Allium Cepa: The Onion BEGINNING

The onion is also an old world plant, which now comes in a variety of forms canned, powdered, and even cooked. But onion in Haiti is a valuable plant as it is known medicine to take care of a cold, osteoporosis, heart disease, and lessen inflammation and asthma. It is recommended to eat the onion raw, cooked, or to take full medicinal effects drink the juice. One remedy to lessen inflammation is to soak the bulb in water for one to two days, drink it orally if internally inflamed, or apply it to the inflamed skin directly.

The onion bulb has been studied and it has revealed that it contains essential principle oils according to the Tramil database. This data is seconded by the USDA nutrient database that breaks down these oils into even more specific nutrients: Vitamin B (4%), Vitamin B6 (9%), Vitamin C (12%), Phosphorous (4%), and Potassium (3%).

A study conducted by Tramil indicates that a blind study of 300 asthematic adults male and female administered 500 mg of oral drops of onion juice showed an 95% decrease in symptoms.
The onion has been cultivated for hundreds of years for its health benefits and this is a prime example of a everyday staple of the old world that has numerous healthful effects but has not been part of the major studies by the modern world until the early 2000s and as is indicated by the rise in production in the United States around 2005 (UN Food and Agriculture Organization).

This overlooking of indigenous knowledge is demonstrated by the following quote in Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World in which Macandal is designated to field work by the master little does the master know the power that lies in the relationship between man and land, “As he watched the slow scattering of the herd grazing knee-deep in clover, he developed a keen interest in the existence of certain plants to which nobody else paid attention” (17). Macandal’s sudden interest in his surrounding is due to him spending most of his work time there and this leads him to wield a strong and powerful relationship with the plants, studying, analyzing them to such an extent he develops an secret knowledge of medicinal plants that eventually becomes detrimental to the white master.