• Principal • Arbustos • Cactus • Cobertura • Flores • Hierbas • Suculentas • Trepadoras • No Conozco • El Jardín • Contenido • Plagas • El Club • Direcciones • Referencias • Plantilla •

By Jan Gerritsen

First of all, my lawyer advices me to make sure that all of you understand that I am not a medical doctor, and that none of what follows can be seen as medical advice. And to enrich the medical establishment, I have to add that in all cases you first have to consult with your doctor before adventuring with herbal medicine. For sure he or she will recommend you to stay away from these quackeries. And now let’s go on with the fun part. 

Those of you who know us well, know that Pierre and I have been together for 26 years now. Most people wonder how we have been able to stay together for such a long time. Let me tell you our secret. We found it in a book called “Herbs for the Home and Garden” [1] which we bought many, many years ago. There, on page 13, we read that Caraway seeds have “holding power” and that “if lovers drank a potion made from it they would not stray in their affection”. Of course we were quite suspicious of such lore, but when we read that “poultry and pigeons will stay close to home if they are provided with a lump of dough baked with caraway seeds”, we were convinced. Ever since that day we have been drinking caraway tea in the morning, and voilá, we are still together. Do you need more proof that plants really have magic powers? I’ve here a bottle of caraway seeds, and we can share some of it with you, but beware, you know what you are asking for! 

But let’s now turn to local plants that cure. Just recently, a small booklet was published with pictures of Oaxacan plants that cure[2]. The text is in both Zapotec as well as in Spanish and you can buy it at the IAGO for 75 pesos. We brought it home and Gabriela was reading it even before we could. Her baby daughter was coughing a lot and the medication the doctor had prescribed didn’t seem to work. May be an herbal remedy would work, she thought. Following the instructions of this book, she made an herbal tea from bougainvillea flowers, sweetened with honey, and wonder above wonder it worked miraculously well: after a day the cough had almost disappeared.

Valerie/ Valentina also published a small booklet on natural remedies[3] which you can buy for 20 pesos on the Farmer’s market. It too talks about using bougainvillea flowers as a remedy against cough. Her remedy is a little more complicated. She recommends a tea made from bougainvillea flowers of various colors, cinnamon, garlic and a prune. 

Seeing the same remedy quoted in several publications increases the level of confidence that this remedy really works. That applies to the use of bougainvillea flowers to treat cough. It was also quoted in a Master’s thesis of someone who studied the herbal remedies used in a small town in the Sierra’s some 40 km from Oaxaca City[4]. 

Billye lent me a booklet on herbal medicine[5] and they have different remedies against coughing. One is based on Gordolobo, and another on carrots. So you see, there are many roads that lead to Rome. 

On the market close to the Zócalo (20 de noviembre) you can buy packages of mixed herbs against all types of ailments. Just recently I had the flu and coughed a lot. From my own experience I can tell you that the herb mixture they sell against coughing is as effective as Robitussin. And the teas made from them taste rather good, especially when a little honey is added. The mixture contains the bougainvillea flowers, gordolobo (mentioned in Billey’s booklet), eucalyptus leaves and teromaca, a bark. 

Not too long ago, Pierre had an inflammation in his knee. Our chiropractor, who is also into herbal medicine, recommended that he would make a potion of “hierba santa” leaves, rock salt and vinegar. You boil the leaves in the salty water, adding a little of vinegar at the end. You make compresses of this potion on the inflamed areas. It worked!  

As this remedy was in neither of the two books quoted, I did a search on the internet and found that hierba santa leaves have lots of uses ranging from rheumatism, hemorrhoids and insomnia.  That reminds me of another recommendation of our chiropractor. To heal hemorrhoids, take a tomato, quarter it and rub each of the quarters over the inflamed area. Keep the last quarter in between your legs for as long as you can stand it. I’ve not tried it yet.

For insomnia, I’ve heard about a surprisingly easy remedy: to put a flower of a Floripondio (Angel’s trumpet, Datura cándida) under you pillowcase[6].  

I always liked to talk to the butcher at the Merced market. He had lived in California and understood the American names for the type of meat I was looking for. One day I saw that he had a bouquet of basil on his counter. I hadn’t seen basil for sale on the market so I wanted to buy some from him. “Oh no” he said “that is not for sale; that’s to chase away the evil spirits. I’ve killed so many animals, and I’ve to make sure the spirits of those killed animals should not linger around my shop”.  He was dead serious. He told me where to buy the basil. It was an Indian woman, sitting on the floor who sold me a bunch of basil. She also had rosemary so I bought some as well. She had two types: the woody ones, also used to chase away the bad spirits and the cooking type, which are the more tender parts. When I came home with the herbs, I told Gabriela that we were going to make a tomato-basil soup. She was totally abhorred, but she loved the soup. I can only imagine what she told her family that night! By the way, basil may be taken as a laxative or used to counteract gastric cramps. Also, did you know that it is best to plant basil next to tomato plants to counteract fruit fly and improve the quality of the tomatoes?[7]  

In general, aromatic plants are used to expel or remove a “mal aire”, a bad spirit. About a year ago we were in a church in Teotitlán, and witnessed a cleansing ceremony. A priestess was passing rosemary branches over the total body of young and old to remove the bad spirits that had taken hold of them. We saw something similar in a church on the lake of Catemaco in Veracruz.

