Bibliography

The following sources were used for the information on this blog:

Tramil. Medicinal Plant Database.Haiti.http://www.funredes.org/tramil/espanol/plantdata.html/ref_id/669

Benitez-Rojo, Antonio. "Introduction to the Repeating Island." Durham: Duke University Press,1992.

Chevalier, Andrew. Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine. United States: DK Publishing,2000.

Crellin, John, Philpott Jane, Tommie Bass, A.L. A Reference Guide to Medicinal Plants: Herbal Medicine Past and Present. Duke University Press. 1989.

Keoke, Emory. Medicine and Health. United States. 1996

Introduction: BEGIN HERE

The Caribbean has long been pronounced as the unstable, discordant, syncretic string of islands that we mark as ideal vacations but no more than that. In this course, we learned over time that the Caribbean is not just the simplified Western vacation getaway but rather the history, the culture, have made it to a fully functional and modern society that the Western world does not acknowledge unless there is to be some negative remark to be made about it. Alejo Carpentier’s novel, Kingdom of This World is a magical realist work that blends fact and fiction and takes the reader on a blurring journey of Haiti’s political revolution: before, during, and after. However, this blog will not be about Haitian history rather it will be about the powerful and secretive relationship between the Caribbean people and the land specifically plant medicine.

We are introduced to Macandal, who is the master’s go to slave as he has an eye for the best horseflesh and soon after he has accident resulting in the amputation of his arm, he is kept on light duty of pasturing cattle, but little does the white master know he has given Macandal the weapon that will lead to his coup and defeat. Macandal’s sudden time in the pasture leads him to notice and analyze the plants, which becomes his duty he starts to research, experiment, and record the results of his plants. Macandal is no longer an ordinary slave rather he now is the medicine man, the knowledge holder of his people, he has the power to start the revolution. Even after the white people ‘kill’ Macandal, the Caribbean people scoff as Macandal is not truly dead he has transcended his position from slave to knowledge holder to symbolic leader of the revolution. All this begins just from the indigenous knowledge he gains from the plants.

Now applying this method to modern day Haiti comes up with the same results. Haitians depend more on plant remedies than drugs even today it could be due to the lack of medical services available or could it like Macandal the Caribbean people contain an inner, indigenous knowledge that is more valuable and successful than their modern day counterparts? To find the answer one has to look past the Caribbean artifice that the Western world has built as stated in Antonio Benitez-Rojo’s article “The Repeating Island,” and acknowledge the Caribbean for it is and for what it is not. This blog will attempt to connect the links between ancient plant knowledge and the ignorance the Western world associates with the Caribbean due to its past, which is the very thing responsible for the plant knowledge in the first place.

This blog will be dedicated to a number of plant medicines that are commonly used in Haiti and featured on the Caribbean Medical Database: Tramil, and modern day encyclopedias of herbal medicine (listed in the bibliography). The purpose of this blog is to give an option to people who have tried drugs for common ailments but to no avail. As per my own personal experience, some doctors who prescribe medicine nowadays are more interested in keeping the capitalistic drug industry running than actually healing the patient. This blog will feature 15 plants some indigenous to the Caribbean others introduced through colonizers but each plant has a purpose for a common ailment, the chemical breakdown of the plant including its nutrients, and the connection between the plant and person in reference to The Kingdom of This World.

*******The Blog postings should go in order from A (the Onion) to J(Poisonous End). This introduction is only here due to it not fitting in the about section.

Jatropha curcas: The Poisonous END

Jatropha curcas is the Barbados nut, a small poisonous plant that originated from Central America but has been spread to the Caribbean as well.

The medical uses of the Barbados nut is the sap, which closes broken skin, skin rash but it is very dangerous. Only a trained medicine man can apply the poultice as this plant is toxic and can lead to harmful effects.

The chemical breakdown of this plant is as follows: alkaloids, saponsides, quinines, flavonoids, and steroids.

In a study described on Tramil, 30 patients that already had a type of plantar wort were treated with the poultice instead of liquid nitrogen and the wort improved within 11-12 days.
Now this poison is very harmful but useful as every aspect of the plant contains some type of toxicity from the leaves to the roots and the Haitian people have figured out how to use and incorporate it safely in their daily lives. This use of poison which grows or perhaps was brought by the white man to the island exhibits the power the colonized (the Caribbean people) had over the colonizer (Europeans) as is shown in the novel with the poison seeping from the ships into the plantations, “Nobody knew how it found its way into the grass and alfalfa, got mixed in with the bales of hay, climbed into the mangers” (27). Now to the reader the answer is obvious: it was the slaves who were on the ships, in the fields, working with the plants who had this knowledge and manipulated it to suit their needs. But to the colonizer the slaves are the last suspects in their minds as it seems unthinkable that they could even imagine or let alone have a master plan to set themselves free. Benetiz Rojo’s article also cements this fact that even the modern day world continues to set the island back, not looking past its ‘instability’ to see the knowledge or power within the Caribbean thus he states, “The time has come for postindustrial society to start rereading the Caribbean” (2). It is past due time that the modern world recognizes that indigenous knowledge is the uncanny, some facet of it will always come back in the present, and in this case of plant medicine it is time to put aside the selfish Western greedy, capitalistic system and welcome a change that has the potential to cure not string along a person leeching their money indefinitely.

Foeniculum vulgare: Fennel

Foeniculum vulgare is fennel is a small herb with yellow flowers and is indigenous to the Mediterranean but as it grows easily near the sea, it has spread worldwide.

The medical benefits of fennel are healing earache, abdominal pain, flatulence, and stomach pain. To relieve any of them above a decoction of fennel should be taken orally.

The chemical breakdown of fennel is the following: “proteins: 2.8%; fat: 0.4%, carbohydrates: 5.1%, fiber 0.5%, ash: 1.7%, calcium: 100 mg, phosphorus: 51 mg, iron 2.7 mg, potassium: 397 mg; carotene: 2100 mg, ascorbic acid 31 mg.”

Studies described on Tramil indicate that decoction of fresh leaves ranging from 15-25 g/L and dry seed infusion (5-10g/L) taken orally relieves and reduces minor digestive tract spasms.

Fennel has a variety of beneficial health uses in the Caribbean but the majority are not studied in the United States as Benitez Rojo’s article states the Caribbean continues to be only addressed as the disjointed and unstable island, “The main obstacles to any global study of the Caribbean’s societies, insular or continental, are exactly those things that scholars usually adduce to define the area: its fragmentation; its instability; its reciprocal isolation; its uprootedness; its cultural heterogeneity; its lack of historiography…its syncretism” (19).

Eryngium foetidum: Culantro

Eryngium foetidum is culantro, a annual herb that grows in any tropical climate but originated from South America.

Culantro’s medical benefits are flatulence, flu, vomiting, palpitations and tiredness, and fever.
The chemical breakdown of culantro is “flavonoids, saponins, sterols, triterpenoids, taninos; essential oil consists mainly of: Dodec-2-trans-en-1-al (59%) and derivatives, 2,4,5-trimethyl benzaldehyde (37%) and derivatives, 2-methyl-crotonic, formyl-trimethyl-ciclohexadienol, Cymenol, ferurol.”

There have not been any major scientific studies done on culantro rather the medical use of this plant is based heavily on traditional methods of the Caribbean people and polls indicating effectiveness.

This value of traditional plant knowledge being implemented in modern day Haiti brings to mind the wide gap compared to the United States, where home remedies are on the backseat and drugs are the modern day medicine. In Antonio Benitez Rojo’s article, “The Repeating Island,” he states, “The Caribbean basis, although it includes the first American islands to be explored, conquered, and colonized by Europe, is still, especially in the discourse of the social sciences, one of the least known regions of the modern world” (19). The Caribbean is still seen as the exotic and foreign, thus even the medical remedies that are studied and proven by Haitian scientists that some plants work more effectively than drugs are not acknowledged or taken seriously just due to the source.

Curcuma long: Turmeric

Curcuma long is Turmeric can be considered a herb that is indigenous to India but is now cultivated in the Caribbean as it can grow successfully in any tropical climate.

The medical uses of turmeric are the following: antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, jaundice, abscess, hepatitis, and liver disorders. The traditional remedy is to make a decoction with the root and adminster orally.

The chemical breakdown of turmeric root is the following: protein: 7.8%; fat: 9.9%, carbohydrates: 64.9%, fiber 6.7%, ash: 6% Calcium: 182 mg, phosphorus: 268 mg, iron: 41.4 mg, sodium: 38 mg, potassium: 25 mg; carotene: 0 mg, Thiamine: 0.15 mg, Riboflavin: 0.23 mg, Niacin: 5.14 mg, ascorbic acid: 26 mg.

Studies conducted on the turmeric root powder that was administered orally to 1116 patients with acid dyspepsia, flatulence, and atonic in a double-blind trial. Turmeric in the Caribbean was most likely introduced during the 19th century as the British had hailed it as the cheaper alternative to saffron, and thus it had become wildly popular.

Citrus Aurantifolia: Key Lime

Citrus aurantifolia is the key lime, which is a citrus species that first grew in the Middle East and was introduced to the Caribbean on the way then spread from there to North America. Limes are naturally smaller, have a higher acidity, and stronger smell than lemons.

The key lime’s medicinal use in Haiti are the following: fever, Conjunctivitis, earache, cough, flu, cold, diarrhea, and headache. It is usually taken orally with 1-5 drops of lime juice for fever, 1-2 drops for Conjunctivitis, 7-10 drops for cold, cough, flu, diarrhea; and 1-3 for a headache.

The chemical breakdown of the plant is based on the leaf, flower, and rind as it contains flavonoids, citric and malic acids. The following nutrients are found in the key lime: proteins: 0.5%; fat: 2.4%, carbohydrates: 5.9%, fiber 0.3%, ash: 0.2%, calcium: 13 mg, phosphorus: 11 mg, Iron: 0 mg, Sodium: 2 mg, potassium: 82 mg; carotene: 10 mg, Thiamine: 0.03 mg, Riboflavin: 0.02 mg, niacin: 0.1 mg, ascorbic acid: 45 mg.

As the Tramil studies indicate Vitamin C is abundant in the key lime, and it has shown significant antibacterial and antifungal activity against the following viruses that cause fever, cough, and cold: Escherichia coli,Pseudomonas aerguinosa,and Staphylocccus aureus.

The key lime is one plant that is now produced more widely in the Caribbean than the United States, which is mainly because of North American Free Trade Agreement. The indigenous knowledge that Macandal has is through his own research but it is also inherited from Maman Loi, “Macandal showed Maman Loi the leaves, the plants, the fungi, the herbs he carried in his pouch. She examined them carefully, crushing, and smelling some of them, throwing others away” (19).