Aetas have much to teach Pinoys on ‘folk medicine’

Don’t look now, but Aetas have much to teach their "better-off" countrymen on "folk medicine".

Over the decades, these indigenous people have been using forest plants to, among other things, cure common illnesses, as documented by Dr. Edwino Fernando of the UP Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources under a PCARRD-funded research project.

Aetas, Dr. Fernando noted, as reported by PCARRD’s Leila America, use to sap, flowers, fruits, leaves, roots, and young shoots of 56 plant species for medicinal purposes.

For instance, they treat their wounds and boils with the sap of pandakaki, the juice from the leaves of kolibotbot, and the juice of lutok.

The ashes of antipolo leaves are applied on "galis" (skin disease), leaves of narra for measles and chicken pox, fruits of malayamis baging for deworming, infusion of the roots of tikla for dysmenorrhea and menstrual disorders, and extract of makabuhay and roots of silbak for rheumatism.

The Aetas also decoct the roots of laylu for ulcer, bark of dita for malaria and fever, leaves of buho for colds, bark of anyatan for stomach ache, roots of malagayamanan for tootache, roots of yabut and the fruits and bark of banaba for kidney disorder, leaves of kulantro-kulantruhan for measles, and bark of hakbat for menstrual cramps. – Rudy A. Fernandez