MGs in Hawaii

Here is the nasty borer up close and personal.

At the South Kona Fruit Stand...smiling cause I found so many morning glories!

I wonder what the tuber of a Koali'ai looks like.

Oh dear, I was lucky enough to get out of there after collecting seeds. Can you imagine if I started to dig up the roots, LOL.

LOL! Oh, I was just asking because it sounds like something I might have eaten during my childhood living in asia. Mom used to make these white potato looking thing. I think it was steamed or baked or something like that and we would dip them in roasted sesame seeds and the asian name sounded similar to Koali'ai.

Mmmm! Did you EAT any fruits while you were there? I bet they all taste fantastic. Did they have sugar cane juice?

I had the "trunk cherry" jabotacaba, Ice cream banana, lychee, durian, and was madly picking up fallen avocados on the road. Too bad I was late for fig season, one of my favorites! Nothing could come back on the plane with me so I had to eat it all!

I had lychee when I was in Vietnam a few years ago. It was so good and sweet. And their bananas was small, but sweet too. Fresh fruits everywhere! You can step outside and there was a street vendor selling fruits. If you wanted coconut juice, they would just cut the top off and stick a straw in there. I don't know how I could have forgotten about the sugar cane juice, but I did and I didn't have any while I was there.

Ipomoea cairica pachycaul root...

Thanks Ron for pic of the root. I don't think I've eaten anything that looked like that. :)

Wow, Ron, that plant is so way cool!! Incredible root there on that plant.

Joseph

Ditto to Tracks - Beth, I really enjoyed vicariously traveling with you, too - wonderful mix of intriguing plants, fun, sky, water, sand, history - all very elemental stuff outside of the box - many thank you's

Lili, Ron & Joseph - never thought about culinary aspects of cordage & caudiciforms before - hmmmm - or would it be a yummmmm? I suppose one would need to pay sharp attention to the dividing line between medicinal and gourmand-ical - lol

Bluespiral, I'm asian and we use a lot of plants for herbal purposes. I, myself, does not practice it but I was quite older before coming to the states so I remembered my parents going to an herbalist for their ailment. The herbalist would mix a cup of this and a cup of that dried herbal stuff and my parents would brew that stuff up and drink it. Today, you can still find stores in the asian part of town in Atlanta that does this. It is very popular for infertilities. Most of the younger generation do not practice this as most of us prefers western medicines.

That's very interesting, LiliMerci!

I've notice that often when I do a web search on a plant, I get a list of medicinal uses for that plant or it will say it is toxic. I also know that many prescription drugs are made from plant extracts. The remedies and cures are probably as endless as the number of varieties of plants in the world. Boggles the mind! :-)

Lili and anyone else interested, there is a great thread in the Sustainable Alternatives forum where folks share some of their favorite herbs - including medicinal. If you can remember anything at all - or see what you can learn from the Asian community to share with us - it would be wonderful if you could add some Asian herbal lore to the Cajun, Spanish, and other general folk uses and remedies here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/726413/

A backyard tomato patch's contribution to overall wellness could be wonderfully enhanced by adding a few medicinal herbs.

---------------------------------------------------------

None of us claim actual medical benefits from any of these, and relying on doctors and pharmacists is certainly the most responsible thing to do; but Western medicine is now inaccessible to many who can not afford it. And since many Western medicines are patented drugs synthesized from oil-based compounds, the overall direction of the prices of these things will only be in one direction as demand for oil continues to exceed supply: UP.

In contrast, since some Eastern - as well as other - herbal remedies are neither dependent on oil-based compounds nor the patent process, they are becoming more and more attractive as part of "sustainable lifestyles".

So any input on the above link will be greatly appreciated.

---------------------------------------------------

Becky, I know only too well what you mean about boggled minds - mine could certainly do with some major unboggling. But Lili brought up a subject that I think is especially timely due to peak oil (when demand for oil exceeds supply, which some believe we have already passed).

So, there's a couple of concepts I've performed a little unboggling upon that I hope might be helpful (even more so, if someone else more knowledgeable could chime in):

-- Many substances can be both toxic and beneficial; the difference has to do with using too much or too little.

-- Would it be correct to say that one difference between a synthesized drug and an extracted drug would be that the synthesized drug is a *copy* of the active ingredient, whereas the extracted drug consists of the active ingredient *itself* separated from the original plant in which the drug was first discovered - ???

Karen
(ps - will cross-post this over there - there's a couple more folks I'd love to get to chime in over there, too)

My only concern for using herbals with Western medicine is sometime the results are not good. Many of my relatives who used to use herbal medicine did not use western medicine at the time, so it was the only thing that they took for their illness.

I think earlier this year, I read a very interesting article here on DG about the use of plants for medicinal purpose. I was amaze by it.

I will visit the other forum you suggested and see what everyone has to say.

Here are a couple more MG related Hawaii photos. This one is my rental car by the side of the road next to some MGs.

They grow everywhere in Hawaii!!!