Protein Synthesis and the Nobel Prize

Proteins are by far the most important part of all cells. Their many functions include working as/in:

-enzymes that control all the chemical reactions that occur in the body

-immune function as antibodies

-cell membrane structure and carriers to regulate what goes in and out of a cell

-structural components of skin and muscle (eg. keratin, collagen, actin)

-cell communication in the form of hormones and other messengers.

Proteins are polymers of amino acids and are made in the cell on structural units called ribosomes. This year the Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Ada Yonath of Israel, Thomas Steitz of the USA and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the UK for their work in understanding more about the structure and function of these ribosomes work that brings us closer to understanding how proteins are made.

The amino acid sequence of a protein is written in the DNA through various arrangements of four nucleotide bases (Watson and Crick received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for describing the structure of DNA). This code is then copied into the messenger RNA which carries it out of the nucleus to the ribosomes where the protein is made. Three consecutive bases code for one amino acid in the protein sequence. If a mistake is made by the ribosomes in reading this base code then there is a mistake in the protein itself which could prevent it from doing its job. Amazingly, ribosomes rarely make mistakes; only once per every 100,000 amino acids. This has to do with the structure of the ribosome and its ability to measure the distance between the transfer RNA (tRNA) which carries the amino acid and the codon in the messenger RNA (mRNA). Interestingly, the number of different arrangements that 4 nucleotides can arrange themselves in triplets is 64. Since there are only 20 amino acids that occur in protein (many more that don't occur in proteins) some triplet sequences code for the same amino acids while others signal a stop or start to protein synthesis.

This diagram shows two amino acids on the top. The R refers to a variety of side chains an amino acid can have to differentiate it from others. The bottom shows the two amino acids bonding together to make a peptide bond - to make a protein this step is repeated many times with additional amino acids.

This links describes the findings and the background regarding the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for describing the atomic structure of the ribosome.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/info.pdf

Thyme Honey

With the herbs mostly harvested now its time to make sure our winter medicine cabinet has all it needs. Thyme honey is one of the important parts of our medicine cabinet. It is used for colds/flu and sore throats. Thyme has strong antiseptic properties including activity against viruses, insects, bacteria and fungus. Traditionally, thyme was used to treat bronchitis. I find it to be useful in our house for treating winter illnesses such as colds. One nice way to use thyme is as honey and its very easy to make. You can still pick thyme now, it should withstand a mild frost just fine. Cut stems short and put them in a glass jar. Cover the thyme with honey. Put the jar in a pan of water to slightly heat the honey while pushing the thyme down and adding more thyme. Once the honey is fluid, put the lid on the jar and store the honey with the thyme still in it until needed. You can use this honey to add to tea or use it straight for a sore throat.

Triglycerides and Skin Care

I thought I would do a series of blog entries on chemistry concepts that are important to the cosmetics crafter. Cosmetics crafters as well as herbalists come from diverse backgrounds often with no training in chemistry. If you are a cosmetic crafter or herbalist and have found that you could do alot more with some chemistry knowledge, then I hope my blog helps in your line of work. But before we get started, if you are planning on making your products ‘chemical free’ I suggest you think otherwise. Our bodies themselves are composed of chemicals and everything we put in or on our body is composed of chemicals. With some knowledge of chemistry we can find out which of these chemicals are safe, effective and actually good for us.

Lipids could be considered the most important part of skin care products. They are able to protect the skin from water loss, helping the barrier function of the skin. Lipids are defined by their ability to be soluble in organic solvents. In general lipids are used by mammals like us for energy reserves and to form cell membranes. The main lipid category is a triglyceride, also called a triacylglycerol. Other lipids include phospholipids, steroids and essential oils (for lack of any other category to put them). We’ll focus on the triglycerides alone though.

The structure of a triglyceride is a glycerol molecule as a backbone with three fatty acids attached to that. Since glycerol is a three carbon sugar, each fatty acid can bond to one of the carbons. Glycerine is also an alcohol as defined by the –OH groups.

Glycerin

Below is a triglyceride. You can see the three carbon glycerin portion of the molecule on the left and the fatty acid chains to the right. Using this type of connotation each bend of the line represents a carbon atom.

Triglyceride

Fatty acids are long chain hydrocarbons and identified by the number of carbons in their chain as well as by the number and placement of double bonds.

