Medicinal plants have wide range of uses for mankind. Like clay jugs can clean water, plants can also be used to purify water in areas where sanitation is poor. Researchers from Kerela, India have found in a scientific study that certain local plant extracts “have the wonderful capacity to purify water and our environment due to the presence of various useful biochemical contents.”

An attempt was made to check the potential of selected medicinal plants to purify water. by researchers in Kerela, India.

Water pollution is a major environmental issue in India. The largest source of water pollution in India is untreated sewage. Other sources of pollution include agricultural runoff and unregulated small-scale industry.

The present study published in the Journal of Chemical Health Risks the researchers looked at the physical, chemical and bacteriological properties of water samples treated with coriander, moringa, azadirachta (neem) and ocimum (holy basil or tulsi), and compare it with properties of well water.

Plant extracts were prepared using the leaves of selected plants and were treated with polluted water. Their physical and chemical properites presence of e.coli bacteria and others were studied after treatment and compared with that of pure water which was taken as control.

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Fruits in season in May

The summer wave of colorful fruit has begun, to the rejoicing of cooks who love to put up preserves. Apricots, peaches, and nectarines have entered the markets, and are already sweet enough to be worth buying. Strawberries are still with us, although getting seedy in preparation for disappearing till next year. If you haven’t made your jam yet, here’s our recipe. Kiwis are sweet and ripe.

Cherries have arrived, but they are rather expensive. Some years farmers predict huge crops when there is a prolonged winter, which allows the trees to “sleep” and blossom after the windiest weather. Some years when the weather is intense, windstorms and sandstorms will blow the blossoms off the cherry trees.

Avocados are still in the market, but are getting expensive again as their season wanes. As expected in warm weather, all the melons are sweet and ready for eating. Fresh green almonds have a different character now, because the milky interior gel has hardened into soft, pale kernels already. If you like them, buy now, for they will soon disappear. Loquat season is here.

Citrus fruit are still in evidence, with oranges, pomelos, and clementines for sale. Lemons are big and juicy; some lemon trees give two yearly crops, which accounts for their almost year-round presence. Good news for those who like to put up salty preserved lemons.

May seasonal vegetables

Tomatoes are expensive and will remain until a new crop comes in. If budget-conscious, look for smaller, less glamorous-looking tomatoes; they are just as good and cheaper. Depending on the day, cherry tomatoes can be cheapest of all.

The best bargains in vegetables this season are cauliflower and all the cabbages, which are big, firm, and cheap. Okra is in season, although expensive. String beans, broad Italian beans and wax beans look fine now, as does sweet corn.

Parsley root and celeriac continue full and fat, but as summer temperatures rise, these roots will shrink back and won’t be worth bothering with. The same is true of celery, by the way. Kohlrabi, fennel, beets, turnips, and red radishes are very good now, at reasonable prices.

Summer loves white and red potatoes; time to make one of those Middle Eastern potato salads fragrant with olive oil and lemon. Cucumbers, corn, and eggplants are good now. Come really hot weather, get to the market early for decent eggplants. They are susceptible to heat and in full summer, they buckle in, languishing on the vendor’s stands.

All the peppers are good in May. Look for baby bell peppers for stuffing.  Grilled, and combined with grilled eggplant, peppers make a delicious dip, similar to muhamarra.

Here’s our recipe: just substitute grilled eggplants for the bread. Another well-loved Middle Eastern dish is stuffed zucchini – and zukes are looking good now too.

Pumpkins and butternut squash are in season. Combine one of them with a cob of local sweet corn, an onion, a tomato and your favorite herbs for a delicious soup. As every good cook knows, foods that come into season at the same time taste good together.

Two Middle-Eastern summer specialties are akoub, or tiny wild artichokes. Akoub is a spiky, edible plant found in a wide swath of the Middle East, from the mountains of Turkey down through the West Bank and Golan Heights to the Sinai Desert in Egypt. Akoub are akuvit hagalgal (the tumble thistle) in Hebrew and gundelia in English. Palestinians traditionally use the sturdy akoub stems and flower buds to make favorite dishes like stews, soups or fried eggs. It’s believed that akoub can treat many diseases from diabetes to bronchitis.

They’re very thorny and labor-intensive to clean, so they’re always expensive. But as a seasonal treat, they can’t be surpassed, with their unique, delicate flavor. Any prickles that remain after cleaning soften upon cooking.

Melokhia, or mulokhia (or jute), has started its brief season. Here’s our recipe for traditional melokhia soup. The leaves may be rinsed, patted dry, and hung up by their stems to dry for future soups.

