Medicinal Plants
Medicinal Plants on Ibiza
On Ibiza just like in other parts of the Earth there are a great many medicinal plants. Nowadays the old knowledge about these plants and their uses are more and more being forgotten. We do not know anymore what benefits Nature has to offer us, we do not know to esteem her healing powers regarding our diseases. It is said that everywhere just grow the plants that are helpful against the diseases of that corresponding region. Be it thus or not–in any case there is a valuable potential within the plants.
If you are on Ibiza, have a look on the medicinal plant garden of the Casita Verde!
Sometimes you may find numbers about how many species of medicinal plants there are, for example on Ibiza. Such numbers have to be treated with a grain of salt though because it is not always possible to say whether or not a plant is medicinal since the quality of being medicinal is not only a quality of the plant itself but also of the cultural context. Theoretically every plant could have medicinal properties, according to the traditions.
There is a saying that health is not the only value but without health nothing else is of value. If nowadays we go to the doctor's in order to make him or her heal us, we often forget Nature's value regarding healing. And–what is even more problematic–even the doctor tends to forget this value of geat importance. In many cases, no doubt, not for lack of knowledge but rather because the medicinal plants are not lucrative enough. Well now, what is the use of a health system in that the being lucrative of the healing ways is regarded as of more worth than their efficiency? We might see immediate effects though after some time the organism will lose its capability to heal itself because of being addicted to chemical remedies.
On the other hand many plants serve to strengthen the immune system of the body–and hopefully of the psyche as well. Sure it is not enough only to use medicinal plants in order to remain in good health, they cannot replace a healthy life style, yet they have got worthy properties to heal us from diseases.
In many cases however we are not sick whatever the ads of the chemical industry may tell us. If a child is agile and does not keep quiet, it may have special needs, it may need more love, certainly it does not need chemical remedies to make it quiet. The attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not a disease but an economic idea.
It is not meant to be the task of this text to deny the worth of doctors. In certain cases, no doubt, it is to be recommended to consult a doctor for he or she knows about the body (and hopefully also about the psyche). However, it is good for us to believe also in the healing properties of nature as well as of our own bodies. Medicinal plants are not an isolated issue, better is, they form part of a healthy way of living with a healthy diet.
To use medicinal plants, you must know about them. Some plants (just like chemical remedies) can be harmful if used in the wrong situation or in an overdose. A well-known example is hemp which is a good medicine with many diseases but can have threatenig effects in people with a tendency to a psychosis. The effects vary according to individual patterns. Often they also have a cultural component: Medicine that works well within one culture need not work likewise in another. (An example is the shamanic medicine which only works within its Central and Northern Asian cultural context.) So infos about effects are never meant to be taken too strict. Often it is difficult to say objective things about medicinal plants.
In many parts of the Earth there are specialists, nowadays mainly elderly people, who can teach us about the traditional uses, besides books and the internet provide informations about other uses that, as an example, on Ibiza are not traditional but may be worthwhile being introduced as the plants themselves are known or at least present here.
Click for searching plants according to uses or English names. For searching according to scientific names see on the left-hand side.
Literature
d'Arellano, C. Guerau & Nèstor Torres: Nova aportació al coneixement de les plantes d'Eivissa i Formentera. Eivissa 1981.
Janzing, Gereon: Psychoaktive Drogen weltweit. Löhrbach 2000.
Janzing, Gereon: (2000): Hanf. Ein altbekanntes Heilmittel. In: Freizeit & Kultur (Merzhausen bei Freiburg i. Br.) 11/2000: 14.
Janzing, Gereon: Mehrsprachiges Drogenwörterbuch. Deutsch – Englisch – Portugiesisch – Spanisch – Französisch – Italienisch – Russisch – Esperanto. Löhrbach 2004 (plurilingual dictionary of drugs).
Pamplona-Roger, George D.: Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants. 2 volumes. Madrid (original version in Spanish: Enciclopedia de las plantas medicinales).
Stevens, Neil: Aloe vera. Málaga 1997.
