Medicinal value of gumbo limbo tree12/31/2023 ![]() Its medicinal purpose reflects its actions - tea from the leaves and branches can help the drinker fall asleep. When you touch the leaves, they close in on themselves and droop down to avoid further contact. It’s also called the sensitive plant, or the humble plant. This one has nothing to do with Champagne and orange juice, and everything to do with a pretty purple flower and leaves that shy away if you try to touch them. ![]() Its versatility really makes the taste worth it. And if you ever have the unfortunate opportunity to catch lice, just wash your hair with the bitters and it’ll get rid of them right away. It’s also anti-viral, helping speed cold and flu recovery. When made into tea or wine, jackass bitters serve as a powerful anti-parasitic, tackling everything from ringworm and malaria to yeast and fungal infections. But it’s worth it to muscle through the taste. You may prefer the less crass moniker “gavilana,” but the common name tells a story about the flowers and leaves it’s said that a tea made from the plant is so bitter that you have to be a … donkey to drink it. Taken as a tea, gumbo limbo is said to ease cold and flu symptoms and relieve urinary tract infections and headaches. The bark strips are also used as a topical remedy for any type of skin ailment, including measles and rashes from poison plants. Boiled strips of bark can be laid over sunburns to speed up healing. Tourists come to the Caribbean and leave with red, peeling, sunburnt skin that matches the bark on the tree, which is also red and peels away. ![]() The name represents both illness and remedy. Gumbo LimboĪs a testament to Caribbean cleverness, this tree also goes by a much more appropriate name: the sunburned-tourists tree. Some even use the crushed leaves as a poultice to relieve arthritis and other pain. But that tea has other medicinal properties, too it eases stomachaches and digestion problems, relieves cramps and gas, and guards against nausea and asthma attacks. In the Caribbean, they call it “fever grass” because it’s brewed into tea to reduce fevers. But we know it by another name: lemongrass. This grass is actually quite common - we put it in tea and smoothies, and use it as a seasoning in meals. Tea from the leaves can lower blood pressure, treat a cold and digestive problems, ease headaches and help alleviate dysentery symptoms. The bark cures earaches and cools a fever. The pulp of the fruit works as cough medicine and treats asthma. Almost every part of the tree can be used in folk medicine. It can also be used as a laxative, and the flesh from the fruit heals the skin and helps bruises disappear quickly. But in the Caribbean, it’s roasted and consumed to prevent cramps or induce childbirth. Typically, people don’t eat the large fruit that grows on the calabash tree. Plus, aloe can prevent both scars and wrinkles. If you put the gel on your head, it helps ease dandruff as well as strengthening the hair and encouraging it to grow. Drinking the gel as a tonic relieves all types of breathing ailments, from bronchitis to colds, and the browner-colored gel is a strong laxative used to purify the body’s digestive tract. ![]() To the Caribbean people, though, it’s known as “the miracle plant” because its benefits reach so far. It’s the same in the Caribbean the clear gel inside the leaf soothes pain and speeds up healing for cuts and burns. We know this as sunburn relief, the magical ingredient in gels and lotions that eases the burn from too much time in the sun. Check out these 10 indigenous island plants that have long been used to cure what ails the people of - and visitors to - the Caribbean. And the best thing about jungle medicine is it’s freely available, growing out in the wild. Traditionally, flora growing throughout the region has been used to treat ailments of all kinds, everything from colds and flus to more intense issues like infections and parasites. Call it what you will - bush medicine, folk remedies or jungle medicine - but Caribbean mothers call it by the proper name: good health.
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