The use of medicinal herbs is highly developed. Traditional pharmacology and medicine in Africa. I was fortunate to have three solid sources of information on herbs in Haiti: Laguerre's Afro-Caribbean Folk Medicine, Colon's Traditional Use of Medicinal Plants in the Province of Pedernales, Santo Domingo, and Jordan's Voodoo Medicine. "y tienen faxones y fabas muy diversos de los nuestros" Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources. following Len [28], Len and Alain [2931] and Alain [32, 33]. The Province is inhabited by some 780,000 people, or seven per cent of the Cuban population. Vetiver, Chrysopogon zizanioides, is a perennial grass native to India, where it is known as khus or the oil of tranquility, but it is produced mainly in Haiti, Java, and Runion. I surmise that Quassia the Surinam had seen a plant similar to bitterwood in Africa. Cerasse vine intertwined with other plants growing in Cacheta Francis' North Miami Beach backyard. The last group of herbs I would like to comment on are three that could be called "female herbs". Interviews were conducted in Spanish after first explaining the aims of the study. Very, very, very bitter. De Smet PAGM: Traditional pharmacology and medicine in Africa. 2. Edited by Liz O. Baylen and Mike Benoist. 2005, 97: 337-350. Although in the recent past there has been an increase in ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal investigations in Cuba [1519], these have generally not paid attention to the specific ethnic knowledge that immigrants have contributed to traditional Cuban medicine. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 715-738, 1975. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. It's not just a weed. Why some Caribbean immigrants seek out this wild The tea is bitter. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Her go-to cure-all medicinal plant is asosi, also called cerasee or corailee in the English-speaking Caribbean. the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. She lives in Pembroke Pines and she also grew up drinking asosi tea. Often performed during the new year and around holidays, voudou baths are designed to bestow various blessings from God: anything from better cash flow to improved health or a new baby. 10.1016/0378-8741(82)90072-1. (Jordan, 726) Nonetheless, catnip is such a good all-purpose herb it is no surprise that it shares equal popularity in Haiti as it does in the hill country of Missouri and Arkansas. Conversely, Justicia pectoralis, reported by Haitians only as a component of one mixture, is widely used and reported by Cubans for its sedative effects [15,19]. Boil and simmer until the water turns a murky greenish brown. Therefore, a medical syncretism of sorts must have occurred. Haitian with a dried fruit of Abelmoschus esculentus from his homegarden (G. Volpato). We will present and discuss data about: 1) traditional remedies, their uses, and preparation, 2) traditional practices and beliefs related to these uses, and 3) changes and adaptation of Haitian medicinal knowledge with emigration and integration over time. Momordica charantia, Solanum americanum and Stachytarpheta jamaicensis are among those species most cited by Haitians in this study. The complexity of practices related to traditional posology is rarely investigated in ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies. We identified about twenty species more or less currently used by the women . In contrast, the use of the same species with different medicinal purposes may be the result of migrant's adoption of some species through experimentation with plants found in the new environment (e.g. In North Miami Beach, Audrey Rowe stopped by her friend Cacheta Francis house to pick some cerasee growing in the backyard. Although medicinal uses of these plants are not absent from the Cuban pharmacopoeia, they may in some cases be restricted to Haitian descendants and to Cubans who have been influenced by the migrants' culture. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal Herbal mixtures used by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey. And it is precisely that useful function and the needs it fulfils that keep herbal healing alive and well in both Haiti and the Ozarks. Background: Haitian migrants played an important role shaping Cuban culture and traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. In: Pieroni A, Vandebroek I, editor. 2005, 102: 69-88. most plants used in Haiti were also available in Cuba), and to the cultivation of medicinal plants in the new environment. The resulting juice is then mixed with sugar and/or bee's honey and sometimes a small amount of rum, and drunk/eaten for problems of the respiratory system (asthma, catarrh), of the digestive system (stomach pains, intestinal parasites), and of the female reproductive apparatus (infertility) [19]. Shes picking up bush to make some kind of remedy. . 