• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • Pearl Sutton
  • paul wheaton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Anne Miller
  • Nicole Alderman
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Maieshe Ljin
  • Benjamin Dinkel
  • Jeremy VanGelder

Natural remedies for malaria

 
gardener
Posts: 1177
Location: Wheaton Labs
757
3
foraging books wofati food preservation cooking fiber arts building writing rocket stoves wood heat woodworking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
What are the best natural remedies (food, herbs, behaviors, etc) for treating malaria and its symptoms?
 
pollinator
Posts: 939
Location: Federal Way, WA - Western Washington (Zone 8 - temperate maritime)
91
8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Don't have an answer, but appreciate your inclusion of 'BEST'... as some herbal 'sources' seem to copy-and-paste info from everywhere, for filler, ending up with 'everything being GOOD for everything' !!  Thanks.
 
pollinator
Posts: 182
Location: France, 8b zone
34
3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You sure have a lot of questions ! As far as I know, Cinchona, which the trunk contains quinine is effective (a synthetic drug, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are similar); artemisia annua is also used.

But then, it depends if you're trying to prevent malaria, are treating it, already caught it in the past...
 
gardener
Posts: 549
Location: Beavercreek, OR
195
dog bike woodworking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
That's easy - cinchona bark!

That's also the original source of quinine.  Which was put into water to make it ... wait for it ... TONIC WATER!  A whole generation of drinks was created around the constant treatment and prevention of malaria.
 
Posts: 1
Location: Missouri
books
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi! There are many natural remedies against malaria. I lived in Ghana and Togo over 10 years, caught malaria far too many times. Here's my experience:

The best for me is iodine, which stops that too-familiar malaria headache, lack of appetite and restlessness within 2 hours. I have a bottle of prilled iodine crystals (tiny purple-black spheres) meant for water purification. I will take 3-4 droppers of that saturated solution in coffee, and repeat in an hour or so. The taste (to me) is not noticeable and I prefer that to taking it in plain water. Iodine has other health benefits as well, so I don't mind taking it for this purpose, and I've been using it from time to time over the past 3 years since returning from West Africa, more so when I first came back than this past year. No, I never got tested since coming back, I just recognize the feelings well enough.

Next best that I cannot obtain again is a locally-made-in-Accra herbal brew called "Malaria Kick". That saved me from a nasty malaria onset the night before I was flying back to the USA. I tried it as a desperate measure because my iodine was stupidly packed in one of my suitcases and I had even more stupidly locked the suitcase keys IN one of the suitcases. The horrendous headache went away within 5 minutes, which shocked me as I really didn't think it would work very well, and I was fit to travel by morning. Sadly, I don't know what-all was in it, but it gave me a lot of willingness to in future try local remedies for malaria when traveling, because there are a LOT of local remedies out there. Many local people don't have the money to buy pills in a pharmacy, so they come up with all kinds of things and some are sold packaged as teas in the Western-style supermarkets.

After that, there's papaya leaf tea from dried or fresh papaya; the papaya seeds are said to be effective against malaria but I used them against intestinal worms; in some places there is artemisia tea; and from East Africa, you can mix these powdered spices to make a general-purpose drink that I've used to stave off the malaria-onset signs I mentioned above: ginger, clove, cinnamon, mace, and black pepper. I also noted from the label of a new-on-the-market antimalarial pharmaceutical in Togo (back in 2016-17) the ingredients piperine and cucurmin, and based on that I tried my own hot drink mix of ground black pepper and turmeric powder, with so-so results, not ineffective but not the TKO of that "Malaria Kick" drink in Accra.

I have observed people I knew there to take citronelle tea against malaria, or to eat lots of limes at once. I never tried the limes one, can't take the sour. It was a street kid who told me that one because that is how he self-treated malaria. The citronelle is not the same as lemongrass; it is a plant that grows like a fountain of long thin dark green straps of leaves. Smells wonderful, tastes wonderful! Wish I could get it fresh here :-) Great taste in coffee and hot cocoa, too.

Also said to be effective is neem leaf tea, which I tried once (you take a big handful of fresh leaves and boil them; the water turns dark green) and oh gosh that is the mother of all bitterness, so I didn't use it again.

Green Deane mentions the use of beautyberry: "the leaves and roots in sweat baths for the treatment of malaria, rheumatism and fevers." I think I recall also that the seeds of lantana are antimalaria, but I'd have to confirm that. It's a plant that grows many places all over sub-saharan Africa, and has pretty flowers.

I have in my notes a book I'd like to hunt down: Volume 4 - Traditional Medicinal Plants and Malaria, edited by Merlin Wilcox, Gerard Bodeker, and Philippe Rasoanaivo.

That's all I have for now, but I could dig up old notes if you are curious about more?
 
Posts: 576
Location: Richwood, West Virginia
12
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Meg Ross wrote:Traditional Medicinal Plants and Malaria, edited by Merlin Wilcox, Gerard Bodeker, and Philippe Rasoanaivo.



Here's a Google Books preview:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Traditional_Medicinal_Plants_and_Malaria/L3lZiwsCZoYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Traditional+Medicinal+Plants+and+Malaria%22&printsec=frontcover#spf=1606226414085
 
We are the Knights of NEE! And we demand a tiny ad!
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic