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Editor's Choice

Essential fruit, vegetables, and lists for health

BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g4906 (Published 31 July 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g4906

Rapid Response:

Dr Price puts forward the attractive idea of Vitamin S ( for salicylates).

Unless a pharmacolgist advises to the contrary, I am tempted to chew leaves and twigs of willows growing plentifully along the River Nene. In the old Empire (on which the Sun Never Set) - before Western Ideas overwhelmed the Native tradition - early in the morning on their constitutionals everyone, rich and poor, men, women and children, would chew astringent twigs of a spiny tree called Kikar, or of the bitter Neem tree.

A randomised controlled trial with a British arm along the Nene and an Indo-Pakistani arm in the cis-Attock and Trans-Sutlej area might be interesting. Now that the BMJ has an India Edition, your Indian editorial staff could advise?

Competing interests: No competing interests

07 August 2014
JK Anand
Retired doctor
Free spirit
Peterborough