1997, Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. The continuous ingestion of low doses of the allelochemicals in these species may be an effective means to prevent massive parasite infestations, especially in children [43]. Once they found themselves in Cuba, the main strategies that Haitian migrants used to maintain their ethnomedicinal practices depended principally on the floristic similarity between Haiti and Cuba (i.e. The rapid disappearance of Haitian migrants' traditional culture due to integration and urbanization suggests that unrecorded ethnomedicinal information may be lost forever. Those who arrived in the 1940s came either by plane or boat, although they were migrating mostly for the same reasons. Article Volpato G, Ahmadi Emhamed A, Lamin Saleh SM, Broglia A, Di Lello S: Procurement of traditional remedies and transmission of medicinal knowledge among Sahrawi people displaced in Southwestern Algerian refugee camps. 1985, 497-509. Often this practice is associated with a ritual acknowledgement of the plant and its power, by leaving a coin in the place where leaves have been collected, or by adding a coin to the bath and later leaving it at road crossing. Scientific name, botanical family, vernacular Cuban and Haitian name(s), voucher specimen number, part(s) used, preparation, use(s), and frequency of mention are . The plant parts used include: leaves and aerial parts (53.5% as a whole), young leaves and shoots (9.7%), seeds and fruits (8.4% each), roots and tubers (7.7% as a whole), bark (4%), stems (3%), flowers (2.3%), rhizomes (1.3%), and resins and bulbs (0.6% each). Some touristic infrastructures (notably in Camagey city and Santa Luca beach) have been developed in the last decade [26]. Consuming 2 or three Echinacea capsules twice a day can soothe extreme frustrations as well as other kinds . It is located between the Canal Viejo de Bahamas in the North, the Caribbean Ocean in the South, the Province of Las Tunas in the East, and the Province of Ciego de vila in the West. She is a believer of remed fey, or bush medicine. Haitian immigrants and their descendants mainly decoct or infuse aerial parts and ingest them, but medicinal baths are also relevant. Rituality based on 'sacred' numbers represents, in these cases, a simple way of memorizing the proper dose to be used, as well as a contribution to the efficacy of the remedy by calling upon supernatural forces and entities related to those numbers. FURCY, HAITI - About an hour's drive from Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, residents of Furcy, a cool, lush, agricultural community high up in the mountains, say they are used to dealing with . The plants cited were photographed, collected with the informants during the interviews, and identified by authors (D.G., A.B., A.B.) Esquivel M, Hammer K. The Cuban homegarden 'conuco': a perspective environment for evolution and in situ conservation of plant genetic resources. I soon learned however that Caribbean folk medicine cannot be studied without comparing it to African-American practices. Most Haitians were illiterate, crowded into barracks (barracones), paid a miserable salary, and compelled to hand over their savings to reimburse the cost of their passage [7, 9]. Once they found themselves in Cuba, the main strategies that Haitian migrants used to maintain their ethnomedicinal practices depended principally on the floristic similarity between Haiti and Cuba (i.e. ). Pieroni A, Mnz H, Akbulut M, Baser KHC, Durmuskahya C: Traditional phytotherapy and transcultural pharmacy among Turkish immigrants living in Cologne, Germany. Red sage is an herb found in both locales and is known to be an emmenagogue, or that which promotes menstrual flow (Kloss, 308; Laguerre, 94; Colon, 161). So, Lippia alba and Cymbopogon citratus often appear in the corpus of ethnobotanical knowledge of African origin in Cuba [14, 51], and Erythroxylum havanense and Chiococca alba are among the main ingredients of multi-herbal preparations used as a medicinal remedy in Eastern Cuba as well as a spiritual remedy in Afro-Cuban religions [19, 34]. One natural remedy that can be made from the plants and herbs in your herb garden is a frustration painkiller called Echinacea. Almost five per cent of the remedies are used without processing, which is especially the case for fruits eaten as medicinal foods (e.g. In some Caribbean grocery stores and health food stores,cerasee is sold in tea bags or dried. In Michel Laguerre's book he tells of a Haitian woman who makes herself ill by eating the head of a turkey. Cash-Strapped Haitians Find Voodoo a Cheaper Alternative to Traditional The most frequently used species are Chenopodium ambrosioides, Cissus verticillata, Cocos nucifera, Crescentia cujete, Cymbopogon citratus, Lippia alba, Momordica charantia, Pimenta dioica, Portulaca oleracea, Psidium guajava, and Stachytarpheta jamaicensis. This use of cricket's legs has been also reported by Hernndez and Volpato [19] in their article about the medicinal mixtures