Mainstream medical opinion may still be decidedly reluctant to pronounce definitively on just how important a role old-style ‘bush’ remedies, popular in the Caribbean, contributes to the health and wellness regime in the region. However there is never a shortage of eye-catching stories of herbal treatments ‘coming to the party’ to heal long-standing and difficult illnesses when conventional medicines appear to have failed.
Over time, ‘bush’ medicines have held their place in the Caribbean curing culture with mostly women and mostly from rural communities, offering a bewildering array of ‘herbs’ associated with the treatment of maladies ranging from the common cold to cancer. The region has as well, produced its own fair share of ‘bush doctors,’ untrained in the practice of conventional medicine but possessing highly-regarded reputations in the communities where they operate for their application of herbs and grasses in the curing of ailments. Frequently aligned to these non-conventional treatments is the claim that they have worked where modern medicine has failed.
The ‘arrival here’ earlier this year of COVID-19 accompanied by news that medical science the world over was still working feverishly to find a cure for the virus, helped to do a great deal more than set tongues wagging regarding the likely role that indigenous medicines could play in pushing back the novel coronavirus.
Some early signs that the role of home remedies was being taken seriously were detected when the prices of ginger, turmeric, citrus and garlic, all of which have long been linked to the preparation of home remedies, shot up in price.
Interestingly, while the World Health Organization (WHO) makes it clear that these ‘remedies’ are not, at this stage, licensed for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19, it does not pronounce one way or another, on the usefulness of home remedies that contain the earlier mentioned ingredients. Indeed, a common view among users of Caribbean home remedies is that their real value reposes not so much in their substantive healing powers but in their capacity to build the immune system and thus help to create a defensive shield against several types of illnesses.
Here in the Caribbean there is no shortage of “Bush Doctors” with ‘tried and proven’ reputations that are grounded in various types of plants. More recently, some of these have even succeeded in forcing their way into the mainstream of medicine… so much so that the number of sick people whose first option is bush medicine is much greater than one suspects, as are the number of conventional doctors who pay an active professional interest in the medicinal value of herbs.
This newspaper’s informal enquiries confirm that the onset of COVID-19 has coincided with the increased consumption of teas, beverages and various other home-made brews that derive from plants like ginger, turmeric, garlic and a host of others. Indeed, it is hardly by accident that entire sections of our municipal markets are dedicated to ‘bush vendors’ who are there because they have a sufficient number of regular customers and because – at least in the view of the consumers – what they offer works. Incidentally, ‘bush’ vendors are equally popular elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Sometimes, for all the stigmatization that ‘bush medicines’ endure as primitive and even dangerous, the treatments are the beneficiaries of some highly publicized breakthroughs. Back in April the story of Raeburn Fairweather, a 47-year old Jamaican-born respiratory therapist at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center, surfaced in the US media. Fairweather, according to the New York Post “looked to his Jamaican roots to find what turned out to be an effective treatment… to get over his case of the coronavirus” by treating himself with “traditional Caribbean home remedies made with turmeric, garlic and ginger.”
A story of that nature is likely to have both its believers and its skeptics here in the Caribbean though the real point of interest here has to do with whether the Raeburn Fairweather story secures any additional traction for the various Caribbean herbs, fruit and spices that could eventually find their way into mainstream medical research aimed at healing illnesses. One way or another we cannot attest to this though in the process of research associated with undertaking this story, we were able to find a number of Guyanese who told us that relatives overseas had made inquiries regarding getting access to locally grown ‘herbs’ to use as treatment for symptoms of COVID-19.
At home, and long before COVID-19 arrived here, it had been noted that the sale of ‘bush medicines’ had expanded beyond the long-standing vending stalls in the municipal markets across the country and onto the streets where a bewildering array of ‘bush’ is now, increasingly, being offered by vendors pushing makeshift carts in the city. One itinerant vendor now considered a ‘regular’ on Robb Street told this newspaper that the heightened popularity of ‘bush medicines’ is likely, “sooner or later,” to impact on prices. “It’s getting harder and harder to get some of these bush,” he told this newspaper.
Some Bourda Market vendors also attest to increased sales of ‘bush’ associated with the treatment of popular ailments ranging from maladies like stomach ‘issues’ and diabetes to the common cold. Now that the word is ‘on the street’ that some bush ‘concoctions’ might help to push back the COVID-19 challenge “more people are coming looking for bush,” one female vendor told us.
If only because still hale and hearty-looking elders across the Caribbean still ‘swear by’ bush remedies, these cannot easily be written off. The simple truth is that over time plants and herbs have repeatedly made cases for themselves as healers. In April this year an article dated Sunday April 12 – Stop Bashing The Bush – which appeared in the Jamaica Observer, paid this resounding tribute to the link between ‘bush’ and conventional medicines. Citing “a few examples” it pointed out that “Aspirin is from the willow bark, vincristine and vinblastine being used for leukemia is from periwinkle, and morphine is from poppy seeds.” It went on to state that what are commonly described as “essential oils” are manufactured from “peppermint, citrus, pimento, etc.”
In our continuous contemplation of farm-based produce in their role as healers, it is instructive to reflect on the huge strides that cannabis has made as a medicinal herb. Not only has it risen from the stigmatization/criminalization to which it had long been subjected even here in the Caribbean, but it has also gained widespread acceptance and lucrative markets as well as created multi-million dollar businesses, not just as a recreational tool but in the world of medicine as well.
Who can predict the further role that ‘bush’ remedies will play in combatting the maladies that continue to threaten us?
