Henna/ Mehendi: Facts, Medicinal Uses and Some Designs

Hello IMBBians,

Since many days I wanted to do some or the other post regarding Mehendi. It is my favorite topic on which I can discuss on and on and also my hobby. My mother had a liking towards mehendi designs and thus it was liked by me. In my college time it was my identity, I was mostly identified as the girl who always has some or the other mehendi designs applied on her hands. But the time changed and now I hardly get the time to do it so often. So I tried gathering all the info I could get about Mehendi from ancient text and the latest research. I hope you will have fun reading it as I had fun writing it.

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Names of Mehendi in different languages.

· Hindi: Heena
· Marathi: Mendi
· Konkani: Methi
· Sanskrit: Madayantika
· Tamil: Marudaani.
· Kannada: madarangi
· Telugu: gorintaaku
· Malayalam: Mailanji
· English: Henna.
· French: Henné.
· German: Hennastrauch.
· Portugese: Alfeneiro.
· Spanish: Alcana, Alheña.

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1. It’s named as lawsonia inermis in Latin.
2. It’s beneficial for the health of the skin.
3. It has cooling effect for the skin in burning sensations of skin.
4. The Flowers are stimulating to mind and strength giving to the heart and the brain.
5. The seed is styptic (arrests the blood flow)
6. The flowers are kept in water for some time and given in headache and lack of sleep associated with fever.
7. In case of swelling of joints the leaves are made into paste and applied on to them.
8. In case of headache due to heat stroke the leaves are heated mildly in oil and that oil is applied on head.
9. In mouth ulcers the leaves are heated in water and the water is used for rinsing mouth.
10. The swelling of throat is also relieved with it when the same water is used for gargling.
11. In case of small burns, cloth dipped in the decoction of bark of henna is put on the burned area.
12. The paste of leaves when applied on hairs, prevents graying and adds to the shine of the hairs.
13. Applying henna once in 15 days also helps in regulation of growth of hairs.
14. During burning sensation of hands and feet, it can be applied on these parts to get relief.
15. In jaundice the juice of leaves in a dose of 5 to 10 ml is given to drink every morning.
16. henna is also considered as an abortificient. Meaning it can cause abortion in a pregnant lady. Although it is considered cooling and soothing in its properties, it enhances the uterine contractions.
17. In ancient time when today’s sophisticated methods of contraception were unknown, females used to put mehendi to whole length of their hands and legs as it was believed that it prolongs pregnancy.
18. Today It is used as a form of contraception in some communities who are against the chemical, physical or surgical methods of contraception.
19. It is also used in regulating the monthly periods. Even some ladies who are expecting the date of their menses are believed to get their period by putting mehendi on hands and legs. But this depends upon person to person.
20. Henna is a reported ingredient in many cosmetic products, such as: shampoos, conditioners, sunless tanning, hair color and bleaching, styling gels and lotions, hair sprays, moisturizers, among others.

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Studies

• Essential Oil Composition of Leaves: Analysis yielded 36 components which constitued 80.4% of the oil. Major components were: ethyldecanoate, 24.4%; (E)-methyl cinnamate, 11.4%; isocaryophyllene, 8.1%; (E)-b-ionone, 5.8%; and methyl linolenate, 4.1%.
• Antibacterial / Antifungal: Lawsone, the antimicrobial agent in henna, has shown inhibitory activity upon common nosocomial urinary tract pathogens such as E coli, P mirabilis, K pneumonia, P aeruginosa, S aureus. It has also shown activity against oral Candida albicans. Naphthoquinones in L inermis exhibited toxicity against ringworm causing species such as Microsporum gypseum and T mentagrophytes.
• Antioxidant / DNA and Cyto-Protection: A study of aqueous and methanolic extracts of L inermis showed significant potential in scavenging free radicals and in inhibiting lipid peroxidation. There was a definite decline in Cr(VI)-induced cytotoxicity in human breast carcinoma cells. Both extracts showed high phenolic compounds content which may be responsible for the antioxidant potential and DNA and cyto-protection.
• Tuberculostatic: Henna herb showed tuberculostatic activity on both in vitro and in vivo testing.
• Hypoglycemic / Hypolipidemic: L. inermis leaves extract and chlorpropamide showed significant hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities in diabetic mice after oral administration. The results confirm the use of the plant in traditional Indonesian medicine for the treatment of diabetes.
• Protein Glycation Inhibitory Activity / Lawsone / Gallic Acid: Protein oxidation and glycation are implicated in the pathogenesis of many age-related disease processes. Study showed the alcoholic extract of Lawsonia inermis, lawsone and gallic acid showed significant inhibition of Advanced Glycated End Products (AGEs).
• Wound Healing: Results showed enhanced wound contraction, increased skin breaking strength, hydroxyproline and histological findings to support the use of L inermis in the management of wound healing.

I want to share with you some of my mehendi designs. Mehendi is not just my hobby but its my passion. I haven’t learnt it professionally but since childhood I have a craze for it and I used to try any sorts of designs on my hands whenever I used to be free from my studies. I miss my college days when friends were praising my designs or they used to just stare at the design without any words. I really really miss that. Now presently due to the profession and other commitments I cannot meet my friends so often and could not show them my designs everytime, so felt like sharing my designs with my new IMBB friends. These are not particular types of patterns, I just randomly try out things as I like. After I try them I manage to click them on mobile and save it on disk as a collection sort of… Most of these are tried by me on my own hand. This is my collection of two years or so on different occasions and I am still learning and improving upon it… Hope you will like them…:)

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Also Read:

Henna Tattoo Designs: How to Apply Henna on Skin
Shahnaz Hussain’s Henna Precious Herb Mix
Henna- Mehendi Design Tutorial
Henna Design Tutorial for Karva Chauth
Henna for Hair- Tips and Usage

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42 thoughts on “Henna/ Mehendi: Facts, Medicinal Uses and Some Designs

  1. ohh wow priyanka..u r an artist.. :yahoo: :yahoo: luvly designs… i’m going to save sum of ur mehndi designs for future reference… :toothygrin: :toothygrin: :bravo: :bravo:

  2. Me too :jaiho: :jaiho: :jaiho: :jaiho: :jaiho: :jaiho: :jaiho: :jaiho: ..He he..
    Gonna try the simplest one today.. :lashes:

  3. ya Sure Gabbuuu
    16. its studies have shown that,,, it contains methanolic extracts. these extracts have shown abortive effects in mice and guinea pigs. in some of the countries like Nigeria it is still used as an abortifacient for humans… but the effect is totally depended on the amount it is taken or applied and also depends on person to person… methanol is considered as an uterine contracting substance.. it forms a contracting ring on the uterus smooth muscles… But mind it,..,. in our ancient texts it was thousand years ago mentioned as an abortifacient…. is it not wow!!!!
    17. it is thus used as an contraceptive….as the drug which induces abortion is also believed to prevent pregnancy…. both the things are different but related with a common mechanism of uterine contraction.. the movements inside the uterus are increased…. thus it makes the Fallopian tube movements faster…. thus the tubes carry the fertilise egg in a greater speed than normal which prevents it from fixing to the wall of the uterus….
    18. same mechanism applied here for menses… the uterine contractions and movements of the uterine tissues makes the blood shed early….. you can practically see this… just try to apply mehendi both hands twice in the month after your periods stop… the next month’s period is seen getting earlier at least 2-3 days earlier… it totally depends upon the person… and his bodily constitution.. same thing if i do, i may not see the same thing happening….

    :haanji: :haanji: :haanji: :haanji:

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