of Eastern Cuba, as well as by Seoane [16] in his treatise on Cuban medical folklore. The rapid disappearance of Haitian migrants' traditional culture due to integration and urbanization suggests that unrecorded ethnomedicinal information may be lost forever. The complexity of practices related to traditional posology is rarely investigated in ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies. Traditional and ritual plant posology should be investigated in more depth in ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies in order to understand their relation with medicinal plant efficacy and toxicity. official website and that any information you provide is encrypted Besides the instinctual, the blood is watched by looking into the eyes, checking the fingernails, behind one's ears and through skin eruptions and bleeding. Traveling Plants and Cultures The Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacy of Migrations. In: Pieroni A, Vandebroek I, editor. Estudio etnobotnico I. Fuentes V. Plants in Afro-Cuban Religions. [http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm], Len H: Flora de Cuba. CAS Once in the field, we asked for the help of the local government officers responsible for health (doctors or nurses from the local hospital) to determine whether there were any elderly Haitians living in the locality and precisely where. Viladrich A: Between bellyaches and lucky charms. An ethnobotanical investigation was conducted to collect information on medicinal plant use by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey, Cuba. Revista Cubana de Alimentacin y Nutricin. Herbal Index. 10.1016/j.jep.2005.05.018. One that I ran across in my research that is very interesting and pertinent to this subject is quassia, or bitterwood. While I was able to match several Haitian herbs with American counterparts, I was a little disappointed that I could find no mention of the "biggies" of American herbal pharmacoepeia in Caribbean plant botany. In the case of a child with persistent 'evil eye' (for example when the child cries excessively), after the bath the child's clothes are burnt, and a collar is made with seeds of Canavalia ensiformis and placed on the child, as reported also in Haiti [36]. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-5-16, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-5-16. Calle Cisneros No. Divergence and Convergence in Traditional Plant-Based Medicinal Most of those interviewed are elderly people living in remote rural areas; they often live alone since, because of their age, their husbands and wives have passed away and their children, if any, have migrated mainly to major Cuban cities (e.g. volume5, Articlenumber:16 (2009) Still, cerasee is in demand, especially for Caribbean transplants now living here in South Florida. Etnologa y Folklore. Haitian Plants Medicine, One natural remedy that can be made from the plants and herbs in your herb garden is a frustration painkiller called Echinacea. Fieldwork was carried out from December 2002March 2003 and from FebruaryJuly 2004. 1984, 10: 1-39. Moreover, to date only limited data about Haitian traditional medicine has been collected in Haiti, mostly due to the fact that the religious, cultural, and political situation in Haiti has made the study of Haitian ethnomedicine difficult [20]. Su estudio en la ciudad de Santiago de Cuba. Google Scholar. Psidium guajava as an anthelmintic). At the same time, posology is embedded in specific rituals that are performed during the preparation of the remedies, which on the one hand serve to memorize the proper dose, especially when dealing with toxic allelochemicals, and on the other hand contribute to the efficacy of the remedy by invoking supernatural forces and entities related to those rituals and numbers. Additional file 1: Medicinal plants used by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey, Cuba. 1953, La Habana: Contribuciones Ocasionales del Museo de Historia Natural Colegio La Salle 10, P. Fernndez and Ca, Len H, Alain H: Flora de Cuba. Fuentes V: Las plantas medicinales en Cuba. . By listening to them, going along into the woods when they gathered and doing reading on my own, I too began to gather and use medicinal herbs. Ethnopharmacological themes in sub-Saharan art objects and utensils. Traveling Plants and Cultures The Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacy of Migrations. Due to its mostly flat territory, the Province of Camagey historically had an economy primarily based on cattle and sugarcane, as well as small-scale farming. In reference to therapeutic use, almost half of the remedies are intended to treat gastro-intestinal afflictions (stomach pains, and as digestive and carminative; about 20%) and afflictions of the respiratory system (catarrh, asthma, colds, cough; about 18%). Abstract. The ethnic and cultural composition of contemporary Caribbean populations are the result of historical population movements through the slave trade and inter-island migration and of the legacy of the different ethnicities involved in the process of national identity formation. To the Haitian, these beliefs are inexorably woven in with Voodoo, serving the loa and reliance on the local docteur feille.. Davis had found Datura growing in Haiti. I used Kloss's Back to Eden and Santillo's Natural Healing with Herbs for my American source books. 