Herbs in season in May

Basil is back again. At the herb vendors, there are plenty of parsley, coriander leaf, chives, celery, and scallions. Still in evidence are sorrel, tarragon, wormwood, Swiss chard, spinach, leeks and lettuces. Mint continues especially lovely. Grape leaves for stuffing are now being sold in stacks. You may find bunches of lemon verbena for sale now.

Fresh ginger root is in every spice vendor’s and also at the herb stands. Ginger root freezes well and is easy to peel and grate. Just put the remainder right back in the freezer after use, because it gets mushy once thawed out.

Love Middle East spices as medicine? We have a guide here.

Foraging guide for May

The landscape is drying up, with winter’s juicy wild greens just a memory. But there is always something for the alert forager to bring home.

Purslane

Purslane, summer’s featured wild edible, has started to appear on the ground. It’s tender now, so if you come across a nice patch of it, bring it home for your salads.

Honeysuckle

Make honeysuckle wine? For a sip of sweetness and to revive childhood memories, pluck a few honeysuckle blossoms. Honeysuckle can be made into wine: if you are determined and have access to a large quantity of pesticide-free blossoms, you can find the recipe below in a video. To capture that elusive flavor more easily, just drop a handful into a jar, cover with sugar, and wait a week.  Rosemary is flowering, and it’s worth robbing the bees of a few blooms to flavor tea.

Dandelion

The dandelion of the Middle East is Taraxacum syriaca. It flowers sparsely and can only be found in hilly regions where winters are cold and consistently rainy. Dandelion is famous for liver support and as an effective diuretic. It’s also a natural superfood, loaded with minerals and vitamins.If you’re lucky enough to live where dandelions grow, pick the tender young leaves to marinate in vinaigrette before adding to salads.

Older, tougher leaves are quite bitter, but a few cooked with almost any soup gives a delicious, not-bitter flavor.

Dandelion roots are excellent in soups and stews. I used to make dandelion beer from the roots and leaves when I lived in the chilly north of Israel. It was good beer, too. There are recipes online like this one by Leda Meredith who once lived in Israel but who is now in Costa Rica.

Chicory

Chicory shares all of dandelion’s medicinal properties, but is difficult to pick. The leaves are tiny, and the root almost impossible to dig out of the hardened soil where the plant is most often found. The fluffy blue flowers are a joy to behold early in the morning, though, especially when you catch just the moment when all of them open spontaneously at the same time.

Bindweed

Bindweed, shown below, is the bane of farmers for its strong, thin vines that strangle crops in the fields, still produces beautiful pink and white flowers. Fill a vase with sprays of honeysuckle and bindweed for a wildflower bouquet to rest your eyes on.

Recipes for cooking in May

 Baba Ganoush

Stuffed Zucchini

Basil Pesto

Photos honeysuckle/bindweed bouquet by Miriam Kresh. This story is updated from the original and was edited in 2022 by Karin Kloosterman. 

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Finding bones at an archeology site reveals the kind of animals our human ancestors would eat. But plants? Remains in the kitchens and pots of our ancients and their plant matter is much more elusive because plant remains disintegrate over time.

But scientists from the University of Bristol and Goethe University have uncovered the first insights into the origins of plant-based cuisine, locked inside pottery fragments dating back some 3,500 years ago from West Africa.

West African cuisine has long been known for its distinct ingredients and flavours, often enhanced by the addition of a large and diverse range of plant foods. But where did those plants come from? Are they from the past or are they a modern adaptation to our tastes?

A traditional meal in West Africa comprises a starchy staple cooked in a pot, served with a sauce prepared from vegetables, fish or meat, often accompanied by pulses.

These starchy staples include root crops such as yams, cassava, sorghum, pearl millet and maize. In the northern Sahel and savanna zones, pearl millet is mainly prepared as porridge, while in the southern forest zone, a pounded mash from tuber crops such as yam, called fufu, is the major starch-rich element.

Traditional cuisine couldn’t be traced back into time, until now

Indigenous vegetables, eaten at almost every West African meal, include eggplant, pumpkin and watermelon, okra (used as a thickener for soups and stews), as well as a staggering variety of both farmed and foraged green leafy vegetables, little known or used outside of the African continent.

These include leaves from the amaranth, roselle and baobab tree. However, investigating the origin of vegetables and leafy greens is difficult as they do not generally survive over archaeological timescales.

