Caribbean Recipes | Dominica Photos | Classified Ads | Search Jobs | Advertise here!

Purely Dominica

Purely Dominica


herbal tonics

One definition of a tonic – the criterion used in most ethnic healing systems – is a herb that, with long term use is “building” in some way.

Tonic herbs are a great way to begin with herbal remedies, to try something new and see what it does for you. And they can be taken throughout life. We live in such as toxic and disease-filled world that it cannot hurt to strengthen our “shields.”

By nourishing your tissues and energy the tonics help combat disease, increase immunity and enhance the quality of your life.

Many herbs and natural products are found here in Dominica. One of the reasons why Dominica boasts a remarkable concentration of very old people in good health and they’ve begun to arouse the interest of medical science.

Bwa Bande is a popular tonic, which is said to restore male virility naturally. It is found in a tea form in many of the local shop around Dominica. Cimenkontwa is another herbal tonic that allegedly rids the body of parasites, and Citronella is good for the common cold.

Just ask any Dominican for their favorite “bush” remedy…they’re always willing to share their secret remedies.

Share this Dominica article with your friends:

Facebook Twitter Google Buzz Google Bookmarks Digg Reddit delicious Technorati Slashdot Yahoo My Web

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

RSS feed | Trackback URI

2 Comments »

Comment by Dan
2010-05-14 08:22:55

For upset stomach, make a tea using cinnamon (“spice”), cool it and drink.

For sunburn, apply aloe.

For nearly any illness or rash, use “noni” — cut the juice with half fruit juice for taste.

To re-hydrate, use coconut water.

These all work.

 
Comment by elizabeth xavier
2010-05-15 02:09:32

The unfortunate thing is that we do not realize the importance of herbal plants and we fail to nurture them. Before I left Dominica, we had cemenkontwa and basaelic planted everywhere around the houses of my neighborhood. The reason is because the plants needed very little hand nurturing–like most plants in Dominica–having consistent amount of water and sunlight, which was all they needed to bloom away through a fertile soil.

I remember that we used those herb leaves as tea for any reason, not just for medicine. All we needed to do is to replace the broken stems in some dirt, and the water and sunlight would do the rest. But it seem as if as Dominica began to modernize, our herbs also began to disappear.

When I was home in 2008, for a six-weeks vacation, I found brick houses occupying much of the soil areas in my neigborhood. I do not remember seeing a cemenkontwa nor a basaelic plant anywhere. My sister suffers with stomach acid problem. She had all kinds of bottles, like pepto bismol, from the drug store as prescribed by her doctor, on her medicine shelf. And it seemed that I sounded like greek to her, when I suggested that our own herbal plants were more curable for her stomach than those drug store medicine.

I am glad to know that some us still know the importance of our herbal plants. And it would be good to continue to encourage people to nurture as many of those plants as possible. After all, we already have the water, the sunlight, and the soil. All the plants need is a pampering hand.

 
Name
E-mail
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> in your comment.

Trackback responses to this post




Business Key Top Sites