Information was obtained from semi-structured interviews with Haitian immigrants and their descendants, direct observations, and by reviewing reports of traditional Haitian medicine in the literature. "y tienen faxones y fabas muy diversos de los nuestros" Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources. 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. The vervain plant is a lesser-known herbal remedy, but it has a lengthy history of medicinal use when it comes to a variety of systems in the body . GUID:FB7A69D3-5F4B-4A23-86B2-F73B140ADACB. Brandon G: The uses of plants in healing in an Afro-Cuban religion, Santeria. Google Scholar. statement and 1. They relied heavily on homegardens, wild plants, and on traditional ethnobotanical knowledge and practices in order to survive. 1966, 1: 25-39. It's not just a weed. Why some Caribbean immigrants seek out this wild About 10% each of the remedies are prepared by means of juice extraction and infusion. Haitians were concentrated in the sugarcane and coffee areas of the former provinces of Oriente and Camagey (Figure 1). Its worse than cod liver oil.. 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]. 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. Sister Francis is a religious woman whose backyard is filled with the healing bushes she grew up using in Jamaica. Weniger B, Haag-Berrurier M, Anton R: Plants of Haiti used as antifertility agents. 105 e/ngel y Pobre, Camagey, Cuba, Daimy Godnez,Angela Beyra&Adelaida Barreto, You can also search for this author in The tea is bitter. Along with the knowledge some of the slaves were able to bring a few plants. The research led to the identification of 123 different plant species used for medicinal purposes by Haitians and their descendants in the Province of Camagey. Selling Traditional Haitian Herbs [2125]. 1954, La Habana: Ediciones CR, Germosn-Robineau L: Farmacopea Vegetal Caribea. The complexity of practices related to traditional posology is rarely investigated in ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies. around Central Brasil, Minas in the North of the Province and Central Haiti in the South). Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, Creole Language and Culture: Part of Cuba's Cultural Patrimony, Volpato G, Godnez D, Beyra A. Migration and ethnobotanical practices: The case of, Beyra A, Len M, Iglesias E, Ferrndiz D, Herrera R, Volpato G, Godinez D, Guimarais M, Alvarez R. Estudios etnobotnicos sobre plantas medicinales en la provincia de Camagey (Cuba). Nevertheless, some culturally relevant products such as dried or fresh specimens of Artemisia absinthium and fruits and seeds of Abelmoschus esculentus were brought to Cuba upon migration (Figure (Figure2).2). 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. Weniger B, Rouzier M, Daguilh R, Henrys D, Henrys JH, Anton R: La medecine populaire dans le Plateau Central d'Haiti. Consuming 2 or three Echinacea capsules twice a day can soothe extreme frustrations as well as other kinds . 1974, La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro. Her go-to cure-all medicinal plant is asosi, also called cerasee or corailee in the English-speaking Caribbean. Also, cricket's (genus Acheta and Neoconocaephalus) legs are boiled in water and the decoction is then drunk by children and older people who have urination problems. J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine 5, 16 (2009). The Haitian herbalist and her Ozark counterpart share a similarity: they both gather and use herbs because of necessity. According to information we . About Haiti Medicine - Haiti | Haiti Medicine S.A. 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]. To locate the respondents, we first focused on the areas in the province where historical and oral records indicate the presence of Haitian communities (e.g. Colon, Sandra Hernandez. Some locals say that Voodoo succeeds where modern . They knew the use of cure-to-all medicinal plant Asosi or cerasee or corailee in English which grows all over South Florida, especially in abundance during the rainy season. Haitian's knowledge about plants seems to comprehend and deal with toxic allelochemicals through specific posological practices. But in Haiti, where worms are a more prevalent problem among the population, senna is gathered and used for its febrifuge properties. (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. Other therapeutic uses treat afflictions of the reproductive apparatus (menstrual disorders, ovary pain, vaginal infections, as an aphrodisiac; about 9%), skin afflictions (wounds, burns, rashes; about 9%), helminth worm infections (about 7%), and renal afflictions (diuretic, depurative; about 7%). More than half of the plant species reported in that study are also reported in the current study of Haitian immigrants and their descendants. Besides single medicinal plants, informants also reported 22 herbal mixtures that are mostly prepared as a concoction of plants or plant parts and ingested. Map of Cuba with the Province of Camagey. The Province is inhabited by some 780,000 people, or seven per cent of the Cuban population. Mints such as catnip are widely used both in Haiti and America. DeSantis' appointed board approves a lawsuit against Disney, South Florida professor allegedly fired over racial justice unit files civil rights complaint, Gas prices across Florida are on the decline and could get even lower, Florida LGBTQ+ lawmaker tells the GOP: 'Im literally trying to exist', The Symphonia's climate change-themed concert series concludes with 'Water', Favorite Zip Odes: Poems about cafecito, heat, language and I-95 traffic, Bumping Lady Gaga off the charts? 