105 e/ngel y Pobre, Camagey, Cuba. In this article we have presented the medicinal plants' knowledge of Haitians in Cuba as it is today, approximately 80 years after migration. Creole is the second most spoken language in the Province of Camagey, after Spanish. She learned from her mother, who learned from her mother, who learned from her mother and so on. Map of Cuba with the Province of Camagey. Especially over the last decade, Haitians in Cuba have begun to rediscover their roots and revitalize their traditional culture by forming Haitian associations and groups and celebrating festivals and other events. Besides single medicinal plants, 22 herbal mixtures, mostly prepared as a concoction of plants or plant parts, are reported. haitian plants medicine Ethnopharmacological themes in sub-Saharan art objects and utensils. Haitians were concentrated in the sugarcane and coffee areas of the former provinces of Oriente and Camagey (Figure 1). The present investigation shows that Haitian migrants and their descendants living in the Province of Camagey (Cuba) have medicinal uses for 123 plant species belonging to 112 genera in 63 families. 1984, La Habana: Editora Ciencias Sociales. It is named in honor of its discover, Quassia the Surinam slave. In today's Video Wilnise Francois will be sharing some of her favorite Haitian Traditional Plants.Wilnise Francois is a Haitian-American Licensed Nurse and H. For example, three shoots of Mangifera indica are boiled and the remedy is drunk in three different cups to treat empacho, a digestive problem; three leaves of Cissampelos pareira are split into half and three halves are boiled in the case of fever; an infusion made from three whorls or tops of Stachytarpheta jamaicensis is prepared and given to children in the morning on an empty stomach as an anthelmintic; the decoction of three leaves of Momordica charantia must be drunk for three days, and the seeds of the same plant are ingested one on the first day, two on the second, and three on the third, and so on for seven days. Ingestion is the preferred means to administer the remedies and accounts for 62% of all applications. Datura is a powerful psychoactive plant, found in West Africa as well as other tropical areas and used there in ritual as well as criminal activities. I think the reason I was unable to find any mention of them in Haiti was because of the complete dissimilarity in climate. Additional file 1 Medicinal plants used by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey, Cuba.Inventory of medicinal plants used by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey, Cuba. 2004, 61: 185-204. Ososki AL, Balick MJ, Daly DC: Medicinal plants and cultural variation across Dominican Rural, Urban, and Transnational Landscapes. For example, a small spoonful of the hairs of the fruits of Mucuna pruriens is mixed with Psidium guayaba jam and ingested before breakfast for three days; the massive diarrhea that follows is supposed to eliminate all worms from the gut and the stomach, as reported also by Seoane [16]. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help They are used to treat rashes in children caused by measles and smallpox (e.g. The use of herbal medicine is common in Haiti, where the knowledge of plants is passed down through the generations, and Haitians are known to use the hibiscus flower and the cerasee plant . Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. For example, three shoots of Mangifera indica are boiled and the remedy is drunk in three different cups to treat empacho, a digestive problem; three leaves of Cissampelos pareira are split into half and three halves are boiled in the case of fever; an infusion made from three whorls or tops of Stachytarpheta jamaicensis is prepared and given to children in the morning on an empty stomach as an anthelmintic; the decoction of three leaves of Momordica charantia must be drunk for three days, and the seeds of the same plant are ingested one on the first day, two on the second, and three on the third, and so on for seven days. In: Hammer K, Esquivel M, Knpffer H, editor. Some of its benefits include antitumor effects, nerve cell protection, anxiety- and . y tienen faxones y fabas muy diversos de los nuestros " Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources. Santillo, Humbart. Seoane J: El Folclor Mdico de Cuba. Besides single medicinal plants, informants also reported 22 herbal mixtures that are mostly prepared as a concoction of plants or plant parts and ingested. In this context, traditional ethnobotanical