Agapanthus: This type of plant is a garden plant. It is a huge plant which can be dark blue, mauve blue, light blue or white. It is long lasting when cut. The people of South Africa consider the Agapanthus as a medicinal and magical healing plant. The different tribes take it for different reasons. The Xhosa women take its root after the six months of pregnancy to ensure an easy birth. After the child is born it is washed with the same brew before the breastfeeding can start for health and strength.
The Xhosa women also make a necklace out of it believing
that it will bring healthy strong babies. Other tribes plant it near their
homes believing that it will bring fertility and pregnancy. The Zulu tribe
uses the plant as a treatment for heart disease, chest pains, tightness,
paralysis, coughs and colds. The Zulu also use it to soothe their feet
after a long walk. This plant’s leaves can also help to bring fever down.
Aloe marlothii: This
is one of the gigantic aloes used in medicines. Its dried powder is used
in snuff in South Africa. It is very dangerous using it in snuff, as it
can cause cancer. This plant’s leaves are boiled in sugar water and used
for worm infection and is considered as an excellent medicine for tap worms.
Zulu mothers rub the bitter juice on their breasts to quicken in stoping
breastfeeding. The boiled leaf is also used for horse sickness.
Bird’s brandy: It
is small, low growing and is an important medicinal herb. When caged birds
are fed too many of these over-ripe fruits they become drunk and that is
where the name ‘bird’s brandy’ comes from. African tribes use it as a wash
for sores, festering scratches, rashes and insect bites. The Zulu and the
Tswana tribes use it for earache. It is also used to treat opthalmia in
cattle by squeezing the juice into the eye. It can be used in stomach ailments,
bronchitis, and chest ailments and for treating pink eye. The Basoto burn
it in fields to ensure early ripening of crops. The fruit is sweet smelling
and is used as a body perfume. It is eaten in times of famine and is loved
by children
Bushman’s tea: It
is a small pretty shrub and much branched. It has been used by all kinds
of people as a medicinal tea. The Khoikhoi introduced the plant to the
colonists. It is used for purifying the blood. It is used in treating boils,
cuts, infected wounds, and bad acne and as a wash. The tea is also good
for coughs, throat infection, and loss of voice and for colds. Other tribes
drink it as a health giving tea. The Sotho people also use it as a soothing
wash for sore feet. It also has a deep acting effect on the hard, horny
skin of the feet and muscles.
Cancer bush:
This is a kind of a plant that is cultivated as a garden
plant and have red flowers and balloon-like seed heads. It was introduced
to the colonists in the early days by the Khoikhoi. It is a long respected
and used in medicine. It has been used ever since as a wonderful remedy
for a variety of ailments. If one cup of leaves steeped is added in 1 litre
of boiling water, it will be good for washing wounds and 0.25 to 0.5 cup
of this brew sipped every half hour is an old-fashioned remedy used to
bring down fevers, treat chicken pox, and to treat internal cancers.
The others were used as eyewash in the treatment of eye
troubles. Many of the farmers in the Cape say that their workers still
use cancer bush to treat eye and ailments today. It can help in liver ailments,
haemorrhoids, bladder, uterus, female complaints, for diarrhea, stomach
ailments and for backache. Many people use cancer bush as a tonic and believe
that a little taken before meals will aid digestion and improve the appetite.
Cape honeysuckle:
The Cape honeysuckle is a colourful, climbing shrub that
occurs mainly on the coast from Uitenhage to East London, Transkei through
Natal and up as far as the Transvaal bushveld. It is a much-loved garden
plant with many uses. It can be pruned into hedges or shaped shrubs. It
can be trained up trellises and pergolas and forms a striking groundcover
over rocky slopes and difficult gardening areas. Medically, it is much
used and respected. The Sotho and the Xhosa use the dried, powdered bark
in a tea for bringing down fevers, relieving pain and sleeplessness.
The Zulu use it in the same way but also for chest ailments
like bronchitis, diarrhoea and stomach pains. The powdered bark is used
to rub into bleeding gums and may people in the Eastern Cape still use
it in a relaxant tea to bring down fevers and pains of flu. The Xhosa cut
pieces of stem and thread them into a necklace for nursing mothers believing
it to encourage milk flow and to make the baby strong and vigorous.
Horsetail:
This is a strange, brittle grass with long jointed, horsetail-like
stems. It is much respected as a medicine and is probably well known for
its qualities taken as a tea,for prostate, bladder and urinary infections.
It is also useful in treating diarrhoea and as a wash for wounds ands sores.
It is much used for wounds, dabbing it on as a lotion which will stop the
flow of bleeding and help clear infections. The Zulu respect this magical
plant and use dried powdered stems mixed into water to treat tummy upsets,
particularly in children. The Sotho also use it for colic and colds in
the same way.
It is also a valuable medicine and is used to treat stomach
ulcers, intenstinal ulcers, inflammation of the vagina, to reduce glandular
swellings, as a wound wash, to dissolve bladder stones, toothache, earache
and to treat prostate problems. This was used by the colonists for all
these treatments and is still used today by many whites. It is an excellent
pot scourers and bucket cleaner. The hard silica content makes it hard
to beat as a cleaning material. It also acts as a tonic to ailing plants,
probably owing to its high sicila content. It is poisonous to grazing animals.
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Sweet thorn:
It grows extensively all over South Africa and is familiar
to all South Africans for its many medicinal and other uses. It has a round
crown, black branches, trunk, sprays of yellow pompom flowers and characteristic
long white thorns. It will grow in any soil and is able to resist frost,
veld fires, drought and heavy rains. The wood that is almost white, hard
and tough is used for poles, yokes and roof struts. The inner bark, easy
to bend when wet, is an excellent rope and is still used by the rural people
for trying roof frames. The seeds and leaves are a nourishing food for
sheep, goats and cattle. The leaves dried, crushed and roasted have been
completely used as a coffee substitute.
The Cape colonists used the bark in the form of a tea
for diarrhoea and dysentery. It is taken as a tea for heartburn, flatulence
and colic. It is also given to children for coughs and colds and to old
people for indigestion. When the bark is damaged or cut in any way, it
gives off a beautiful sweet resinous gum of an arabinose-galactose type,
which is used as a sweetener in cooking. The sweet thorn, also known as
Cape gum, was once an important ingredient in confectionery and was exported
from South Africa and Namibia as a gum arabic for the confectionery trade.
It is still used today as a sweetener and coagulant in confectionery and
is a favourite sweet among the farm children.