Looking to plants for traditional Estonian remedies

VINCENT TEETSOV

In a taxi ride one afternoon in Toronto, it came up in conversation that the driver was originally from Ghana.

While musing on the differences between Ghana and the frozen urban tundra that we were driving through, the taxi driver began to recall a childhood story in which a classmate was bitten by a blacknecked spitting cobra. When asked if there was any way to treat such a bite, he remarked that onions were a common remedy: cut in half, they are said to absorb the venom from a bite.

Traditional treatments for snakebites vary. A 2012 articlein the African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines commented on the treatment of snakebites on other continents, including in Madhya Pradesh, India where one solution is to apply black pepper and root paste from the Sahasmuria (Elytraria acaulis) plant to the wound.

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Rose hips.

Photo: backyardforager.com