Herbal medicine overlooked

HEALTH

By HENZY YAKHAM
FOR thousands of years, from time immemorial, plants have been used for medicinal purposes long before recorded history.
Ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus writings describe medicinal uses for plants as early as 3,000 BC.
BC is Before Christ and is used to indicate a year or century before the year in which Jesus Christ is thought to have been born.
The year Christ was born is considered AD 1 and the year before that is labeled 1BC. AD stands for Anno Domini and is a label for numbering years after Christ was born.
The use of plants for medicinal purposes is as old as the first humans on planet Earth. The Bible, the Word of God also makes references to plant healing in that “God gives mankind the use of plants and herbs for curative care, both physical (2 Kings 20:7; Psalm 51:7) and emotional (Psalm 45:8; Genesis 43:11).
In 2 Kings 20:7 it states “And Isaiah said, take a lump of figs, not moist figs, but a cake of dried figs, as the word used signifies, and so the less likely to have any effect in curing the boil: and they took, and laid it on the boil, and he recovered; made a plaster of it, and laid it on the ulcer, and it was healed.”
The Bible explicitly mentions five plant species having medicinal value/qualities and they are fig (Ficus carica), nard (Nardostachys jatamansi), hyssop (Origanum syriacum), balm of Gilead (Commiphora gileadensis) and Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum).

This article is to inform readers that plants of medicinal value have been used for treatment of all infections and illnesses as well as for general health and wellbeing for centuries well before modern medicine.
History records that the “father of (modern) medicine” is an ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates of Kos who discovered medicine. Historians agree that Hippocrates was born around the year 460 BC on the Greek island of Kos and died in circa 370 BC at the age of 90 years.
The father of modern medicine wrote the Hippocratic Corpus, which is a collection of around 70 medical works. Hippocrates is credited as the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and by gods. An important concept in Hippocratic medicine was that of a crisis, a point in the progression of disease at which either the illness would begin to triumph and the patient would succumb to death, or the opposite would occur and natural processes would make the patient recover.
Two popular but likely misquoted attributions to Hippocrates are “Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food” and “Walking is man’s best medicine”.
In 2017, researchers claimed that, while conducting restorations on the Saint Catherine’s Monastery in South Sinai, they found a manuscript which contains a medical recipe of Hippocrates. The manuscript also contains three recipes with pictures of herbs that were created by an anonymous scribe.
The three recipes with pictures of herbs goes to support the general practice that even modern medicine recognises the healing powers of medicinal plants.
Over time, science and medical evidences have proven the health benefits of healing herbs. A healing herb is either collected from the wild or purposely grown for its medicinal or curative value. The leaves bark, stems, roots, seeds, and/or flowers of these plants are used to create herbal remedies and many illnesses and infections.
Examples of healing plants for which there is some evidence supporting their ability to either treat or relieve symptoms of certain health conditions include: Ashwagandha, chamomile, echinacea, garlic, ginger, gingko, ginseng, lavender. Saint-John’s-Wort and turmeric.
Medicinal plants are alternatives to modern medicine as they play a complimentary role in curing ailments and illnesses.
Despite the discovery of modern medicine and usage, people worldwide continue to use herbs for treatment of various health issues.
Papua New Guinea is no exception and traditional medicine, its knowledge, applying skills and practices have been passed down from one generation to another in all cultures and societies.
Today, access to modern medicine and increased urban drift is resulting in many, especially the younger generation not knowing the too-important plants that has medicinal value and knowledge of administering them.
To help preserve this knowledge and recognise the importance of medicinal plants to health care systems, the World Health Organiusation (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific has published a series of books on Medicinal Plants in China, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam and the South Pacific.
Medicinal plants in Papua New Guinea is the fifth in this series. This book covers only a small proportion of the immense knowledge on traditional medicine, the plant species from which they are derived, the diseases they can treat and the parts of the plants to be used.
PNG’s diverse cultures, languages and traditional practices has made this a particularly challenging project. But it is envisaged that the information and accompanying references can provide useful information for scientists, doctors and other users. For more than 40,000 years, people in PNG’s traditional communities depended solely on herbal plants for healing, health and well-being.
Today, PNG, home to the third largest rainforest in the world, with a very high biodiversity, is a gold mine of botanic fortune that can be well utilised for herbal healing to treat all forms of illnesses and infections.
PNG has these medicines and herbs, many known and many others unknown to medical science. Alternative therapies of herbal healing are closer to nature, cheaper, and less invasive than conventional therapies.
Increasingly, many who face various health conditions resort to alternate medicine such as effective herbal treatment than conventional medicine.
The PNG Government issued a policy on traditional medicine in March 2017 but very little has emerged from it. There are local herbalist that continue to administer herbal treatment for people suffering from various health issues and conditions.
Some of the most powerful medicinal plants that are known and their benefits include:
Gingko – used for dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, eye health, inflammation, diabetes, bone healing, anxiety and depression.
Turmeric – pain caused by inflammatory diseases (like arthritis), preventing cancer, stopping DNA mutations and several skin diseases.
Evening primrose oil – mild skin conditions, breast pain, menopause, inflammation, diabetic neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, and blood pressure
Flax seed – decreasing obesity, regulating blood pressure, preventing colon cancer, inflammation and hot flashes.
A tree oil – acne, athlete’s foot, cuts, dandruff and insect bites.
Echinacea – colds, immunity, bronchitis and upper respiratory infections
Grapeseed extract – cancer. lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol, leg vein circulation, edema and blood pressure
Lavender – stress, blood pressure and migraine.
Chamomile – anxiety, stress, insomnia and cancer.
PNG has a very high biodiversity and has a gold mine of botanic fortune that can be well utilised to treat all forms of illnesses and infections.
Port Moresby-based herbalist, Silas Ayamaso uses herbs and plants from around PNG, carefully blended and administers to people suffering from all forms of illnesses and diseases. He has been successfully administering treatment for various health conditions including many who hospital medicine could not treat.