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. This video showcases plants used for post labor bath and tea as Haitian mother explains the importance of traditional medicine. Anyone who has seen a cat lolling around blissfully on a pile of catnip knows that this herb can produce a definite reaction.. In the Ozarks sarsaparilla tea is also widely used for its purifying properties.. Another blood purifier that is a very common remedy both in Ozarkia and Haiti, is catnip or catmint. A Haitian carnival takes place every year in Santiago de Cuba, and a Creole radio program is broadcasted nationally [13]. Herbal mixtures used by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey. Some 22 herbal mixtures are reported, including formulas for a preparation obtained using the fruit of Crescentia cujete. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 Haitians (21 women and 13 men) whose ages ranged from 45 to 102 years (mean age 68), in the following communities: Central Brasil, Jiqu, Aguacate, Esmeralda, Antn, Batey Varela (Antn), San Serapio, Caidije, La Jagua, Macuto 2, Camagey (neighbourhoods of Puerto Prncipe, Bellavista, Florat, and La Guernica). Summary. Pierre-Noel (1959) gathered recipes and modes of usage for various plants and categorized them by illness. Across the yard is a towering shrub with yellow flower clusters shapedlike a candle. 1997, Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. 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. Terms and Conditions, Fuentes V: Las plantas medicinales en Cuba. Divergence and Convergence in Traditional Plant-Based Medicinal 10.1016/0378-8741(86)90070-X. Received 2009 Feb 28; Accepted 2009 May 18. Baths are also prepared to rid people of the 'bad' and the 'evil eye', a practice known in Afro-Cuban religions as despojo [34,35], mainly using species such as Vitex trifolia, Trichilia glabra, Alpinia speciosa, Allophyllus cominia. Given this, as well as the poor availability of ethnobotanical data relating to traditional Haitian medicine, there is an urgent need to record this knowledge. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The hairs of the fruit of this plant contain formic acid and mucunain, which are so toxic that they were used as homicidal poisons in Africa [40, 41]. During the decades after emigration, the original Haitian ethnomedicinal knowledge progressively changed and adapted to the new environment, maintaining cultivation and use of important medicinal plants, incorporating plants and uses from the host Cuban culture, and diffusing specific plant uses to Cubans in contact with Haitian communities. It became quite a popular cure in the rural Southern states and its efficacy was even employed by the white slave owners and their families who needed a thorough worming. y tienen faxones y fabas muy diversos de los nuestros " Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources. Informants reported using 123 plant species belonging to 112 genera in 63 families. (Kloss, 215) In Jordan's research on Voodoo medicine, he places more emphasis, however, on the calming properties of catnip, rather than purgative. The final question that I wanted to probe was some sort of linkage between the two cultures of Haiti and America that might account for the similarities I found in treatment methods. The Traditional Use of Medicinal Plants and Herbs in the Province of Haitian with a dried fruit of Abelmoschus esculentus from his homegarden (G. Volpato). [15]. 10.1016/j.jep.2005.05.018. Haitian Plants Medicine. [15] and in other studies about traditional Cuban medicine [18, 42], their use among Cubans is not as widespread or as differentiated as among Haitian descendants. Vervain is a popular remedy due to its multiple plant-beneficial compounds. 2001, 55: 9-13. Au DT, Wu J, Jiang Z, Chen H, Lu G, Zhao Z: Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by Hakka in Guangdong, China. The incorporation of local remedies into their own pharmacopoeia occurred as a consequence of factors such as cultural contacts and exchanges between Haitians and Cubans and of personal experimentation or imitation of local practices by migrants. [14], while some other information can be found in James et al. They are persistent. Additional file 1 lists the plant species cited by informants in alphabetical order according to their scientific name, along with their botanical families, vernacular Cuban and Haitian names (as reported by informants during the fieldwork), voucher specimen numbers, parts used, preparation of the remedies, medicinal use, and frequency of mention. Armed with Sunflower Tea and Ginger Root, Haitian Mountain People - VOA An official website of the United States government. Prez de la Riva J: Cuba y la migracin antillana. 