Semester 3, Week 3, Day 6

My son didn't want to stay in bed last night and thought keeping us awake was a good idea.  Between him and my cat, I'm TIRED today.  I have gotten breakfast done, dishes done, I checked my coltsfoot (still not done) and and now enjoying the kids playing and NOT fighting over a toy.  It will never cease to amaze me how kids have dozens of toys and they always want to play with the one the other child has. I got no reading done yesterday.  The kids actually napped at the same time so I weeded my herb bed (no way near done), cleaned the litter box, picked some more berries and got a shower. By myself.  It was magical.  LOL  I also added all my completed tinctures to the virtual herbariums both posted here and not posted here.  Not all the ones posted have a completed tincture, either but the notes I have are added in.  I just need to remember to add the ones I do after now to those in progress. 

Now to continue with Red Clover.  I have posted all the therapeutic actions so today I will begin working on the constituents. As a reminder, there is not much funding on research into herbal meidicine so there are a lot of constituents we don't know the function of.  Some are just to help the plant, others help the plant and people, others just help people (and animals). Each list I post may remain incomplete but I have them highlighted in my master list so if i see them broken out somewhere in other research, I know to share that data.  I'll do t he easy ones first.

Vitamins: This just means the plant/herb is a good source of at least one vitamin.  Common vitamins are A, B, C, D, and K.

Minerals: This just means the plant/herb is a good source of at least one mineral.  Common minerals are iron, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium.

Isoflavones, depending on which ones, are only found in the Papilionoideae subfamily of the Fabaceae family.

Genistein, Biochan A, Coumestrol, and Formononetin: These are noted for estrogenic properties.

Flavonoid simply describes the structure of constituent. In this case, it's polyphenolic plant pigment that is C6-C3-C6. The constituents that fall under this category are further broken out.  These are generally classified as immunomodulatory.

Volatile oil is what is used to make essential oils.

Coumarins inhibit aggression but are considered weak.

Coumarin is hepatoxic is rats and dogs but not humans.

Resins are not water-soluble and need either alcohol or oil to extract the constituents.  The older the sample, the harder it is to extract.

Phytoalexins are formed by the plant in response to infection or infestation.

These are all the things I found in Hoffman this morning.  I will look in Ganora tomorrow and my current textbooks after that. I don't know how flanonoids got highlighted below.  I still don't fully understand the font thing for this platform.  It drives me crazy!  Have a great day!

Isoflavones (Saidzein, pratensein, trifoside); flavonoids (pectolinarin, kaempferol); volatile oil (furfural); clovamides (L-dopa-caffeic acid conjugates); coumarins (medicagol); a galactomannan.