“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:11)
THIS week, my sister came to the farm to get “paragis” and I did not know what it was. So we asked the locals to show us. “Ayna! Ro-ot met gayam” it’s just a grass. Accordingly, it has many benefits like lowers blood pressure, sugar levels, mitigates kidney problems, ovarian cysts and myoma, parasitism and even cancer. It is commonly known as goose grass, dog grass or wild grass or some other names. So we gathered some along the roadside and in the road itself, pulling the grass and cleaning the dried ones. When we got home, we boiled a couple and used it for tea. We try it for a week and see if it will affect our blood chemistry.
Manong Alex, who was there to rejuvenate himself, was taking in the paragis tea and trying other roots, herbs and fresh vegetables from the farm. During snack time, I would go out by the pond, pull out a stalk of lemon grass and make tea that goes well with the boiled camote. It is a simple life, where the garden is the pharmacy and the work around gives you the exercise and when it is not enough, take a walk to the beach, get a backpack and carry stones.
My husband tells me the anecdote of the brown sugar. During the early 60s and 70s, the connotation was you are poor if you use brown sugar. And I remember my mother would prefer brown sugar for us except when she does some baking and would use white sugar. But it is true that they people said it is the “sugar of the poor.” But now, the brown sugar and the maskuvado are preferred over white sugar for health reasons.
The lemon grass leaves and the oil are medicinal. Scientific study showed that it is used for digestive tract disorder or stomach problems, high blood pressure, convulsions and exhaustion; cough, cold and fever; rheumatisms and also as an astringent. Before I was introduced to lemon grass in Café by the Ruins, my tea included black tea; flavored tea and jasmine tea. Lemon grass tea is now a favorite together with my Nepali tea.
Teas from various herbs have been known to cure various ailments and it still continues today. Turkey, Morocco and Ireland are considered the top three countries in the consumption of teas. Though popularized by the English, however United Kingdom is the fifth country in tea consumption. As I tea drinker I do it for pleasure and for its health benefits.
As the concept of “pharmacy in your backyard” is propagated, more people are encouraged to have herbal gardens in their homes as well as in schools. But even then the pharmaceutical companies have started to use the active ingredients of plants and not the whole plant itself. But what a waste if you would have a whole plantation and use only the roots or the flowers of a plant for pharmaceutical reasons or for its fragrance.
And yet we are reminded that health is a lifestyle, a food intake balance and a lot of physical activities that would make the cells jump and remain healthy. The ancient knowledge of the paragis, the chamomile, the lemon grass, the sun flower and the rest has to be rediscovered if we are to combat the ills that come with the toxic lifestyle that we have in this generation. Our olden traditions need to be revisited and maybe the world will become better for us.