The science team carried out chemical analysis of more than 450 prehistoric potsherds from the Central Nigerian Nok culture to investigate what foods they were cooking in their pots. The Nok people are known for their remarkable large-scale terracotta figurines and early iron production in West Africa, around the first millennium BC.

Acidic soils at Nok archaeological sites meant that organic remains such as animal bones and plant remains did not survive very well so what Nok people were eating was somewhat of a mystery. 

Looking at the far remains from plants, or the lipid bioprofile

“Charred plant remains like seeds and nutshells preserved in the archaeological sediments reflect only one part of what people consumed in the past,” stated Professor Katharina Neumann from Goethe University, who directed archaeobotanical research on the Nok Project: “We hoped that chemical analyses would provide additional insights into food preparation.”

The team’s results tie in well with ancient plant remains from the site which mainly comprise pearl millet but also cowpea and African peach. 

Whilst there are few unique lipid biomarkers for leafy plants and cereals and, as such, specific plants consumed by the Nok people, or processed for medicinal purposes, cannot be identified, the results suggest that much of Nok plant consumption included leafy vegetables or ‘greens’, mirroring that of groups living in West Africa today, where these play a significant role in people’s diet.

It seems likely that Nok people consumed ‘greens’ or leaves from plants such as jute mallow, African eggplant, okra, cowpea and bombax, widely used today. These provide cheap but quality nutrition and add taste and flavour to the otherwise monotonous starch-based staples consumed and can be kept dried and stored for use throughout the year, affording a buffer in periods of food shortage.

One of the most important leaf-providing species is the baobab, which, together with species such as okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), false sesame, jute mallow and black sesame are today cooked in soups with a little potash (potassium carbonate) to give a high mucilage content or what is known as a ‘slimy’ consistency.

This soup is common in high yam producing areas, likely because pounded yam is known to be complemented by sauces of ‘slimy’ consistency as are other local cereal and tuber dishes.

Evidence for the use of leafy plants can also be found in ethnographic accounts. One of the earliest known mentions of baobab was by Al Bakri in Ghana, writing in 1068, in his great work ‘Kitāb al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik’ (Book of Highways and of Kingdoms).

Jute mallow is mentioned by the Arab historian al-Umarī (1300 – 1349) and later, in the 19th century, Nachtigal, the German explorer, notes that it is used to prepare sauces to add to farinaceous foods in Chad and Mali. Nachtigal also writes of sauces made from leaves of herbs or trees, mentioning baobab leaves, added with fresh or dried meat, to porridges.

The possible preparation of tubers such as yam, in Nok pots also suggests a long history of use, in good agreement with evidence which suggests a domestication of yams in West Africa at around 2500 BC.

In summary, our results demonstrate that prehistoric plant processing and consumption in West Africa involved much more than the cooking of starchy food, the scientists report:

“It has allowed us to go beyond the identification of meals thought to consist mainly of meat and starchy plants. We can now confirm, based on the highly diverse range of lipid profiles presented here, the preparation of ancient meals combining vegetables, pulses, USOs and, possibly, herbs/spices,” the added.

Care about Aftrica? Read about the Great Green Wall progress. 

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Plants: They seem more resilient than we are. And there are so many wild places in the world that they can take over. But a new study reveals that along with large mammals, amphibian and creatures of the sea, plants are going extinct faster than we thought possible.

Time to start saving seeds. And not just in war times as Syria has been doing at the Svalbard Global Seed Bank in Norway. Every plant is a medicinal plant. Losing one could mean losing a universe of opportunities.
 
A new study reveals that 65 plant species have gone extinct in the continental United States and Canada since European settlement, more extinctions than any previous scientific study has ever documented.  Led by Wesley Knapp of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, a group of 16 experts from across the United States collaborated to document the extinct plants of the continental United States and Canada for the first time in history.

Their report has been published by the international journal Conservation Biology. 

The team found that most plant extinctions occurred in the western United States, where the vegetation was minimally explored before widespread European settlement. Because many extinctions likely occurred before scientists explored an area, it is extremely likely the 65 documented extinctions vastly underestimate the actual number of plant species that have been lost.
 
Previous studies documented far fewer plant extinctions on the North American continent.

“Preventing extinction is the lowest bar for conservation success we can set, yet we are not always successful,” Knapp said. “This study started as an academic question but later developed into an opportunity to learn from what we have lost. By studying the trends and patterns of plants that have already gone extinct, hopefully we can learn how to prevent plant extinction going forward.”