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. Quassia was thought to have been a leaf healer in Surinam before being brought to Haiti. 10.1016/j.jep.2004.11.022. 2001, Guantnamo, Cuba: Editorial el mar y la montaa, Nevet M, De la Rosa AS: Kote ou bouke m pote. Seoane J: El Folclor Mdico de Cuba. My own interest in herbal healing dates back twenty years when I moved to a rural area in the Ozarks and had occasion to meet local people who gathered herbs and used them to treat various ailments. 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. This paper focuses on traditional medicinal plant uses of Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey, Cuba. She is picking cerasee to use in a bush bath for a rash. The site is secure. DG, AB, and AB performed botanical analysis and species identification. Shes 81. Volpato G, Godnez D: Ethnobotany of Pru, a traditional Cuban refreshment. Generally, decoction is used for hard and ligneous parts, including coriaceous leaves, while infusion is used only for soft leaves and shoots, especially from aromatic plants (e.g. 2000, La Habana, Cuba: Centro de Antropologa-CEISIC-Centro Juan Marinello, Espronceda ME: Parentesco, inmigracin y comunidad. Rowe said growing up in Jamaica people used to tell pregnant women that if they wanted their babies to be born with pretty brown skin, they should drink cerasee. This figure is based on a comparison with data from another province that also absorbed much Haitian migration to Cuba, the Province of Guantanamo [13]. Anales del Jardn Botnico de Madrid. The plants cited were photographed, collected with the informants during the interviews, and identified by authors (D.G., A.B., A.B.) Ososki AL, Balick MJ, Daly DC. (PDF 182 KB). Baths are also prepared to rid people of the 'bad' and the 'evil eye', a practice known in Afro-Cuban religions as despojo [34, 35], mainly using species such as Vitex trifolia, Trichilia glabra, Alpinia speciosa, Allophyllus cominia. My mom comes from a line of Haitian women herbalists from Gonaives, Haiti. Respondents in the city of Camagey were located thanks to the local Haitian Association. Data also suggest that culturally relevant plants (those cited by more informants and with a greater number of uses) are often used in different qualitative ways by migrants and hosts. Afrikanische Arzneipflanzen und Jagdgifte Chemie, Pharmakologie, Toxikologie. GV drafted the manuscript. Among the shared ethnobotanical practices is also the preparation of miel de gira with the pulp of the fruit of Crescentia cujete. 105 e/ngel y Pobre, Camagey, Cuba. Audrey Rowe is Jamaican. Some locals say that Voodoo succeeds where modern medicine can't, but that the religion is often misunderstood. The Ballad of 'Deepfake Drake' - The New York Times 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. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Toxicologic aspects of voodoo in Haiti - PubMed Springer Nature. Hernndez J. Uso popular de plantas con fines medicinales. The Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacy of Migrations. Ingestion is the preferred means to administer the remedies and accounts for 62% of all applications. 2. Plants of Haiti used as antifertility agents - PubMed Haiti is tropical and ginseng and goldenseal need cool, shady forest slopes to grow in. Although no census of Haitians (residents or descendants) in Cuba has been done to date, we can roughly estimate the number of Haitians and their descendants in the Province of Camagey at about 50,000 or 67% of the population. 1987, South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey Publishers. the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. [25]). Down through the ages women have had to deal with menstrual cramps, excessive bleeding, water retention and unwanted pregnancy, just to name a few. Haiti Medicine S.A. (HM) is a private company, which distributes top quality medicines and pharmaceutical products throughout Haiti. Some people from the Caribbean believe theres almost nothing cerasee doesnt work for. Haitian migrants played an important role shaping Cuban culture and traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. And thats it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 Haitians (21 women and 13 men) whose ages ranged from 45 to 102 years (mean age 68), in the following communities: Central Brasil, Jiqu, Aguacate, Esmeralda, Antn, Batey Varela (Antn), San Serapio, Caidije, La Jagua, Macuto 2, Camagey (neighbourhoods of Puerto Prncipe, Bellavista, Florat, and La Guernica). HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. She uses many local herbs and plants, such as chamomile and thyme (left basket) and ginger root (center baskets), to alleviate afflictions that include coughs, other cold symptoms and menstruation . Momordica charantia, Solanum americanum and Stachytarpheta jamaicensis are among those species most cited by Haitians in this study. 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]. 