[SANS] Medicinal uses

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• To: S*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
• Subject: [SANS] Medicinal uses
• From: F* a* T* V* <v*@ACTRIX.GEN.NZ>
• Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 10:50:28 +1300

Marjorie Russell again

In the Kew Bulletin of 1937 we read that in Tanganyika the Nyamwezi and
other Africans used the powdered root on a foot wound which is not healing
readily as for eg the result of sand flea bits. In East Africa the plant is
used as a purgative. A Sansevieria species is used as a backache remedy in
Tanganyika. In John Mitchell Watt and Maria Gerdina Breyer-Brandwijk's book
[Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa] we read of
many uses in the Republic of South Africa. In the Klipplaat district of the
Eastern Province the Africans use the root of a Sansevieria sp (probably S.
aethiopica) as a remedy for abdominal pains and diarrhoea. Haemorrhoids can
be treated by chewing a portion of the root and swallowing the saliva. S.
thyrsiflora's commonest use is for the relief of ear-ache. A cut leaf is
heated gently and the juice which exudes is dropped into the ear. For the
relief of haemhorroids and intestinal worms, the Xhosa, Mfengu and Gealeka
tribes eat the boiled root and swallow the juice. In the Western Cape an
infusion of the root is an African remedy for the treatment of
miscarriages. Finally the leaf fibre, which is extremely strong, is
generally used by Africans to bind fractures of the extremeties. And in
Zimbabwe, Mr S Mavi of the Herbarium, assures me that in Seki, long before
it became a township, outside Harare, Sansevieria was used for the relief
of toothache.

Frances Verrity

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