ALGARROBO

ALGARROBO

Other Names:

GARROFO, Pan de San Juan Bautista.

Although this tree is grown as food for livestock for millennia throughout the Mediterranean basin, its remarkable medicinal properties were not discovered until a few decades ago.

Habitat: own Mediterranean countries. In America, some varieties are known (carob and carob black of the West)

Description: evergreen tree, up to 10 meters high, the family of legumes. Da fruit with some form of dark brown pods, which contain 12 to 16 hard seeds incrustadasen a pulp also brown and sweet flavor.

Used parts: the fruit (locust beans) and seeds (garrofín)

Properties and indications: fruit pulp, locust bean contains abundant sugars (mostly sucrose) and pectin and starch (3. 8%) protein (4%) fat (0. 5%) pulp and mineral salts. Locust beans are fresh laxatives. Instead, its flour is dry antidiarreica, and also has the special property of adsorb toxins from the digestive duct. Achieved excellent results in childhood diarrhea, to the point that it is one of the most commonly used treatment for gastroenteritis in infants.

The seeds, called garrofín, are rich in mucilages. From them we get the locust bean gum, which in the stomach form a viscous gel, which because of its large volume increase by adsorption of liquids in the stomach, it provides sensation of satiety and takes away the appetite, so often used in slimming cures. In the gut of locust bean gum is effective emollient (softener) and laxative.

Use: the meal is prepared with a slurry of pleasing flavor, which in the short time that diarrhea, feeds. The gum is sold in capsules or tablets, the usual dose to remove the appetite is 0. 5 to 1. 5 grams of locust bean gum, half an hour before each meal, eaten together with a glass of water.

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