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. Edited by: Hammer K, Esquivel M, Knpffer H. 1992, Gatersleben, Germany: Institut fr Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung, 1: 110-137. Otherwise, they live in hospices either in Camagey or in smaller cities and villages. For most Haitian migrants, given their poverty, there was no possibility to make trips back to Haiti to procure remedies that were not available in the new environment. 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. 10.1016/0378-8741(86)90070-X. 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. Voucher specimens were deposited at the CIMAC herbarium in Camagey (HACC). Senna is the main ingredient in many modern day American laxatives. But because of the recent wet weather, freshcerasee is practically everywhere wrapping itself around traffic signs near I-95 and across fences. Haiti is tropical and ginseng and goldenseal need cool, shady forest slopes to grow in. PubMed One that I ran across in my research that is very interesting and pertinent to this subject is quassia, or bitterwood. By using this website, you agree to our In: Pieroni A, Price LL, editor. 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. Comisin Nacional de Nombres Geogrficos: Diccionario Geogrfico de Cuba. Especially dominant are the soothing effects it is known to have on small infants. Paul A, Cox PA. An ethnobotanical survey of the uses for. Fuentes V: Plants in Afro-Cuban Religions. " With Nina Feldman. 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]. 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. He remembered and was able to impart that knowledge when he arrived in the Caribbean. Camagey, La Habana). 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. Remedies prepared by heating plant parts in fire (four per cent) are mostly used for topical applications (e.g. 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. Shes 81. [2125]. Part of They are persistent. In its basic preparation, the inner mass is cooked, triturated, and then stirred, sometimes being left one night outside of the house before stirring. During the period 19001930, more than half a million Haitians entered the country legally or illegally [6,7]. 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. 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. Voucher specimens were deposited at the CIMAC herbarium in Camagey (HACC). Seabrook, William B., The Magic Island, 1929. Haitian ethnobotanical practices related to traditional posology often follow cosmological/ritual numbers, both for plant quantities and timing of administration. 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. A Haitian Treasure: Vetiver Dr. Naika Apeakorang [12], Nevet and de la Rosa [9], and Pedro [10]. 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. 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]. Scull R, Miranda M, Infante RS: Plantas medicinales de uso tradicional en Pinar del Ro. 2007, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 64-85. She learned from her mother, who learned from her mother, who learned from her mother and so on. Among first generation migrants, twenty are originally from the cities of Les Cayes (Creole name Okai) and Port Salut (Creole name Posal), in the South of Haiti, whereas four lived in or near Port-au-Prince. 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. Among these, a mixture prepared with the fruit of Crescentia cujete as a main ingredient is highly regarded by Haitians and is considered as a panacea. Mints such as catnip are widely used both in Haiti and America. statement and Ethnobotanical knowledge is dynamic for any given culture and it changes as it is transferred and appropriated by people who are adapting to new environments [44, 45]. (Colon, 154).. 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. News reports immediately following the disaster documented displaced Haitians sitting . Inventaire ethnopharmacologique. Pieroni A, Mnz H, Akbulut M, Baser KHC, Durmuskahya C. Traditional phytotherapy and transcultural pharmacy among Turkish immigrants living in Cologne, Germany. government site. (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. Revista Cubana de Alimentacin y Nutricin. I soon learned however that Caribbean folk medicine cannot be studied without comparing it to African-American practices. 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]. Five formulas have been reported as miel de gira (siw kalbaz in Creole), whose main ingredient is the fruit of Crescentia cujete. 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. 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. Google Scholar. I might add though, that there is a nebulous line between what constitutes an emmenogogue or abortifacient, but the desired result is the instigation of bleeding. 2005, 97: 337-350. Edited by Liz O. Baylen and Mike Benoist. An infusion (tea) of senna is given to expel worms, reduce biliousness (belching and indigestion), and as an all-purpose laxative (Kloss, 312; Santillo, 175). We identified about twenty species more or less currently used by the women . My mom comes from a line of Haitian women herbalists from Gonaives, Haiti. [15] who interviewed 29 Cuban informants across the Province of Camagey and reported 111 species used for medicinal purposes. 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. 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]. She learned from her mother, who learned from her mother, who learned from her mother and so on. Economic Botany. 2023 BioMed Central Ltd unless otherwise stated. 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 [9-12]. The Ballad of 'Deepfake Drake' - The New York Times Echinacea can be taken numerous times a day, as recommended by an herbalist. Uses of medicinal plants by Haitian immigrants and their - PubMed The plant pops up all over South Florida, especially when it rains. Consuming 2 or three Echinacea capsules twice a day can soothe extreme frustrations as well as other kinds . 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. Creole is the second most spoken language in the Province of Camagey, after Spanish. Brandon G. The uses of plants in healing in an Afro-Cuban religion, Santeria. It is known in both locales as a blood purifier or that which promotes a cleaning action of the liver, kidneys, spleen and bowels. Among Haitians, these practices are often related to cosmological/ritual numbers, and plant quantities used in the preparation of the remedies and the timing of administration follow these numbers (mainly three and seven; see also Weniger et al. Pieroni A, Mnz H, Akbulut M, Baser KHC, Durmuskahya C: Traditional phytotherapy and transcultural pharmacy among Turkish immigrants living in Cologne, Germany. Audrey Rowe is Jamaican. Parentesco, inmigracin y comunidad Una visin del caso haitiano. Topical application as a pomade or plaster is used in 10% of the remedies, while frictioning, preferred with preparations for rheumatisms and arthritis, accounts for two per cent. Les plantes et legume d'Haiti qui guerrissent. 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]. Of these, about three quarters were reported with the same medicinal uses, and the remaining quarter with different uses. GV, DG, AB, and AB carried out interviews and collected data in the field. Herbal and Traditional Medicine in Post-Earthquake Haiti