot heavier than the grilled skinned chicken breasts, salads, fresh vegetables and fresh fruits of warm weather days.

- Food also has a thermal property. Ginger, garlic, most grains like wheat, jowar, bajra, sarson, pepper, mustard and many more have a warming effect on the body. Dates, honey and jaggery are sweetners that also have a warming effect on the body. All animal products are essentially warming.

- Take dry ginger and long pepper in equal quantity (100 gms each).

- Grind it to a fine powder

- Mix it with about 100 ml of pure jaggery powder (now available in the market).

- Store the resulting powder in an airtight bottle.

- Take half a teaspoon by slowly licking it. You can add a little honey to it to sweeten it and make it easier to eat it especially for kids.

If a person is prone to persistant cough which doesn't subside despite medication, he can try out these home remedies :

1. Take 2 teaspoons of ground and powdered black pepper.

2. Take 2 tablespoons of sugar.

3. Take 1 cup of water. Put the sugar and pepper in the water and boil it till the quantity is reduced to half a cup.

If this mixture is consumed regularly for seven days, the cough will diappear.