Treating Dementia with Daffodils (Narcissus) Plants

Dementia is a health condition referred collectively for various disorders observed in patients due to abnormal functioning of the brain. The most common or widely seen disorder is Alzheimer’s Dementia. Dementia appears mostly during old age; some researchers relate dementia to various living habits.

Two main types of dementia are: –

Alzheimer’s dementia

Alzheimer’s dementia, all those common types of dementia which were caused due to differential aging habits and due to various life behavior over a time are classified by this dementia.
Wherein there is no physical damage to blood vessels or any severe impact or accidents to brain or brain cells.

Vascular dementia

Vascular dementia, this is the second type of dementia which is caused mainly due to bleeding or blockage of blood vessels. Vascular dementia is another common form much lower percentage compared to Alzheimer’s dementia.

Some common living habits result in dementia during old age are: -

Lack of sleep

Minimum sleep of 8 hours every night during mid-years will have healthy mind as we age. 
It is very important to have good amount of sleep to give sufficient amount of rest to your brain.
Brain is very key part of our body as we age so that we age healthy with sound mind and healthy body.

Stressed life

Multi-tasking, we always love to do too many at one time. Study shows, too many things at same time, make your brain weak.
Excessive workload, imbalance in work life and personal life, leads to tired days, improper nurtured brain.
Insufficient nourishment, due to no after work life, lack of peace in life will lead to deteriorating brain conditions as we grow.
Healthy mind also depends what kind of life we led, stressed life will lead to unhealthy brain.

Insufficient physical activities

Doctors always recommend some kind of physical activity when we feel sick, especially when it is related with our mind.

It is key to have some kind of physical activity in our life to keep our mind and body healthy.
Some common physical activities which keeps you healthy are:
– Walking
– Cycling
– Running
– Workouts in gym
– Sports, involve in some kind of sports activities

All these activities and many other forms of physical activities improve blood circulation and which provides sufficient oxygen to the brain keep it healthy as we age.

Symptoms of dementia can be noticed widely in senior folks who start to show lack of control on mental condition,
some common conditions observed are: 
– Unable to recognize loved ones 
– Short-memory loss
– Unable to make decisions 
– Unable to perform simple daily life tasks
In a way patient starts to depend completely on others.

Alzheimer’s disease accounts for almost 70-80% of cases.
Vascular dementia, which some second, is the result of microscopic bleeding and blood vessel blockage in the brain.
Those who experience brain changes in multiple types of dementia simultaneously are referred to be suffering from mixed dementia.

How important is it to educate everyone about dementia?

Our lives’ controls are taken over by all the technological gadgets we have at our disposal. All these gadgets and accessibility of the internet is taking a huge toll on our bodies.

– Sleeping late at night has become a kind of habit.
– We keep away from having a healthy and sound sleep, spending too much time on those electronic gadgets
– Even without any productive time we spend hours on social media, depriving our bod of enough sleep.
– Rather decent amount of rest would have been our priority, to energize our body and mind for another day full of challenges.

The above described life habits, have become kind of norm in urban world, however country side, where life is less dependent on technological advanced gadgets, keep these folks in country side much healthy with very sound mind. 

However, sleep is not only the key factor for healthy mind, have good eating habits, staying organic or home grown food is also believed have healthy body. It is advisable to say big NO to fast foods, which come with so many side affects, most common one is obesity which makes our body and mind less healthy. It is always advisable to choose healthy food over fast food which by nature how it is produced gives serious doubts on its health benefits.

Life itself has become a challenge, more and more information we are consuming, we are staying up late, trying to do too many things at one time. We do have decent jobs and lives, however, we do want to put that extra effort to do too many things.

Better managing time is key to get a minimum of 8hours of sleep, plus able to take out time for exercise and recreational activities to keep our mind and body healthy.

As we age it is important to keep ourselves healthy not only physically but also mentally. Dementia is a kind of disease it will not come unannounced so we need good support from family members if incase we fall victim to it.

Daffodils are playing a very vital role in curing dementia and getting back life of old folks to normal, there are many such instances wherein many of the affected folks have recovered completely, thanks to the various scientists who have researched about daffodils which have resulted in the invention of so many advanced drugs which are curing so many patients all the time who are suffering from dementia.

We have summarized information about this wonderful and useful medicinal plant Daffodil (Narcissus) which has a huge contribution to various diseases not only to dementia.

Even there is historical evidence about the treatment of a rare disease kind of cancer during ancient times using Daffodils, please read through about this wonderful plant below.

What is Daffodil (Narcissus)? What are the medicinal benefits of Daffodils?

Narcissus is a genus (family) consisting mainly of flowering plants, they all belong to a family called amaryllis. The most common plants from the Amaryllis family are daffodiland jonquil.Flowers for Narcissus consists of six tepals (looks like petal), which are surmounted by a cup and trumpet-shaped corona.The colour of these flowers is white or yellow, and some garden varieties are orange or pink as well.

         Snippet “Daffodil is a plant, and its parts like bulb, leaf, and flower are used in making various kinds of medicines.”

Structure or features of Daffodil

Daffodil consists of bulbs that last for long, these propagate by division. Daffodil also pollinates with the help of insects. Botanical studies how the involvement of insects/pests in pollination.

