Foraging for health

HEALTH FORAGER

Foraging forhealth

Learn to heal in nature.

While many of us know that we should eat healthily (don’t eat this, do eat that…), we are also very reliant on vitamin supplements and conventional pharmaceuticals. But while we’re learning about what to put into our bodies, why not extend that knowledge to natural medicines?

We spoke to medicinal plant researcher JeanFrancois Sobiecki, who is also an avid nature explorer and loves to teach people about his own passion: medicinal plants.

“I have had a lifelong interest in medicinal plants and have been studying African medicinal plants for over a decade, on their traditional uses as foods, medicines, tonics and cosmetics. I also love taking people into nature to heal, so I have combined these

Lippia javanica

passions and now offer informative walks into the bush, as well as online video courses on herbal and traditional medicines. ”

While online courses makes so much sense at the moment, especially when the subject matter is healing and medicinal plants, we especially love the idea of people learning about indigenous medicinal and edible plants in the bush where they are found naturally.

“On the Phytoalchemy Medicinal Plants Tours I offer, I take groups of people into the African bush, into the beautiful Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve in the south of Johannesburg for a healing medicinal plant walk. Not only does everyone learn, but they also leave feeling refreshed and rejuvenated!”

Some of the subject matter on these walks is wild edible foods and how to use South African medicinal plants in our own homes and medicine cabinets, but it’s also just a great opportunity to reconnect with nature and to explore with other people interested in similar things.

Jean-Francois’s tours start at 9:30 and end at 13:30, and they really are hikes, into the koppies of the reserve. On the walk people will see and learn about plants like fever tea (Lippia javanica), wild pear (Dombeya rotundifolia) for the heart, wild cucumber (Pentarrhinum insipidum), marog and African wormwood (Artemisia afra), to name just a few.

This last plant is a popular garden plant, but we’re not sure how many people who grow it actually make use of it, so we asked Jean-Francois to share some of his knowledge on this plant with us. Here is what he had to say:

Artemisia afra is one of the more famous African plants. A multi-stemmed perennial shrub up to 2m high, it grows from seed sown in spring in welldrained soil. This is one of South Africa’s most popular and widely used medicinal plants, and it is most commonly used as a tea or tincture to treat respiratory infections. Infusions (tea) or decoctions of the fresh or dried leaves, with honey, are used to treat the influenza virus, coughs, pneumonia, colds and fever, while crushed leaves or steam from infusions are commonly inhaled for headaches and colds.

As a classic bitter plant, it stimulates the appetite and works as a digestive tonic, and is especially good as an alcohol tincture made with cane spirit or vodka. This bitter plant, like many other bitter plants, has antimicrobial properties and kills various pathogens, including intestinal worms (hence its

For more on Jean-Francois’s medicinal plant work, visit his website: http://phytoalchemy.co.za/faq/

Artemisia afra

name), and is used for treating malaria and other parasites as well as viral infections. Its antiviral activities are well documented, as are its anti-microbial, anti-oxidant and narcotic functions. It is useful as a tincture for sore throats and to steam for head colds, the essential oils helping here. The plant produces a lovely essential oil that smells like menthol. Other uses include for treating chest complaints, fevers as an antipyretic, headaches and TB.

In South Africa there is also a long history if it being used to treat viral respiratory infections, and it is often mixed with other herbs such as fever tea (Lippia javanica). Interestingly, because of its antiviral properties it has been widely used in the treatment of COVID-19 symptoms.

Warning: It should not be used during pregnancy due to its strong-acting chemicals. This applies to many herbal remedies.