It’s a given, in some of households, before busting out the pills from the medicine cabinet, you open your kitchen cupboards first. Here’s a list of time-tested remedies passed on from our Grandmas and now to you:

1. Smell (Asfetida) hilteet to combat open wound or stitch inflammation.

2. Cumin or chamomile to cure a stomach-ache or a cold.

3. Black lemon tea for food poisoning and diarrhea.

4. Honey, to disinfect wounds.

5. The oil of burnt egg yolks can counteract the effect of burns, if used daily and after an hour from being burned.

6. Dates first thing in the morning on an empty stomach help the digestive system and eases constipation.

7. Garden cress seeds to clear the uterus after periods, for ladies.

8. Fenugreek for nursing mothers and to cure back pains.

9. Calf’s leg soup to mend bones faster after a break.

10. Date and salt dough, to extract splinters or foreign objects slightly embedded in the skin.

11. Myrrh as an antibiotic for the flu or to combat inflammation.

12. Vicks for everything and anything. Headache? Vicks. Bruise? Vicks. Head bump? Vicks. Painful stomach? Lop vicks on your abdomen area, bundle up, and sweat it. Vicks is magical.

Useful Arabic/English Term list: