Economically-trapped Filipinos are treating the high cost of manufactured medicine by resorting to medicinal plants and herbs which can be obtained free or grown in ones small backyard.
This welcome news in reported by Philippine Council for Agriculture Resource Research and Development (PCCARD) following a latest field survey on the effort to revive herbal medicine in the country.
The revival effort is supported by both Government and private sector medical authorities and is part of the general reaction to spiralling costs of pharmaceuticals, particularly the imported kind.
Center of the revival is the poverty-stricken countryside where residents do not have adequate access to modern health care services and facilities unlike their counterparts in the urban centers, according to PCARRD.
It said people in the provinces are planting medicinal plants for their own use and to share with neighbors and that revival of herbal medicine has fairly been easy in the countryside because use of curative plants is part of life in rural villages or Barangays.
The council likewise noted that city people fortunate enough to have backyard space are taking to cultivating medicinal plants and herbs although many urban residents need information on how to tap curative properties of the plants.
For the benefit of both rural and urban residents, the Council drew up the following instructions.
Collect leaves and stems when plant is about bloom while flowers must be harvested before or shortly after they have opened:
Fruits and seeds should only be harvested when they are fully marure; and
Stems, barks and roots should be removed only from full-grown plants and that the best time to collect plants and herbs is during the dry season.
The Council said collected plants and herbs should be handled properly to prevent loss of their medicinal properties. They should be free of dirt and other foreign substances, must be washed quickly if required, and cut into small pieces before drying under the shade.
Dried plants or herbs must be kept in highly-sealed containers with a piece of dry charcoal at the bottom to further absorb remaining moisture. Each container must be properly labelled.
In preparing a decoction from medicinal plants and herbs, the PCCARD recommended use of earthenware since this does not react with substances of the plants unlike metalware.
The decoction procedure is simple. After slicing plants parts into desired sizes, they are soaked in water and then boiled for 15 minutes. The resulting fluid is strained. The decoction a should immediately be used since they lose their curative effects after 24 hours, the Council said.
The Council listed of the following ailments which can be cured.with use of medicinal plants and herbs:
Simple abdominal pain, taking orally decoction from guava leaves, mangosteen peel; arthritis, decoction from yerba Buena leaves of direct application of warm ginger rhizome on affected parts; asthma, decoction from lagundi leaves; Burns, direct application of sabila leaves extract; constipation, eating 1 to 2 medium slices of ripe papaya fruit; cough, decoction from lagundi and balanoy leaves, diarrhea, decoction from guava or mangosteen peel and replace lost body fluids, drink the water of young coconuts; dizziness, fainting and hysteria, sniffing crushed guava leaves; falling hair, sabila leaves extract massaged on the scalp;
Fever, decoction from lagundi leaves; hypertension or high blood pressure, eating 2 cloves of garlic 3times a day or decoction from sambong leaves; scabbies, direct application of akapulko leaves extract; swollen gums, decoction from guava leaves; tinea, ringworm and athletes foot, direct application of akapulko leaves extract; and toothache, chewing of fresh guava leaves.
The Council strongly advised that if the diseases are not cures by herbal medicine, sufferers should consult a physician. It added that is important that prescribed dosage or application of herbal medicine must be strictly followed.
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