India is known for being the “Home of Spices”. It has shared its wealth of spices and condiments with the world for centuries, and has enriched the world’s cuisines with this invaluable gift. Long before the rise of the Greek and Roman Empires, ships carried Indian spices to Mesopotamia, Arabia and Egypt.
Spices constitute an important group of agricultural commodities. They are well known as appetizers and are considered essential in the culinary art all over the world as well as in pharmaceutical industries and in the preparation of various Ayurvedic medicines. Spices add tang and avor to otherwise insipid foods. In ancient times spices were as precious as gold. The importance of spices was not restricted to just reducing the insipidness of certain dishes and making it more palatable, or creating that inner balance necessary for good health. For the rich and in uential, the rare and exotic spices served.
Spices, acclaimed for their taste and preservative properties, have a host of sought after value propositions - for their colour value, medicinal and carminative attributes, skin care and other cosmetic properties, nutritional and health supplement and for perfumery, fragrance and avor. Some spices also have strong antimicrobial and antibiotic activities and have a profound effect on human health. For instance, spices intensify salivary ow and the secretion of amylase and neuraminic acid. They favour the cleansing of the oral cavity from food adhesion and bacteria, they help to check infection and caries, and protect the mucous membrane against thermic, mechanical and chemical irritation. Spices also increase the secretion of saliva rich in ptyalin, which facilitates starch digestion in the stomach, rendering the meals, which are rich in carbohydrates, more digestible. Stroke volume, blood pressure and stroke frequency can be markably diminished or augmented by means of spices.
Navdanya brings you a rich diversity of indegnious dals, pulses and beans which we have saved and rejunivated as the pules of life. The days have been produced by Navdaya’s organic communities in the arid zones of rajasthan and bundelkhand. The beans have been grown by our organic communities in himalaya. Consevring diversity and producing organically is an act of love for the earth, the soil and biodiversity and brings health to all.