Fever grass is a local medicinal plant. - Contributed This is the first in a series of articles to enlighten the readers on the presence and potential use of the medicinal plants in Jamaica. In this series we will explore the many medicinal plants growing in Jamaica - their growth, research that has been done and their potential for commercial use, and even recipes.
There are over 348 documented medicinal plants in Jamaica. Jamaican scientists, and other interested people, have studied medicinal plants for over 50 years and many of our farmers produce or gather medicinal plants for sale.
'Medicinal' is a blanket term referring to any plant that is useful to man as a medicine in one way or another.
Medicinal plants contain one (or usually many) active ingredient(s) that are capable of killing or decreasing the activity of human, animal or plant pathogenic fungi, bacteria, insects and so on. A plant therefore may be classified as 'medicinal' if when ingested by a person, it kills internal worm infections or if a formulation containing this plant kills insects in the garden. Spices, essential oils, herbs, and many perfumes, fragrances and cosmetics have some medicinal value.
Most medicinal plants have a long herbal history, their therapeutic uses having been recorded in early manuscripts and have been used by people around the world for a very long time. Recent research has vindicated these early records and has established the antibacterial, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory or other medicinal properties of a large number of plants.
Researchers at the University of the West Indies (UWI) have studied the chemical properties (of secondary metabolites [called natural products] extracted from the plants), bioactivity (ability of plant extracts or natural products to kill living pathogenic organisms), toxicology (how much extract to take and how often) and recently biotechnology (tissue culture, DNA fingerprints, and so on) of over 192 medicinal plants.
All herbs (as well as virtually any medicine or food) can be toxic, if taken in excess, so it is important to be cautious and use only the minimum dose necessary to alleviate symptoms. It is hoped that through this set of articles we will gain a better understanding of this under-utilised resource, which is ours for us to manage for posterity.
Presenter: Dr. Sylvia Mitchell, scientific officer, Biotechnology Centre, University of the West Indies (UWI); email: smitchel@uwimona.edu.jm.
