Backgrounder
Did you know that every time you go to the garden, you may walk by a plant that can be used as a medicine? I’m talking about garlic. Garlic has been used as a medicine for thousands of years. And it’s helping cure illness today. One of the best things about garlic is that it’s cheap – you can even grow it yourself.
Today I’m going to describe how to make four simple garlic remedies.
The first helps cure colds and coughs. The second helps prevent heart disease. The third remedy helps you get rid of intestinal parasites such as worms. The fourth remedy is for cleaning wounds. The remedies I’ll talk about today come from farmers in Chile, Mexico, and the Philippines.
They are just a few of the many garlic remedies from around the world.
If you have a cold or bad cough , try garlic remedy number one. You will need one cup of water or milk, some sugar or honey, and three cloves of garlic. Add the garlic to the water or milk, and boil for five minutes.
Then sweeten the mixture with honey or sugar. Drink 3 to 4 cups a day until your cold or cough disappears.
Garlic for heart disease? Yes, it’s true. This next remedy helps reduce your chances of getting heart disease. It is very simple. Eat two bulbs of garlic every week. Remember to eat all of the cloves in each bulb.
Garlic bulbs are made up of about 10 to 20 cloves, so make sure you take two bulbs per week, not two cloves. This amount of garlic will keep your blood healthy. If you have healthy blood, you have a better chance of keeping your heart healthy and strong.
The third remedy is garlic syrup. This helps you get rid of intestinal parasites such as worms . These worms live inside your body and make you sick in your stomach. To make the syrup you will need five cloves of garlic, some sugar and some water. Crush the garlic cloves.
Next, add one cup of sugar to one half cup of water, and mix well. Now add the crushed garlic to the water and sugar solution. Drink 1 tablespoon (5 millilitres) of this mixture twice a day. It’s best to take this syrup on an empty stomach.
The last remedy is garlic water for cleaning wounds . Garlic kills the germs and bacteria that can cause infection. Boil half a litre of water, then remove it from the heat. Add 12 cloves of garlic to the water. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then remove the garlic. Soak a cloth in the liquid, and place the cloth on the wound.
Today I’ve told you about four garlic remedies. You can see that garlic is a wonderful medicine. So it’s worthwhile to grow some and keep it around the house. These four simple remedies have helped many people. But don’t forget – no medicine works all the time for everyone. If the remedies don’t work, contact your local health worker as soon as possible.
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Garlic is just one example of a traditional medicinal plant. There are probably many other medicinal plants growing close to where you live.
Get to know which plants can be used as medicines. Ask a traditional healer to teach you about them. If there is no healer, talk to elders.
They might remember traditional remedies used when they were young.
Healers have used plants for thousands of years to treat many illnesses. In fact, many modern medicines contain chemicals that come from these plants. These traditions are cultural treasures – but they are in danger of dying out in many places. We mustn’t lose them! Medicinal plants offer cheap, effective and easily available cures for many conditions and illnesses.
Acknowledgements
- Written by Vijay Cuddeford, Writer, Farm Radio Network.
- Reviewed by Conrad Richter, Richter’s Herbs, Goodwood, Ontario, Canada.
Information sources
- “Therapeutic value of garlic,” in World Farmers’ Times, September 1986, No. 5, pages 31-32.
- “Garlic: nature’s antibiotic,” by Dr. Jasvinder K. Sangha, in Home Science, Volume 23, No. 3, March 1985, page 23.
- Medicinal plants – West Africa, by Paulette Chaponniere and Agnes Naber, 1980,. 3 pages. MAP International.
- Plantas medicinales: como curarse (Healing yourself with medicinal plants), by Bertha Zelayaran Ramirez, 1980, 64 pages. Gomez Hnos. Editores, Mexico.
- Plantas medicinales resfrios(Medicinal plants for colds), 57 pages. Undated. Centro de Experimentacion en Technologia Apropriada, Ureta Cox 1034, Casilla 210 Correo 13 San Miguel, Santiago, Chile.
- Twenty common medicinal plants and how to use them, 1979, 32 pages. Science Education Centre, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Hoffmann, David L., Herbal materia medica.