practices are sometimes reconstituted as part of Haitian culture [14]. Lee RA, Balick MJ, Ling DL, Sohl F, Brosi BJ, Raynor W: Cultural dynamism and change An example from the Federated states of Micronesia. and transmitted securely. Traditional and ritual plant posology should be investigated in more depth in ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies in order to understand their relation with medicinal plant efficacy and toxicity. Medicinal Plants of Haiti With Wilnise - YouTube More than 50% of the mixtures are used to treat afflictions of the respiratory system. Haiti is one of the leading producers of vetiver in the world. Haitians were concentrated in the sugarcane and coffee areas of the former provinces of Oriente and Camagey (Figure (Figure1).1). Respondents in the city of Camagey were located thanks to the local Haitian Association. 1990, Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. In the latter province, they mainly settled in Haitian communities such as Caidije and Guanamaca, thus permitting the perpetuation of their own culture, including the voodoo religion and the creole language [912]. Hernndez J. Uso popular de plantas con fines medicinales. When a person thinks of sarsaparilla, what most often comes to mind is probably an old-fashioned sudsy drink not unlike root beer. 2004, 90: 293-316. Children's baths prepared with anthelmintic plants (e.g. Of these, about three quarters were reported with the same medicinal uses, and the remaining quarter with different uses. Other medicinal uses reported in this study and also commonly found in the Cuban pharmacopoeia include the use of the aerial parts of Cissus verticillata for respiratory problems, of the young fruit of Cocos nucifera and the leaves of Portulaca oleracea for intestinal parasites, of the bark and the leaves of Mangifera indica for gastrointestinal and respiratory problems respectively. Different plant species are added to the basic preparation according to the specific medicinal purpose for which it is prepared: for example, Cissus spp. Consuming 2 or three Echinacea pills two times a day can relieve serious frustrations and also other sorts of migraines. (PDF 182 KB). Today's Cubans rely for food and medicine on a mixed culture that draws upon wisdom originating mainly from Indian, African, Spanish, and Antillean ethnic groups [1-5]. About 75% of the inhabitants live in urban areas, where Camagey, Florida and Nuevitas are the major cities. An ethnobotanical investigation was conducted to collect information on medicinal plant use by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey, Cuba. In its basic preparation, the inner mass is cooked, triturated, and then stirred, sometimes being left one night outside of the house before stirring. CERES Research School, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, NL-6706, Wageningen, the Netherlands, CIMAC, Centro de Investigaciones de Medio Ambiente de Camagey, Cuba. Before Our purpose was to list the plants held to be antifertility agents in the island. (Laguerre, 68) In the Ozarks catnip tea administered to babies quiets colic and can even be used to stop convulsions. Privacy As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. Cultural aspects related to traditional plant posology are addressed, as well as changes and adaptation of Haitian medicinal knowledge with emigration and integration over time. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the About 10% each of the remedies are prepared by means of juice extraction and infusion. Cite this article. Conversely, Justicia pectoralis, reported by Haitians only as a component of one mixture, is widely used and reported by Cubans for its sedative effects [15, 19]. A preliminary study on Haitian plant use revealed that Citrus aurantium (Rutaceae), common name "zorange si" was utilized in a wide variety of ways. DG, AB, and AB performed botanical analysis and species identification. Here Kloss seems to be hinting in his 1939 publication that vervain can be used to cause abortion. Today's Cubans rely for food and medicine on a mixed culture that draws upon wisdom originating mainly from Indian, African, Spanish, and Antillean ethnic groups [15]. Also, in the anthelmintic use of Chenopodium ambrosioides, we can distinguish a posology for acute episodes (three buds every day before breakfast for three or seven days), and a posology for chronic infection (e.g. Different plant species are added to the basic preparation according to the specific medicinal purpose for which it is prepared: for example, Cissus spp. 1954, La Habana: Ediciones CR, Germosn-Robineau L: Farmacopea Vegetal Caribea. Trusted Source. Almost half of the plants reported in this study are not reported in Beyra et al. Mints such as catnip are widely used both in Haiti and America. Scull R, Miranda M, Infante RS. This story originally ran on September 22, 2015. Uses of medicinal plants by Haitian immigrants and their - PubMed