In the thesis just quoted, I also found an interesting story on how to treat what they call “susto”, a scare resulting from an astounding event in one’s life or environment. Señor Pilar, the curandero of Yatzachi, would lightly strike the entire body of his nude patient with the spiny leaves of the chichicatle plant. Then, he would pour a little alcohol into the patient’s hands and light it. The pain caused by the spiny leaves and the fright from the fire removes the susto. I wouldn’t experiment with such a treatment: leave that to the experts! 

Up till recently, curandero’s were considered quacks. That is changing as people start to realize that their remedies are based on the cumulative knowledge of centuries of experimentation. Several universities and pharmaceutical industries have started to investigate the remedies proposed by these curanderos and the plants that they use. It is a race against the clock: curanderos are dying out and due to the deforestation, so are the plants that have medicinal properties. Two weeks ago, Cambio reported on a 6 years study done by the UNAM and the University of Bonn (Germany) on medicinal plants that reduce blood sugar, recommended by the curanderos in Oaxaca and Guerrero[8].  They found that only 5% of the remedies worked. One of the plants that did work was guarumo (Cecropia obtusifolia). The curanderos recommended making a tea from the leaves and other parts of the plants, but that didn’t seem to work. However, when they tested dried leaves, they got good results.  

Guarumo is a tree. Its trunk is rather thin, gray or light brown, and looks like bamboo. The leaves have seven or nine lobes and are grouped at the end of the trunk. Interestingly, these trees house Azteca ants, which protect the tree from attacks of other animals. They live on the sap that is secreted at the base of the leaves. The trees grow in humid climates at low elevations. The new leaves are used to cure not only diabetes, but also to lower blood pressure, to cure the common cold, bronchitis and asthma[9]. According to the article in Cambio, the researchers have found 30 possible uses of guarumo. If these findings are confirmed, tropical countries could see a boom in growing these trees. The trunks can be used to make light roofing material, by mixing the trunks with cement. 

I would now like to switch to something closer to home: nopal. I’m sure you all have seen them, either in the field or on the market. And many of you may have eaten them as well. There are hundreds of varieties (377 to be exact) that belong to the Opuntia genus. In northern Mexico the most common one is the Opuntia Ficus Indica. It seems that eating this variety has no positive effects on your health. On the other hand, the variety that is grown on the Mexican high plateaus, including in Oaxaca, is the Opuntia Stretacantha, has been proven to have a variety of positive health benefits. 

The Nopal is a lush, shrub type plant with predominantly fleshy leaves, covered with spines. The thorns are modified leaves, which shrunk due to the dry surrounding. Their tissue fades away, partly calcified, even though conducting vessels are maintained by the water condensed. The thorns also protect the cactus against rummaging animals. The nopal blooms in spring when it is covered with yellow and orange flowers. The fruits (tuna) are harvested later in the year and have a melon like flavor[10]. 

Nopal mainly consists of water and two types of fibers: water soluble (pectin) and water insoluble (mucilage). The more common term for fibers is “roughage” and the health benefits of increasing the fiber content of your diet are well documented. It makes that food passes through your digestive track faster, and that your stool becomes more bulky and softer. It seems that as a result the risk of colon cancer diminishes when eating more roughage, from whatever source they may come. The water soluble fibers in nopal contain two types of pectins that swell in water and that gives the slimy appearance of the nopal when cut. The water insoluble part absorbs water and swells as well. The resulting gooey material is thought to coat and protect the gastrointestinal tract. This seems to be one of the principle reasons for the health benefits we will discuss below[11]. Nopal also contains a variety of amino acids (17), lipo-proteins, beta carotene, niacin and calcium. 

Now to the health benefits[12]^{,[13],[14],[15],[16]}: 

There are many more health benefits associated with the consumption of nopalitos, but I guess you got the gist of it: eat more nopalitos! I would like to remind you that I’m not a medical doctor, and that I do not assume any liability due to your increased consumption of nopalitos. Adrienne gave me an interesting reference to a website[17] from which I would like to quote: 

“Although nopal has been consumed extensively as food for several centuries, no studies have been conducted to determine its possible side effects on a developing fetus or an infant. Therefore, nopal supplementation is not recommended for pregnant or breast-feeding women.”  What about that! You are warned: you are on your own! 

And I knew you were going to ask me for a remedy against impotence. Billye’s booklet came to my rescue. Here is the recipe:

Mix all the ingredients. Drink it for 10 days, every month. This recipe gives fantastic results especially for men over 55. If you were ever going to try it I would boil the eggs as many are now contaminated with salmonella bacteria. Good luck guys!