I have always been very interested in medicinal plants and herbs, and read many books about them...and also put them [ the herbs etc .,] to good use..
I just recently started reading about the medicinal properties of some of my tropicals, ie cinnamon [ from the bark of the cinnamon tree] carob, noni, pineapple and papaya for enzymes and digestion,[ which a lot of us have known about also beneficial as meat tenderizers] coconut oil [from the actual coconut] which is more nutritious than olive oil...and so many others, some of which I am still finding out about....I find it all so fasinating and often wonder what happened to all of wonderful knowledge out there which has disappeared because of the over use of pharmaceutical drugs...Has anyone else got favorite medicinal plants, or herbs, or trees to share...
Tropicals as medicine
We always keep a patch of Aloe vera for cuts, burns and insect bites. Works better than anything in the market. Aids in healing and helps eliminate scars.
hi, I have used aloe too in fact grow several different species...just saw a new thread about castor oil bean....found out this year how very beneficial castor oil is as a poultace [using it warm...the oil] It is used for many different ailments including arthritis, endometriosis, even cancer...I had a very painful ''frozen'' arm and shoulder earlier this year, had to do some exercises and used warm castor oil not only to massage but used it before bedtime on some gauze/pads [ it should always be used warm]...also warm olive oil and garlic is good for ear infections as garlic is a natural anti-biotic, relief sometimes takes a couple of days, but it does work.
My Grandmother passed on a great many of the 'country cures' as she called them on to all of us kids.
One of my favorites is weak tea from dandelion greens for sour stomach
that dandelion tea sounds so soothing, I will have to keep that in mind... was reading this morning about a passion flower that is very soothing on the nerves [ calming] you use the leaves in tea.... [the May-pop or May Apple variety] It dies back apparantly then 'pops' up the following year...I need this one smile..
It works quickly too...taste is rather blah, but that's okay when your tummy hurts :-)
my doctor suggested to make a sage paste [powdered sage] for inflamation of the stomach...this tastes so awful, I think dandelion tea would be a welcome relief...
for South American (specifically Columbian) Medicinals nobody beats Richard Evans Schultes.
Truly the greatest in his field.
drew
Hi Drew, I am sorry to say I have not heard of Richard Evans Schultes. can you share with us about him... marion
http://www.rbg.ca/cbcn/en/news/archive/obit_schultes.html
http://www.biopark.org/peru/schultes-obit.html
you have to love a man that collected 24,000 plant specimens, documented the use of 2,000 medicinal plants (typically by hanging around with the indians until he got sick),
In the book "One River" there is a section where he caught Malaria (for like the fifth time) and paddled 40days by canoe to get to a doctor.
I have pictures of him in native dress in their religious ceremonies, and having tobacco blown up his nose via a blowgun.
Truly a pioneer in the field.
Dp
What an absolutely amazing man, he is the type of person who should have a prominent place in recent history...just amazing what he accomplished and to live for all those days on condensed milk earns him a medal without him having the Berri berri [ none of us could possibly imagine what he went through] and with the grace of a true gentleman..I would say a real pioneer, and a man for all time...I was wondering if PBS have ever done a documentary about his life ? He is the type of person children need to know about and how he influenced the world.....and brought us so much knowledge....
Read the book by his student Wade Davis (who also authored "Serpent and the Rainbow")
It's essentially Wade Davis and Tim Plowman (two students of Schultes) folowing his footsteps 40 years later. Also goes into alot of Schultes tales of his 14 year in the Amazon.
The Rubber issue was most troubling. Apparently the Rubber that is used on all the plantations in Southeast Asia (which is like 98% of them) is very susceptible to a leaf blight which is common in the Amazon (think totally decimates the crop in less than 2months)
Schultes spent 5 years researching, collecting Hevea species from all over the Andes and Amazon... cross breeding, and setting up test rubber plantations to avoid this problem and produce a greater rubber. Well ww2 was over when he had succeeded, so the US Goverment cut off his funding and logged the remaining rubber test plots.
We still use natural rubber on many tires and gaskets etc simply because it is better than synthetics. The space shuttle uses mostly natural rubber tires.
In these times of Terrorism, one of the greatest blows to the industrial world would be to sneak a culture of South American leaf blight to Southeast Asia and releasing it on the plantations.
dp
We live in such a scary world Drew, but what happens is still governed by greed and profit..regardless of the outcome...I had no idea the rubber industry was in such a precarious position, instead of people running with something and doing the right thing, it is always up to cash, are they going to make a profit, and how much is it going to cost them...it is like one passenger stated that he would be more than willing to pay an extra couple of dollars on his plane ticket to ensure safer jet fuel..this is not used commercially because of added costs, so people die because of terrible fires...only an analogy but it always turns out the same.. It was so very interesting all of the informatve information you have just given...we can live with the hope that we can be as safe as possible but it makes you wonder about stuff going on that we do not even know about!!!! I will read whatever I can find...we need to know about this..marion