Wednesday, August 13, 2013 - Herbals and Coconut Oil Activity

We started the day with yoga at 7:15, followed by group breakfast.  We then headed up to the main reception hall to gather and get ready to head to Raphael's home for a lesson on herbals.  Upon arriving, he first showed us around his yard and pointed out countless plants and explained their medicinal uses and preparations.  He also cut up a calabash, which we later used as bowls.  A couple examples that he pointed out to us included ginseng which can be made into a tea to boost the immune system, and miracle fruit which is used to make everything sweet (becoming more popular in chemotherapy patients that are having difficulty tolerating food.  We also saw firsthand why cashews in the US are so expensive.  We saw that only one nut grows on each fruit and they are time-consuming to prepare for consumption.  Our next activity was preparing coconut oil.  We started by grating the coconut (on a homemade grate made from a rear view mirror of an old truck) and then added water.  We then squeezed the coconut by hand to extract the milk from the coconut.  Then the mixture was strained to separate the water/milk from the pulp.  This was then boiled to evaporate the water off.  A thick cheese would form on the bottom of the pot so the oil was transferred to different pots several times to avoid burning this cheese and to further evaporate the water.  When the bubbles stopped and the pot was silent, we knew only the oil was left.  This was allowed to cool off.  The oil is pure if it is clear and not brown.

While the oil was cooling, Raphael and a couple of his many children took us to their garden just up the road from his home.  Here he showed us his extensive bay leaf crop and explained that this was his main source of income.  After pointing out a few other important herbs, we headed back down to his shed to pour the coconut oil into small bottles for us each to take home.  The process for coconut oil preparation was different than we had expected because we didn't expect to have to grate the entire coconut in order to extract the milk from the pulp.

There are many uses for coconut oil.  Some include: weight loss, high cholesterol, diabetes, and boosting the immune system.  It is also use topically for psoriasis, dry skin, and is often found in cosmetics.  The coconut oil was our favorite part of today's adventure because we got to see the entire process from start to finish, and even got to have a hand in making it.

We returned back to Jungle Bay for lunch and the herbal scavenger hunt.  We all worked together to identify our assigned herbs and plants.  For the most part, we were successful in finding these things on our own (with our books) but for a few of them, we did have to rely on hints from Justin.

Today, we learned a lot about herbal medications, most things explained for the first time because this area of health is not taught in traditional pharmacy schools in the US.  We are generally told to avoid herbal remedies  because they are considered inferior to Western medicines and are not regulated by the FDA.  We have come to respect herbal therapies and preparations a lot more since seeing them first hand and hearing their benefits explained by Raphael.  It is clear that they must have some real benefit and not just placebo effect because these remedies have been used by the people of Dominica for hundreds of years.

Susan Kane & Megan Schwartz