In this figure the first fatty acid from the top has16 carbons with no double bond. This fatty is abbreviated 16:0 and called palmitic acid. This fatty acid is saturated meaning that there are no double bonds in the chain. Each carbon atom is bonded to two hydrogen atoms (not shown) so the carbons are saturated with hydrogens.

The second fatty acid from the top has 18 carbons and one double bond. This is abbreviated 18:1 and is called oleic acid. Notice too that the double bond is at the ninth carbon.

The third fatty acid chain has 18 carbons again but three double bonds. This is abbreviated 18:3 and is refered to as alpha linolenic acid. This is an omega-3 fatty acid which refers to the fact that it has a double bond 3 carbons from the omega end of the chain.

So each different oil or fat you use in skin care is made up of triglycerides. Triglycerides found in different oils have different fatty acids associated with them which is referred to as the fatty acid profile. Various fatty acids can have different properties for skin care, a topic for another blog.

Herb Drying Rack

This time of year my workshop is taken over with herbs that are drying everywhere so I've been trying to come up with more compact ways of drying them. Here is one of them.
I took an old cloths drying rack that was actually broken and glued it back together. Unfortunately, this means it is no longer collapsible, but that is ok. By setting it up I am able to put a screen across the top as well as the bottom rods. Now I can lay herbs across these screens and they have plenty of airflow from above and below. I could also tie bundles of herbs to the rods. You can see I also have a grass woven bag hanging from the rack. The open weave of this bag allows airflow and I can have dry herbs inside of that as well.
In addition to this I have a few hooks on the backside of my bookshelves to hang herbs from as well as hooks under a cupboard.
Do you have any space saving ideas for drying herbs?

Simply Super Tomatoes

Here is a recipe that my Mom used to make alot that I just love. We had this tomato dish this week.
Simply Super Tomatoes
Dressing
2/3 cup oilive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup finely chopped chives
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1-2 cloves of garlic crushed and minced
1 teaspoon chopped dill weed
2 teaspoons chopped, fresh basil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
shake this together and pour over 6- 8 fresh tomatoes sliced.
Enjoy

We've grown quite a few different tomatoes this summer but the one's that have really taken off are the cherry tomatoes. Unfortunately, we did not do a good job at staking them and they are laying on the ground alot. One winter project will be to build sturdy tomato cages.

The weather here is becoming a bit chillier and tomorrow night may dip close to freezing. We will keep a close watch on it and pick and cover where necessary. Although I've been able to cut quite a bit of calendula from my garden to use in products over the winter, Jason at Aspen Moon Organic Farm has allowed me to pick some of the calendula from his farm as well. Its nice to be well stocked with this important herb.

Harvest Pizza

I love going out to the garden in the afternoon and deciding what to make for dinner when I see what is out there. This week we had a harvest pizza that was loaded with zucchini, fresh onion, and lots of roma tomatoes. Its good to have a basic pizza crust recipe because this can be used for a number of things including frittata. Here is my recipe:
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons yeast
3 cups white flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoons salt
First mix the water and yeast together, then add the rest and mix. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or so (times are only a guideline). Knead, split in two (or more) and roll dough out on a floured surface to the size/shape pizza you want. Top as you wish!
I made this dough one time and covered it with onions that had been stir fried and topped that with feta cheese and herbs. Yum!
Wish I'd remembered to take a picture. But try going out to your garden to find something to top a pizza crust with. Let me know what you find.

15 Flowers/Herbs in 15 Minutes

As I was thinking of what to blog about I was glad to see I was tagged for this exercise which sounded fun. Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen flowers or herbs you've worked with or been touched by that will always stick with you. You don't have to have used the plant medicinally (heck, you don't even have to like it), you just have to have been deeply impacted by it in some way. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

1. Daisy – this was my Mothers favorite flower

2. Lilac – I love the smell. I fell in love with lilacs as a young child, we had one near our back door.

3. Rose – The thorny beauty, a beautiful flower and a beautiful smell.

4. Lavender – has been one of my favorite herbs for its aroma, appearance and hardiness. I have planted significant numbers of lavender here on our farm.

4. Calendula – a medicinal flower that has become an important part of many of my skin care products.

5. Chamomile – first loved this from Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea, well actually before that in Mo’s 24. I now grow it and distill it for its anti-inflammatory and soothing properties.

