Bush medicine

Cuts, colds, an aching head or back often sends the sufferer scurrying to  a nearby drugstore, physician, or in extreme cases to the emergency room of a local hospital. The availability of medical care is not something that most Americans think about in terms of availability.  Americans might complain about the outrageous cost of that same care.  Nonetheless, it is available.

Traveling in some of the more remote areas of the Bahamas this winter, I've learned that many of the sparsely populated islands don't have a full time doctor.  On others, a doctor might fly in once a week or a nurse might be on call.  Over time,  Bahamians living on some of the more remote and underdeveloped islands acquired an important oral knowledge of herbal lore that would become referred to as bush medicine. 

Some of this knowledge came from their African heritage.  Many of the same remedies used during the slavery era in Bahamian history are used today.  Mary Rolle, a grandmother of two and resident of Nassau,  grew up in the settlement of Rolleville on Barratare.  She explained that while growing up her parents treated their children's illness with native plants growing on the island.  

As a child Rolle suffered from asthma which her mother treated with a plant called Life Leaf.  "My mother would beat Life Leaf in a cloth and squeeze out the juice before mixing it with butter and some lemon or lime.  She would heat the mixture and give it to me to drink," Rolle continued. "We didn't have doctors or drugstores."

Rolle now lives in Nassau and has forgotten much of  the natural pharmacology routinely used by her mother so many years ago.  She said that mothers gave their children catnip for worms and white sage for itching .  "We used to remove the thorns from the prickly pear and use the meat to wash our hair," Rolle remembered.

Martha Hanna-Smith hails from the settlement of Delectable Bay on Acklins Island.  She grew up drinking bush teas and had never heard of Lipton or Earl Gray.  
As a young girl, Hanna-Smith took notice that some of the teas she consumed were also used to treat illness.  The Fever Grass tea that she drank with breakfast could also be used to bring down a fever.  Her fascination with bush medicine grew. She would ultimately author the book Bush Medicine in Bahamian Folk Tradition, published in 2005. 

In the book Hanna-Smith tells how her father insisted that his children drink a bitter draught consisting of a half cup of warm water with a few drops of juice from the Aloe plant each morning.

Historically, Aloe has been used in the home for cuts and burns. The healing plant can also be found in many lotions and salves around the house.  Traditional Bahamian bush medicine also uses the plant as a tea to increase appetite, move bowels, help with indigestion and to fight colds.  According to bush medicine practices, heating and applying the gel like juice will help with infected cuts and the pain of sprains.

Hanna-Smith's book lists plants for backache, blisters, blood pressure control, colds, constipation, coughs, diabetes, fever, flu, headaches, and hangovers.  Native Bahamian flora has been used to treat hiccups, heartburn, rashes as well as the childhood illness of measles, mumps and chicken pox. Thistle, Papaya,  Scourge Needle and Mistletoe are offered as a cure for ringworm .  

For increased male virility, Bahamians have relied on teas of  Love Vine, Five Fingers, Gum Elemi,  Striping Back, Sweet Margaret and Wild Pine.  One formula instructs the practitioner to gather all the the above ingredients, boil together and strain, add sugar to taste, some brandy, and evaporated milk.  The brew is then poured into a bottle and steeped for about three weeks.  Once imbibed, it is said to build energy in a man. 

Locals on Ragged Island say that the Love Vine lives up to its name. It is said to prevent sexual weakness.  Bahamians beat the parasitic stringy yellow orange vine and boil it into a strong tea.  A bus driver on Grand Bahama Island, who wished to remain nameless, swears by this remedy.  It seems like a lot of work, but is probably cheaper that the famous purple pill.  Perhaps the pharmaceutical companies are already researching this bush medicine remedy?

One drawback of bush medicine is that the names of plants can vary from island to island.  Hanna-Smith explains in her book that Buttercup is known as Miss William in San Salvador and Three Days Bush on Acklins.  Portions can also vary as a handful of leaves to one could be quite a bit different from one person to another.

For nearly 500 years, bush medicine from an Amerindian and African heritage, played an important role in Bahamian history.  It is a tradition that is fading away as barriers to modern medicine on many of the remote family islands have been removed.

Nassau, on New Providence Island, offers a state of the art modern medical facility that serves the entire Bahamas.  Soon a second hospital, now under construction, will open in Georgetown, Great Exuma.  The new hospital will serve the southern Bahamas, making a shorter trip for those who need treatment for a full spectrum of illness.  Currently, emergencies from the Out Islands are taken by plane or boat to Nassau to the modern medical facility there.  

At one time the quality of life for Bahamians depended on bush medicine.  Pharmaceutical companies around the globe now research some of that knowledge. Wouldn't it be a miracle if  White Sailor's Cap or Snake Root could be synthesized to produce a cure for some types of cancer?