Medicinal and cooling teas of barbados

Abstract

Barbados is the most easterly island of the Caribbean archipelago. The tradition of plant use for medicinal remedies has its origins in the self-help practices of the Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans whose lives were intertwined in the early history of the island. A survey conducted in 2007 to assess the current knowledge base in the rural communities on the island unearthed 93 plant species that are still employed in traditional medicine. The survey encompassed 8 of 11 parishes, 35 rural communities, and over 400 participants. Survey results showed that males and females with some knowledge of the use of plants for medicinal purposes represented 28.5 and 35.9%, respectively, of the sample population. The principal custodians of the knowledge base proved to be the females in the communities aged 45 and older. Families sought for therapeutic agents included Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Liliaceae, Papaveraceae, and Piperaceae. The leaf proved to be the best medicine matrix, and extraction invariably involved boiling or steeping in hot water. In the practice of brewing teas for medicine, hypertension and diabetes prove to be two conditions for which a variety of plants are sourced for natural products. In addition, the therapeutic regimen involves a strategy for good health revolving around the minimization of strain on the body by the elimination of toxins and heat stress. This was evident in the number of plants applied in medicinal teas for detoxification (33) and specifically in cooling teas (37). Denuding of the land by the years of sugarcane cultivation and subsequent development has resulted in a shift in medicinal sources from forested areas to roadsides and pastures and from trees to herbs. Phytochemical investigation of a selection of the plants used for cooling teas revealed a high antioxidant profile that is known to offer protection from degenerative diseases. The plants selected for analysis were shown to be high in polyphenolic compounds that possess bioactive properties, including antioxidative, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and anti-thrombogenic. This protective profile, silently embodied in ethnomedical tradition, may have contributed to Barbados having one of the highest populations of centenarians per capita.