6. Rosemary – although it never blooms in my climate when I once saw a rosemary bush in full bloom it was quite impressive. I use rosemary extract for its antioxidants.

7. Grass – Since I live on the prairie grass flowers are common. Very unobtrusive yet most grasses can only be identified by their flower. Of course many grasses such as wheat are used as food and having a pasture I need to pay attention to what grasses are there.

8. Strawberry – again, a small flower but I know that each of those flowers will yield a juicy fruit.

9. Lemon balm – I love how eager it is to grow and use it in many of my products as well as distill it.

10. Basil – its spicy taste has to be my favorite. Recently I am learning of other varieties of basil as well as its medicinal benefits in helping with stress.

11. Echinacea – a beautiful, easy to grow flower and a must when it comes to cold/flu prevention. A picture of this flower also graced the cover of my book “The Antibiotic Alternative”

12. Hollyhocks – I was pleased to see this flower coming up in the garden at my first house. I love its tall stature in the garden and its old fashioned appearance.

13. Yarrow – this is native here in the west so it is easy to grow and it has great medicinal properties.

14. Linden – the aroma of the Linden tree flower is overwhelming in the spring and certainly brightens a mood.

15. Pine – I love the peacefulness of being in a pine forest. The aroma reminds me of living in Flagstaff, Arizona. These trees also remind me of this song we sang in Girl Scouts called Canadian Wilderness:

Smoke rising from the fire
Up through the trees in a stately spire
All is well as evening lows
Sun goes down as north wind blows

Garden Pictures for Wordless Wed

This time of year is when all the hard work pays off and we are harvesting all we can. Here are some tomatoes rippening on the vine, a large zucchini plant, purple sage, echinacea, and of course Longs and Meeker Peaks that we enjoy seeing almost everyday. I hope you too are enjoying this time of year.

ChokeCherry Find

My husband came home from work with a bagful of chokecherries he picked so we had to figure out something to do with them. The most obvious use of chokecherry is as a syrup to be used in the winter for coughs (as well as being delicious on ice cream, pancakes, drinks or anywhere else you would use a syrup). Typically choke cherries are very bitter and astringent in taste, but these are actually very sweet; possibly because they were growing by a stream and getting more water. Chokecherries are very high in ellagic acid. Since I have been reading lately of the benefits of ellagic acid in skin care I wanted to find some use for these fruits for skin, perhaps a face mask.

Face Mask

Mix

3 tablespoons chokecherry juice

1 tablespoon bentonite clay

2 teaspoons avocado oil

Mix to a nice consistency and smear on your face. Now enjoy a cup of tea while the mask sets on your face. After 10 minutes or so use a wet washcloth to wipe the mask off your face.

Chokecherry Juice

To make a juice put chokecherries in a saucepan to fill about 2/3 full. Fill with water almost to the level of the top of the cherries. Bring water to a gentle boil for 30 minutes or so. Put cherries through some type of press such as used to make jam. I use a device used to make applesauce. Allow juice to drain into a separate bowl while skins and seeds remain behind.

Chokecherry Syrup

For chokecherry syrup I mixed 3 cups of juice with about 3 cups of sugar and simmered that for about 30 minutes. This produced a very thick syrup that would work great for pancakes. For a cough syrup I will use 3 cups of juice with 1 1/2 sugar and also add a few tablespoons of vodka to that as well. The lower amount of sugar might not be enough of a preservative. You could also freeze this until you want to use it.

The seeds however contain poisonous glycosides (hydrocyanic acid) and should not be eaten by humans or animals; unless cooked or dried first.

Chokecherries are native to much of the US and were used extensively by Native Americans for a number of health complaints. These include as a poultice to stop bleeding and to treat skin sores and burns, as a tea or infusion for stomach cramps, fever, diarrhea and dysentery. Both the fruit and the bark are used medicinally. The cherries also a a good food source for both humans and animals. Chokecherry jam and pies are quite common and chokecherries were an important ingredient of the pemmican made by many Native Americans as a dried food for winter.

The purple color of the cherries is said to make a good purple-red dye. This is something I might save some berries for to try dying some mohair. Last summer I planted quite a few chokecherry bushes so by next summer I may be loaded with cherries.

