Literatus: Ermine of her soul

Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T.
Breakthroughs

CHASTITY,” goes Queen Elizabeth I, “is the ermine of woman’s soul.”

I tried to check secular literature on its views on chastity, and it surprised me that it views chastity more as an exemplary character of a woman than of men.

Click here for stories and updates on the Sinulog 2010 Festival.

Apparently, only Christian literature contains voluminous exhortation for me to practice chastity. In fact, history has it that ancient medicine used the chaste tree (genus Vitex) to maintain chastity in men as it can reduce libido.

Medieval monks also used the Vitex chaff to scatter in their sleeping quarters to suppress carnal desire. Eventually, though, “chaste” came to be known as Vitex agnus-castus.

In the Philippines, we have a Vitex specie know worldwide as the five-leaved chaste tree. We call this specie as lagundi, popular for its use in managing respiratory conditions as well as pain and fever relief and supposedly treatment of gonorrhea and spleen enlargement. Recent studies reported its antioxidant potential.

Lagundi has been used in traditional systems of medicine such as the Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha. Since then science have learned of its many chemical constituents obtained from either the leaves or its oil.

A recent study, however, found its drug interactive effect with paracetamol, another pain and fever relief drug.

Four Indian researchers headed by Yamini Bhusan Tripathi of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the Institute of Medical Sciences (Varanasi, India) found out that increasing doses of lagundi extract results in a decreased blood level of paracetamol in albino rats.

The minimum dose of 62.5 milligrams per kilogram body weight, however, did not show this effect. The largest drop in paracetamol concentration occurred around the third day of daily lagundi intake.

“The dose needs to be adjusted in order to achieve desired therapeutic response of paracetamol,” Tripathi reported in Indian Journal of Medical Research that came out in October 2009.

Outside the Roman Catholic Church, transcendentalist philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott stood out in the call on men to practice chastity: “A man defines his standing at the court of chastity by his views on women.”