Medicinal 'cures'

This blog is a little late as I have been a little poorly. But it made me think more about plant cures that Anderson recorded.

Below are plant 'cures' recorded from St Vincent's Indigenous people and the island's enslaved population; given the time period Anderson uses the language of the era and this is terminology that today is offensive. Apologies of this offends, but the information is a transcription and it would be historically inaccurate not to cite directly.

It is interesting that Anderson does not record how much of the plants to use, and sometimes not even which plant parts to use. This may be because he didn't collect that information, or perhaps because he wasn't told it.

One interesting category of 'cure' is Obstructions. I have made a list of plants he states help with obstructions. It isn't clear what Obstructions were but I am thinking they may be connected with female reproduction health, and I'll do a blog on that at some point.

One thing I love from the plant information is 'tye tyes' (see Cissus). I wonder when tye tyes as a term dropped out of our language.

Finally, just a word of warning, please do not try any of these 'cures' at home, even the tooth-ach cure. In one document, Anderson and his companions chew the leaves of a Begonia; the plant is poisonous!!