Family: Euphorbiaceae

Genus: Phyllanthus

Species: niruri, amarus

Common Names: Chanca piedra, quebra pedra, stone-breaker, arranca-pedras, punarnava, amli, bhonya, bhoomi amalaki, bhui-amla

General Description: Related to the spurge family, it belongs to the leaf flower genus of The Phyllanthaceae family. It grows 15 to 25 inches tall, has smooth light green bark and pale green flowers. Its fruit is a small smooth capsule that holds seeds.

Location: Quebra Pedra is found in most coastal areas throughout Central and South America.

Uses: Quebra Pedra is a rainforest herb used in tribal medicine to treat obstructions of all kinds; its properties helps eliminate mucous throughout the human body. This annual is known by several common names: stone-breaker, chanca piedra and quebra pedra; other languages also assign names to this plant.
Quebra Pedra has been used in herbal medicine to treat kidney stones and hard mineral salts that develop in the urinary tract. Some clinical studies support the use of this plant for treating both stones in the urinary tract as well as some viruses. More research is needed.

Quebra Pedra has been used in the Amazon rainforests for a variety of presumably unrelated ailments. It has been used historically as a diuretic. Some studies reported from different sources in the late 1980s claim its ability to inactivate the hepatitis B virus. "In one study with 88 patients who had been diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B, those who took Quebra Pedra in powder form showed a substantial increase in appearance of the antibody to the hepatitis virus." (Dr. Donna Schwontkowski)
This Amazon superfood may be a healthy preventative herb. Many herbalists drink a cup of Quebra Pedra tea daily to prevent disease. Research on Quebra Pedra continues and, hopefully, additional information will become available that will shed light on its value for humankind.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tony_Mandarich

We've all heard it so many times that it's just one of those things that's obviously true. But how many of us have actually seen a flying fish and watched what they do?

I've watched them many times. I used to see them all the time when I was in the U.S. Navy and sailing the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and especially the South China Sea. From what I've observed, I think that "obviously true" assessment doesn't do justice to the behavior and abilities of the flying fish. Watch them for a while, and you will see that they don't "just glide."

For one thing, they have considerable control of their direction and flight attitude. They can, to some extent, choose where they will reenter the water. They can steer around breaking whitecaps or floating debris. They can cut their flight short and descend sharply to the water when they want to.

More remarkably, they can, and in fact they do more often than not, gain power, airspeed, and altitude without reentering the water.

Well, without reentering the water completely.

The lower lobe of the tailfin of every flying fish I ever saw is noticeably larger than the upper lobe. After the fish has nearly lost its initial energy and begins approaching the water, it will usually arch its body to dip this lower fin back into the water, then it shuttles its tail back and forth to gain speed and rise into the air again.

If the water is really dead flat, they just dip their tails into the water wherever they happen to be when they get too low. However, if there is any swell at all, even the long swell in a ripple-free sea, they seem to choose to dip their tails into the water on the "uphill" side of a wave, and so get a "ski-jump" effect that maximizes their altitude.

They can do this repeatedly on a single "flight." I've seen at least five cycles of dip-shuttle-rise that carried a flying fish for more than two hundred yards without returning to the water. I suspect that the limiting factor is either their skin drying out, or their blood oxygen running low. In a pinch, I could imagine a flying fish extending a "flight" for over a half a mile if it needed to.

Do flying fish really fly, or do they just glide? No, it isn't "flying" the same as a bird or a bat or an insect flies, but I think it's a good deal more than "just gliding."

Things I've Read, but Haven't Seen

I've read that there is at least one species of flying fish that flaps its "wings" in flight, but I've never seen it. I've also read that at least some flying fish can use the "ridge lift" of a wave to extend their flight, much as an albatross or a pelican glides, but I can't say as I've seen that either. Nevertheless, I still believe that to say a flying fish "just glides" is understating the truth about this remarkable family of fish.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chuck_Bonner