1) and generally sold for US$1.50 to $2.50. Background: Haitian migrants played an important role shaping Cuban culture and traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. Special thanks are due to all of the Haitian respondents and their families for their kindness and for agreeing to share their knowledge with us, with oral consent being provided for figure 2; to the members of the Asociacin de Haitianos de Camagey; to Patricia Howard for her commentaries and suggestions. 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]. . The species belong to 112 genera and 63 families, with a prevalence of Annona and Citrus (three species each) among the genera, and among the families of Fabaceae (9.8%), Asteraceae (6.5%), Euphorbiaceae and Verbenaceae (4.9%), Lamiaceae and Rutaceae (3.3%). 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. The data presented in this paper are derived from a wider study that was conducted on the ethnobiological knowledge of Haitian people living in the Province of Camagey. dicinal plants utilized in the plain regions. Almost five per cent of the remedies are used without processing, which is especially the case for fruits eaten as medicinal foods (e.g. I think the reason I was unable to find any mention of them in Haiti was because of the complete dissimilarity in climate. 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. Esquivel M, Hammer K. The Cuban homegarden 'conuco': a perspective environment for evolution and in situ conservation of plant genetic resources. 10.1016/0378-8741(82)90072-1. "y tienen faxones y fabas muy diversos de los nuestros" Origin, Evolution and Diversity of Cuban Plant Genetic Resources. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Still, cerasee is in demand, especially for Caribbean transplants now living here in South Florida. An ethnobotanical investigation was conducted to collect information on medicinal plant use by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagey, Cuba. Those who arrived in the 1940s came either by plane or boat, although they were migrating mostly for the same reasons. [http://www.aaanet.org/committees/ethics/ethcode.htm], Len H: Flora de Cuba. Gabriele Volpato. She is a believer of remed fey, or bush medicine. 2023 BioMed Central Ltd unless otherwise stated. An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants commercialized in the markets of La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia. Haitian Medicinal Plants - Medicinal Plants and Herbal Remedies Edited by: Pieroni A, Vandebroek I. I have chosen eight that are used both in Haiti and the Ozarks to describe and comment on. Haitian Voodoo priests control two major practices which might be of interest to toxicologists: healing and poisoning. 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. Since Haitians have very limited access to the attentions of doctors and modern medicine when ill, their reliance on leaf-doctoring is essential to remedying their sicknesses and maintaining a state of good health. Remedies prepared by heating plant parts in fire (four per cent) are mostly used for topical applications (e.g. Haitian empirical medicine sprang from both European (16th to 19th century) and African (especially voodoo) traditional therapies. Her go-to cure-all medicinal plant is asosi, also called cerasee and corailee in the English-speaking Caribbean. DG, AB, and AB performed botanical analysis and species identification. 1999, 13: 145-150. Given this, as well as the poor availability of ethnobotanical data relating to traditional Haitian medicine, there is an urgent need to record this knowledge. haitian plants medicine Before the advent of modern medicine, women had to rely on herbal cures for a variety of ailments and symptoms associated with their reproductive symptoms. We identified about twenty species more Brandon G. The uses of plants in healing in an Afro-Cuban religion, Santeria. Fieldwork was carried out from December 2002March 2003 and from FebruaryJuly 2004. This lapse of time is long enough to permit insights to be drawn regarding the process of transformation and adaptation of ethnomedicinal knowledge after migration and in the ways in which the progressive integration of migrants in the host culture modifies this knowledge. Ethnomedicinal knowledge of Haitian immigrants in Cuba presents no exception [14]. If they or their leaf doctor sense that any of these factors are out of balance in their body, they dose themselves with an decoction (tea) of sarsaparilla root. The rapid disappearance of Haitian migrants' traditional culture due to integration and urbanization suggests that unrecorded ethnomedicinal information may be lost forever. People like St. Fort, who grew up in Haiti, know to keep an eye out for the trusted plant. Traveling Plants and Cultures The Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacy of Migrations. Often, a decoction of leaves and aerial parts is prepared, sometimes in combinations of different species, and left to cool, or otherwise these vegetal parts are smashed and directly added to the bath water.
haitian plants medicine