A 48-year old mother, Rose Kekea of Alukuni village in Central is the latest person to testify of benefiting from herbal treatment. In January 2023, Kekea was admitted to Port Moresby General Hospital following an internal medical condition with swollen stomach and lower limbs.
The wheel chair-bound mother-of-four was first hospitalised in the intensive care unit and later moved to a ward.
She was not responding fast to hospital treatment so with her consent and of her family, Ayamaso administered herbal treatment on Kekea.
Initially her husband Nama and children were reluctant, but when her condition deteriorated fearing the worst, the relatives agreed to allow Ayamaso to administer herbal treatment.
After just a few days of herbal treatment and miraculously, Kekea “responded very fast and within days she was recovering and the swollen was subsiding. Soon after Kekea walked out of the hospital unaided after recovery.
Testimonies
There are many testimonies of Ayamaso successful administering herbal healing to hundreds of people suffering from various aliments and infections since he first started his herbal healing work more than 20 years ago.
In 2018, Ayamaso successfully treated Sergeant Henry Map of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary who had suffered a stroke that paralysed the left part of his body and limbs.
After being hospitalised for seven months at the PomGen the wheel-chair bound Map said good bye to the wheelchair courtesy of herbal healing and reported for duties at the Boroko police station.
Map’s story was published in 2018 by the dailies.
In 2021, a young mother, Yvonne Tore who had cervical cancer and severe anaemia testified of her miraculous cure, which was also published in newspapers.
Briefly, Tore couldn’t be treated and one of the final assessments her medical officer’s comments in her clinic book were “poor diagnosis and palliative care.”
Tore’s discharge plan, the medical officer wrote were:
To go home;
Review patient if any issue; and
Prognosis explained to patient and relatives understood and accepted.
Tore received herbal treatment, got cured and recovered – courtesy of Ayamaso.
Today, Ayamaso is among herbal healers that are tapping into PNG’s botanic fortune using herbs to treat people with some of the most severe health conditions. He gets his herbs from around PNG, carefully blended and administered to people suffering from all forms of illnesses and diseases.
For over two decades Silas Ayamaso has successfully administered treatment for various health conditions including many who hospital medicine could not treat.
He has a proven track record of successfully treating people who were not responsive to treatment in hospitals as well as those sent home to face the inevitable.
While the Government through the Department of Health is aware of PNG’s botanic wealth, money to carry out research and monitor herbal medicine is not an immediate priority.
In the meantime, thousands of PNG citizens continue to die each year from curable or preventable diseases.
It is time people suffering from all forms of diseases and infections to consider seeking herbal healing as an alternative.
This is in no way to undermine or challenge the established health system PNG has, but to help complement existing health services for our people.

• Henzy Yakham is a freelance journalist. Send story ideas to 72159301 or [email protected]