Of the 65 documented extinctions in the report, 64% were known only from a single location. While conservation often focuses on protecting entire landscapes, this finding points to the importance of small-scale site protection in order to prevent extinctions.

Because plants serve as the foundation for most terrestrial ecosystems, the urgency for documenting plant extinctions is especially great if extinction rates rise as predicted over the next century. Anne Frances, lead botanist at NatureServe, states, “In most cases, we can stop plants from going extinct, we just need the resources and commitment to do so.”

Action items? What you can do? 
Read Braiding Sweetgrass to understand more about plant and human life
Read this New Times article on a man who is saving heirloom apples
Start by growing these healing herbs at home 

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We’re talking about plantain weed, not the banana. It’s a common wild green that grows in empty lots, along the side of the road, and unnoticed patches of dirt. And in your lawn. Some 200 species of plantain are known, but the two you’re most likely to encounter in urban settings are ribwort Plantago lanceolata with the long leaves and cute umbrella flowers and greater, or broad-leaf plantain Plantago major with the long stripes of flowers.

They grow all over the world, and pop up in early spring. It’s still winter where I’m writing from – Israel – but already I’ve seen some healthy stands of plantain, and gathered some juicy green leaves for home remedies.

Plantain leaves are edible for a short time in spring, while they’re still small and tender. Mature leaves are too tough to enjoy as a vegetable. The great thing about plantain is its multiple uses as medicine, its numerous potential health benefits, and its versatility (it can be naturally processed to extract flavanoids, tannins, and terpenes in bulk.) 

Plantain soothes inflammations

A poultice of crushed plantain leaves, or a cotton pad soaked in strong plantain tea and applied to the irritated part brings down insect bites, rashes, acne, hemorrhoids, or swellings around wounds. For example, a gargle of plantain tea will reduce the swelling and pain in the mouth after a tooth is removed.

Plantain leaves pull infected matter out

Let’s say a splinter in your finger got infected. Soak the finger in warm plantain tea and the splinter will draw out easily; and so will the pus around it.  A compress of plantain tea will help bring painful acne and boils to a head, and clean them out. This is especially effective if you add a teaspoon of fresh or dried chickweed to the tea. 

Having heard stories of how crushed fresh plantain draws out the poison of insect and spider bites, I tried it myself when some creature deep inside a plant I was harvesting bit me. I still don’t know what it was, but a field poultice of plantain leaves crushed between my palms, then applied to the bite, brought down the swelling and pain within minutes. There was no infection or irritation afterward.

Plantain leaf  is antiseptic and soothing

Drinking plantain tea helps conquer internal infections too. It brings up mucus when there’s unproductive coughing. It’s a mild diuretic, which together with its soothing mucilage cools down irritation in the urinary tract.  Plantain leaf tea also soothes inflammation in the digestive tract. Read the caveats at the bottom of this post about taking plantain internally.

You can harvest plantain leaves any time they’re above ground, but best is to take them in spring and early summer, when they’re still green and vibrant. Take no more than 1/3 of any one plant, and make sure you’re not taking the “mother” plant (see our post about ethical foraging here). 

Recipe for plantain earache remedy

I infuse fresh plantain leaves in olive oil to treat earaches. Rinse the leaves to get rid of roadside dirt and towel-dry them carefully. Hang them up to dry further for a few hours, or spread them out on a clean, dry towel. Water in the infused oil will turn it rancid.

Chop the leaves finely, put them in a very clean, very dry jar and cover them with good olive oil. Close the lid on the jar and place it in a saucepan; pour water into the pan to come up about 3/4 of the jar’s height.

Cook the jar at a medium-low temperature for 2 hours: add more hot water if it looks like it’s evaporating away. Either let the jar cool in the water bath or remove it from the pan and set it down on a folded towel to avoid shocking the glass. 

Strain the oil into another clean, dry jar. Label it with the contents and the date, and keep it in a dark, cool place. It will last a year if carefully prepared and stored.

This remedy works for common earaches. If there is major pain, deafness or pus exuding from the ear, see a doctor immediately.

Maybe you heard about psyllium at Whole Foods?

Psyllium, or plantain seeds. Best known as a bulk laxative, psyllium is the husk of plantain seeds. 

Psyllium absorbs water or other liquids, swelling and becoming mucilaginous – goopy, in other words. This beneficial mucilage soothes the digestive tract and brings down inflammation, while the fibrous material stimulates the bowels. The well-known laxative Metamucil is largely made up of psyllium. 

