Green Saviour Found In Your Garden- Nochi Elai (Vitex Negundo)!

After hours of staring at the computer screen staying at the same seat, even if we don’t do much physical activity, it definitely leaves out eyes tired and sore!

Our eyes will be always longing for the one big needle striking to ding dong 6.

We just grab our bag, rush to the lift, go down, get the bike and fly to the apartment, finish our bread toast and eggs by watching the highlights of Virat Kohli and after watching 2 episodes of Netflix, our eyelashes fall down to get a dreamy sleep. And Abracadabra!

There comes our uninvited guests in a swarm with a sharp mouth to pierce our skin and drink bellyful of blood. Buzzzzz…Goes the sound when it comes over our eyes, sit on our cheek. Snap! Our hands go bloody! How horrible it is?

How to get rid of these pesky mosquitoes from ruining our sleep?
Do you know that nochi leaf acts as a mosquito repellent? Majority of villages in Tamilnadu now are using nochi leaves as a mosquito repellent in their environment.

Domestic animals like goats and cow don’t go near the shrubs so they are mostly grown in fences of the house.

Apart from acting as a excellent mosquitoe repellent, it also plays a major role in traditional herbal medicine for women’s health, regulate menstrual cycle and postpartum remedies.

It also has anti inflammatory, antibiotic and antiseptic properties. It is called nirgundi in sanskrit which literally means it protects the body from ailments.

Before the end of the article, let’s know about the basic concepts of
1. Source
2. Vernacular names
3. Health benefits of nochi leaf

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1. Source

• The scientic name of nochi leaf is Vitex Negundo which has bitter and astringent taste. It is native to tropical southern and eastern Africa and Asia.
• It is tall about 6-12 feet, multibranch bushy plant and is coverey with very fine hair. The stem is thin and the leaf stalk is long and 3-4 leaves grows at its tip.
• The main chemical constituent is found in Nochi leaf are  phenol, dulcitol, alkaloid vitricine, sitosterol, camphene, orientin, arteemetin, onoterphens and aucubin.

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2. Vernacular Names

• Scientific name – Vitex Negundo
• Tamil – Nochi elai, Nirkunchi, Nalla nochi
• Hindi. – nochee ka patta, nirghandi, samhalu
• Sanskrit -nirgindi
• English – Five leaved chaste tree
• Assamese – pasutia
• Bengali – Nisinda, Samalu
• Gujarati. – Nagoda
• Kannada -bile nikki
• Malayalam – Indrani
• Siddha – Noohi
• Telugu – Nallavali
• Arabic – Uslaq
• Persian – Sisban

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Health Benefits Of Nochi Elai

1. Help In Throat Ache!

The boiled water of nochi leaves relieves throatache.
It cures all kind of throat and mouth related disorders.

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2. Cures Chronic Rhinitis

Suffering from continuous watery nose?Boil 10 gm leaves in 100 ml of water and drink it regularly. It cures rhinitis effectively.

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3. Cures Headache

Grind the leaves and make it into a thick paste. Apply the paste over your earlobes and it cures headache.

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4. Eases Delivery

Nochi leaves are boiled in water and the water is used for bathing after cooling down.This reduces water retention in the body and eases delivery.

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5. Cures Goitre

Grind the leaves to make a juice. Give 10-20 gm of this juice every morning and evening. Inhaling the steam is also beneficial for goitre.

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6. Treats Skin Disorders

They are effective against skin disorders like ringworm, eczema and various other skin infections.

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6. Insect Repellent

The trees are insect repellent and the twigs have antibacterial properties. Farmers believe that nochi leaves protect their plants away from pests and create a biofence with it! Leaves are added to stored rice to keep bugs away.

To make a effective defeat of the mosquitoes, we should try to burn their leaves and let the smoke to surround your home.

These leaves can be repellents but we should prevent stagnation, pollution and follow proper garbage disposal to kill these mosquitoes.

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7. Works For Splenomegaly

Nochi leaves are highly effective against spleen enlargement. Consume the juice of nochi leaves regularly early morning on empty stomach.

Nochi leaves and dried and made paste and they are applied externally on the inflamed spleen area.

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8. An Effective Method To Relieve Sinus Headache

A bunch of Nochi leaves are dried enough to fill a pillow. The leaves are first heated in an earthen pot  till they get brown in colour and they are put inside a pillow cover.

Then, sleep on the pillow regularly to relieve sinus headache and heaviness of the head.

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9. Nochi Steam

A brick is heated until it gets red hot. Water is boiled with leaves in a open mouth vessel. The person who is suffering from bacterial infections, sinusitis can bend over and inhale the steam.

The person is covered with a blanket over the pot. Put in the red brick or stone to maintain the same temperature.

So next time you suffer with headache or cold,don’t wait for a symptomatic analgestic paracytamol to treat you dude!  Grab these easily found amazing shrubs and get cured!

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Word Of Caution

Avoid taking Vitex Negundo with birth control pills because it can decrease the effectiveness of pills!!

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Reference Links:

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• http://nif.org.in/VITEX-NEGUNDO-L

• https://aryanveda.in/blogs/blogs/20-health-benefits-of-ayurvedic-herb-nirgundi