Wheat Grass and its Medicinal Uses

In this post, I will write about wheat grass and its medicinal uses.

Introduction

Wheat grass is a young grass of common wheat plant. For medicinal purposes, it can be grown in home gardens. It may be chewed or can be used as a juice.

Chemical composition

Wheat grass has many nutritional and disease healing properties. It has many minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium etc. It has Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, laetrile - Vitamin B17 etc. Laetrile is important in the treatment of cancer. Beyond that is has carbohydrates, proteins, fats and amino acids. But the most important element is chlorophyll.  The chlorophyll is also available in green vegetables and other grasses; but wheat grass is a better source of chlorophyll. Also chlorophyll available in wheat grass is of better quality and easily digested by the body.

We know that human blood has haemoglobin. In haemoglobin there is one element called haemin. The chemical structure of haemin is very close to that of chlorophyll. In both of them, the number of atoms and its arrangement of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms are almost the same. There is a small difference in the chemical structure of chlorophyll and haemin; at the centre of the chlorophyll atom is magnesium while at the centre of haemin atom there is iron. The magnesium is necessary to produce about 30 enzymes in the body. Also both blood and chlorophyll are alkaline in nature and have almost the same pH value of 7.4. So wheat grass juice is easily absorbed and digested by the body.  Due to this fact, Dr. Wigmore called wheat grass as ‘green blood’. Some famous nutritionist calls the wheat grass as nectar on earth.

How to grow wheat grass.

Wheat grass is easy to grow at home. Take seven shallow pots of one feet square and about three inch deep.
Take some good quality soil and mix it with manure or compost.  Put the mixture into all the pots, Take 100gms of wheat grain and soak it into water for 10-12 hours. Put this soaked grains on to a wet cloth and tie it tightly for 10-12 hours. By this time, they will start sprouting.  Then put and spread them into one of the above pots, touching each other. Cover them with a thin layer of soil. Water it slightly. Prepare one pot daily for seven days. Water them carefully and regularly. On the eighth day, when they have reached a height of about 4-5 inch, cut them with scissors or knife as low as possible. Wash them with clean water. Now they are ready to be used. Continue to repeat the above process as long as you need it.

How to use wheat grass

Wheat grass can be used in two ways:

1.By chewing

By chewing slowly, some digestive juices in the saliva gets mixed with it so it becomes easily digestible. Chew slowly and swallow its juice, then throw out the residual fibre. Chewing makes teeth clean, strong and healthy.

2.By drinking as juice

To make the juice, put freshly cut wheat grass into an electric mixer. Put some water and run the electric mixer for some time. Then sieve the juice and drink it. Wheat grass juice should be used fresh. After some time, it starts losing its nutrients. You can start drinking with 20-25ml of it daily and increase the dose slowly to 200-250ml.

Benefits of wheat grass

• It is a very good home remedy for anaemia.
• It can be used for asthma and bronchitis.
• It is a good cure for digestive system problems such as constipation, acidity, ulcerative colitis, diabetes.
• Wheat grass can be used as gargle for mouth ulcers, teeth and gum problems.
• It stimulates metabolism and enzyme system.
• It reduces high B.P. by cleaning and dilating blood vessels.
It is a powerful detoxifier for liver.
• Pilot study done on wheat grass therapy on ulcerative colitis showed that it significantly reduced rectal bleeding and overall disease activity.
• The hair pigmentation is influenced by the quality of blood and functioning of kidneys. It your hairs are gone gray at young age, your blood quality and functioning of kidneys needs to be improved. Wheat grass accomplices this.