You can make your own laxative by gathering a good quantity of plantain stalks and hanging them up to dry upside down. Keep a sheet of newspaper under them, to catch any seeds that fall when dry. Once the seeds are thoroughly dry, draw the flower heads through your fingers to loosen the seeds.  Or just pick the stalks in late summer, when the flowers and seeds have dried.

Before ingesting the seed, let them soften and swell in water. A tablespoon of seeds in juice, water, tea or even a smoothie should do it. Just make sure to drink a large glass of liquid afterward, to ensure that the psyllium moves along inside you and does the job.

There are few caveats with plantain, but they’re worth knowing

Avoid plantain if you’re taking blood thinners or have blood clotting issues.  If suffering from acid reflux, avoid plantain.  Pregnant or nursing women should consult a qualified herbal practitioner about taking plantain. Do not take plantain internally if taking Lithium and digoxin, as plantain may affect absorption of these drugs.

Plantain is a mild diuretic, but should not be taken if you’re already taking prescription diuretics; the combination may exacerbate potassium loss.  

Medicinal plants are exactly that: medicine.

As with all medicines, there may be allergic reactions. Plantain is so mild a remedy that it’s generally considered safe, but it’s always a good idea to know what you’re taking.

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The Medicinal Plants Association in Egypt helps preserve biodiversity and is one of the 25 winners of the Equator Prize 2012.

Policy making within the realm of “development” is often burdened by an excessively westernized design resulting in unintended consequences on the welfare of local populations. For example, a previous Green Prophet article “Morocco’s Berbers Had Water Management Sorted“, reveals how water management interventions led by the Word Bank replaced traditional water systems and eventually resulted in even poorer social and environmental outcomes.

Fortunately it is becoming increasingly popular for multilateral development initiatives to provide incentives for traditional practices in environmental preservation and economic development rather than replacing, renewing or reforming existing practices which have been built on years of knowledge and perfected after generations of creative design. The Equator Initiative: A partnership for Resilient Communities, is an example of this movement in the “development” world which honors practices that aim to create societies and socio-economic landscapes that are resilient to environmental destruction and cultural erosion.

Through the biannual Equator Prize, the Equator Initiative recognizes 25 outstanding local projectsthat work to advance sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities. To date 152 community organizations have been awarded the Equator Prize and in June 2012, representatives of winning communities participated in the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), which was held in Brazil. This year the Middle East North Africa region was well represented by two Equator prize winners: the Medicinal Plants Association St. Catherine from Egypt and Amsing Association from Morocco.

In Egypt the Medicinal Plants Association St. Catherine supports the development of livelihood alternatives for the Bedouin populations of Sinai’s St. Catherine Reserve, through the protection of its genetic medicinal plant heritage and cultivation of endemic species. The reserve is home to roughly half of the country’s botany, four hundred and seventy two different species of plants of which more than one hundred are used for medicinal reasons and many are unique and endangered species which have been threatened by overharvesting and overgrazing. The Medicinal Plants association promotes home gardens, provides alternative energy solutions, gives hands-on training on sustainable harvesting techniques, and creates market supply chains for locally produced medicinal herbs, handicrafts and honey. For example part of the livelihood program focuses on supporting female Bedouin farmers from planting through to the marketing phase of the products, the revenues from the activities are then invested in a rotating fund which allows the community to access small loans. So far, the project has created over two hundred jobs, and has improved the living conditions of over one thousand people.

In Morocco Amsing Association was created by the villagers of Elmoudaa, an Amazirght (Berber) community located in the High Atlas Mountains, to address economic isolation, a lack of social services, and harsh climatic conditions. The association has successfully regenerated degraded lands surrounding their village through a traditional land management practice called ‘azzayn’ which bans herders from grazing in protected lands.

The reintroduction of this regulatory system has allowed native grasses and shrubs to thrive, reduced soil erosion, and prevented flooding. The association has also undertaken a number of infrastructure projects to promote community-based adaptation to climate change and resilience in the face of climate variability.

A ‘water chateau’ stores fresh water for use in times of drought or when floods wash away irrigation ditches, while a water tower provides local residents with access to clean drinking water.

It is encouraging to see these projects flourish and it would be nice to see more winners from the MENA region in the next cycle of prizes in 2014. If Green Prophet readers know of projects that would fall in line with the Equator Initiative’s objectives then invite them to apply for the Equator Prize in 2014! Here is the list of eligible countries, eligibility requirements and selection criteria from the Equator Prize 2012.

Images of Medicinal Plants Association and Amsing via The Equator Initiative and Egypt Independent

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