Reviving Paradise: Hidden healing powers in indigenous plants
Nature holds a lot of secrets we are only beginning to explore, yet we are destroying our environment faster than we can begin to understand how it all fits together.
When I tell people I grow indigenous medicinal herbs, they immediately jump to the conclusion that I’m growing cannabis! Even though I understand and believe that cannabis is a powerful medicinal plant, my interest lies in our other equally powerful and possibly more important plants.
I sometimes forget that many people are unaware of how powerful the healing of plants can be. Modern pharmaceuticals actually originated from our need to understand why certain plants cure certain diseases and many modern medicines are still extracted directly from the plants that produce them.
Science is constantly finding new compounds in plants with wider and more accurate healing benefits. A lot of these plants are being discovered in Africa, specifically Southern Africa. Some of our most inconspicuous plants hide the most valuable compounds, and science is actively studying these looking for cures for everything from cancer and TB to HIV and related diseases.
Indigenous knowledge, combined with modern science, will soon discover cures for most of our most devastating diseases of our time, and these cures will come from our indigenous plants.
The variety of known medicinal plants in South Africa is staggering, and things we grew up with and take for granted are revered in other countries. One example is our Cape teas, rooibos, honeybush and buchu
Preservation and education regarding these plants may be key in ensuring their survival in the wild.
Medicinal plants tend to be most potent in the places they originate from, harvested in the wild, and often related to a specific time of the year or even time of day. This makes these plants extremely vulnerable in the wild. It is therefore important to understand what plants are used for which purpose and to teach responsible methods to harvest and cultivate medicinal plants.
Nature holds a lot of secrets we are only beginning to explore, yet we are destroying our environment faster than we can begin to understand how it all fits together.
I get excited at the possibilities exploring our medicinal plants. I love finding something useful as well as beautiful – nature showing off – and then present that for everyone to appreciate and benefit from. We are surrounded by riches. We just forgot how to look.
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