Here is a good write up on chokecherries for more information.

http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/doc/cs_prvi.doc

My New Rock Garden

Over the past year we have dug into the raised bed against the back of the house to put in a hot tub and a deck. This left a large area of weeds - one of those "I'll get to it someday" areas. Well, my brother and his family visited us last week and my hard working sister in law wanted a project we could do together. Now when someone makes an offer like that I am smart enough not to suggest scrapbooking or going through old photos. Yes, I suggested moving heavy rocks around which worked well since she is younger than I.

First we (or rather she) pulled out all the weeds and moved some rock out of the area. We then put in the cut flagstone path that goes up to the water faucet on the back of the house. We already had the flagstone as well as the other flatter "moss" rock (its really lichen, not moss) from taking down a water fall by the garden pond that we had filled in earlier. We laid the various flatter stones into the ground leaving spaces for plants between them. This is an area I do not want to think about watering so that was taken into account when selecting plants. I also only wanted low growing plants.
Several types of sedum were transplanted from other areas in the yard. A trip to the neighbors yielded some violas and garlic chives. Then from the garden center I bought creeping thyme and Roman chamomile.

Some sand was used to fill in the spaces in the walk to keep the flagstone from shifting too much. Since this area is close to the faucet we put a stand to hold the hoses in the front.

I'm hoping these plants set down good roots and not too many weeds grow. It rained heavily after we finished and I'll make sure the new plants get a good amount of water for the next few weeks. I have a few other flat rocks laying around that I can use to fill in more of the spaces too.

Well, you'd think this would be enough for one person to do, but she insisted on weeding some of my other beds too. Thanks Angela, it was great to see you (and Kelly, Kyle, Emi)!

Today's Harvest

I walked through my garden today looking for what to harvest. Savory, oregano, zucchini, basil, chamomile, feverfew, sage, calendula, arugula and roses were among the gifts I found growing. The herbs will be dried and put into herb blends later. The arugula we had as a salad for dinner tonight with a honey balsamic dressing. Not too many roses are growing right now so I am glad I cut alot of them earlier in the summer. I pick flowers from the chamomile daily to dry and use in a variety of products. Feverfew (next to the bowl) will become a tincture as well as an infused oil. Calendula is an important herb that I use alot of in skin care products. I'm trying to keep up on what I have dried to make sure I harvest enough culinary, medicinal and skin care herbs to last over the next year.

Chamomile blossoms

I have decided to 'remodel' the garden bed right in front of my door. It has become overgrown and is filled with plants I don't necessarily use. We have cut out several bushes and through FreeCycle I have been able to find homes for many of the plants in that bed. If you have plants that need a new home be sure to check to see if there is a FreeCycle in your town. Once there is enough room I'll put a path going through the garden space and then fill it primarily with culinary herbs. Having these herbs concentrated in one place rather than scattered throughout the gardens will make things easier for harvesting. I'll post some pictures in future blogs of the progress.

On another note, Kelly Bloom at Southern Soapers posted a blog last week that has been getting alot of discussion attention among skin care makers. It discusses the definition of a 'cosmetic' versus a 'drug' and suggests that many of us who make skin care products are actually making and selling drugs illegally by FDA standards. You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/kl85ul

Parsley

Summer is well underway and between visitors, vacation and farm work I haven't had much time for posting! Plants are growing strong and everyday I am picking chamomile blossoms and calendula blossoms for drying as well as a variety of culinary herbs that will go into blends later. It is parsley however that has aroused new interests in me recently. Not only are its virtues excellent as a food, but parsley is also good as a skin care herb.

Parsley is very rich in vitamin K which has been shown to reduce dark circles under the eyes. It is also high in vitamin C which is necessary for collagen production and vitamin A which is necessary for skin cell regeneration. Essential oils are also found in parsley as well as flavonoids which are powerful antioxidants. You can reap alot of benefits from eating parsley in your salads and on your potatoes, including heart and joint health but also try it for skin care. Put a few tablespoons of ground parsley in some full fat yogurt and apply that to your face as a mask. Leave on for 10 minutes while you drink a cup of tea. Wipe off and rinse with water. Your face will feel great.

Colorado Aromatics newest product is a Parsley Eye Serum. This is a light oil to be used on the sensitive skin around the eyes. It is a very nourishing oil to help with fine lines and dark circles. You might also use it around the lips. You can find Parsley Eye Serum At Colorado Aromatics.

I hope your gardens are bountiful too!