Daffodil (Narcissus) species are getting extent at a much faster rate than expectations, and some have already got an extent, and many are on the verge of getting extent due to changed climatic conditions and rapid urbanisation.

We find narcissi as cut flowers and as ornamental plants in many gardens. Excessive research and breading by botanical researchers have resulted in many different cultivars.

For horticultural purposes, narcissi are classified into divisions,

1. Those which vary widely in shapes and colors, and those
2. Narcissi which produce several different alkaloids (these alkaloids protection to the plant)

                       Snippet “Daffodil (Narcissus) contains alkaloids which may be poisonous if accidentally ingested.”

Origin and early cultivation

When we look at the history or origins of Narcissus, we find evidence which related them to be in existence from the early ancient civilisation. Daffodils were used for many medicinally benefits in ancient times, we do find historical evidence that Daffodils were existent during ancient times wherein they were used for treating a disease like cancer.

This genus was believed to have originated in the Iberian Peninsula and some parts of southwest Europe as well. There is not enough evidence or documentation to show how the name Narcissus was used, however, when we research, we find that it is related to a Greek word narcotic, which is an intoxication in English. This name could also be due to some parts of Daffodils are considered poisonous; we can come across this feature as we move on.

                       Snippet: Narcissus is believed to be originated or related to the Greek word narcotic, which means intoxication in English.

Daffodil has species that are kind of wild, and also some species are cultivated plants.

Present-day cultivation and use

UK Grows these Daffodils in large quantities every year, as these grow very well in these temperatures and weather conditions of the UK. The United Kingdom also is the biggest exporter of these Plants across the world for the medicinal applications, research, and various medicinal values these plants give.

Best researched Narcissus alkaloids are lycorine, narciclasine, galanthamine, and pertazettine, which have several pharmacological activities, and extraction and purification are favoured because it is challenging to synthesis in large quantities compounds with high levels of stereoselectivity.

Medicinal Benefits

Alzheimer’s dementia

Alkaloids producing property of Daffodils (Narcissus) helped widely in medicinal benefits. There is evidence that these Daffodils have been used in ancient times for traditional healing.

Snippet “In the present day, Daffodils help fight modern-day Alzheimer’s dementia”

Fight with Alzheimer’s dementia is possible with the help of galantamine produced using Alkaloids, this galantamine is used in producing medicines used in fighting Alzheimer’s dementia.

A drug derived from daffodils has been found effective in halting the progress of different types of dementia. The drug, Reminyl (galantamine) is already recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in UK in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease way back in 2000, now there are so many other drugs have been developed that help in fighting Alzheimer’s dementia.

Researchers have shown that it can also be beneficial in treating vascular dementia, which is caused by damage to the blood vessels leading to the brain. It is the second biggest cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease and is often triggered by one or more small strokes. Findings presented to the World Congress of Neurology in London in 2001 have shown that Reminyl improved memory, orientation, and language skills. Patients taking the drug were able to perform activities such as bathing, dressing, and doing housework.

Cancer – alkaloids research paved ways to use them in cancer healing

Narcissus alkaloids are very poisonous, even with this poisonous nature of Narcissus (Daffodils) there is enough evidence these were used widely as traditional medicines for centuries. Study and our information research show, these Daffodils were used for Cancer kind of disease treatments.

Wounds, Strains, Painful Joints, and various local ailments

Applying extract from these Narcissus plants to wounds results in the numbness of these wounds. These families of plants contain many different kinds of chemicals, which interests many in chemical and pharmacological research.

Other uses include the application to wounds, strains, painful joints, and various local ailments as an ointment called ‘Narcissimum’.

Dysentery

Powdered flowers have also been used medically, as an emetic, a decongestant, and for the relief of dysentery, in the form of a syrup or infusion.

Antiphlogistic and Analgesic

Bulbs of Narcissus/daffodils were used in Turkey as a remedy for abscesses in the belief they were antiphlogistic and analgesic.

Muscles Spams

The French used the flowers as an antispasmodic, which is nothing but treating muscle spams and found to be very effective.

Oil for baldness

Arabs had been using this oil for baldness from ancient times.

Bronchitis

A homeopathic medicine made from bulbs was prescribed for bronchitis and whooping cough.

Summary of common medicinal benefits from Daffodils

Intake / swallowed

– Cough
– Colds
– Asthma (its benefits anti-bronchitis properties)
– Causing vomiting (helps in vomiting sensation/vomiting when needed)
– Other conditions

External application

– Wounds.
– Burns.
– Strains.
– Joint pain.
– Other conditions.

Pharmaceutical Medicine

– Alzheimer’s Dementia
– Cancer

Conclusion / Closing remarks

Daffodils though are a poisonous plant; however, it is widely found in our gardens and commercial mass cultivated across Europe. Its medicinal values make it one of the key valuable assets to scientists in pharmacological research and find many more curies for different diseases.

We had focused on Dementia as many diseases of interest as many records found about its benefits and also about various homeopathy medicines manufactured over the years which we primarily possible due to the extraction of galantamine from alkaloids found in the Daffodils (Narcissus).

Please do seek physician advice if you want to use this plant for any home-based remedies, as suggested it is widely used for home-based remedies for wounds, baldness so on.