Last week, during an exploration by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) team on the Limunsudan Falls in Northern Mindanao, I saw yellow flowers along the way which are reputed to provide relief to toothaches.
When I picked one and showed it to native Higaonons who served as our guides, they confirmed that the wild plant with yellow flowers is indeed used by their elders to cure toothaches.
The Higaonons, however, did not have a name for it prompting me to temporarily call it “Flora Anaesthesia.”
Today, however, a follower of this page, Juvie Lyn, identified the flower as Spilanthes Acmella and after a quick internet browsing, I was able to confirm that the plant ID is correct.
Items on Spilanthes Acmella show that it is recognized as a Toothache Plant not only in the Philippines but elsewhere in Asia, Africa and South America.
Here is an abstract on Spilanthes Acmella as published by the site europeanpmc.org:
“Spilanthes acmella, a well known antitoothache plant with high medicinal usages, has been recognized as an important medicinal plant and has an increasingly high demand worldwide. From its traditional uses in health care and food, extensive phytochemical studies have been reported. This review provides an overview and general description of the plant species, bioactive metabolites and important pharmacological activities including the preparation, purification and in vitro large-scale production. Structure-activity relationships of the bioactive compounds have been discussed. Considering data from the literature, it could be demonstrated that S. acmella possesses diverse bioactive properties and immense utilization in medicine, health care, cosmetics and as health supplements. As a health food, it is enriched with high therapeutic value with high potential for further development. (europeapmc.org)”
This proves that our tribal people know more than we do.
Perhaps, if we could only open our minds and erase the bias that people in the mountains are unlearned and ignorant, we would be able to discover more.
As a personal advocacy which I would later propose for adoption by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) as an official program, I am reaching out to herbalists and our tribal people to submit the names of plants, including herbs and trees that they know to have medicinal values.
Government must seriously conduct a research on all known medicinal plants in the forests, especially in Mindanao where we still have rainforests.
We should undertake a scientific study to prove their efficacy in addressing health issues.
As we do this, we should stop the human encroachment into our remaining forest covers to preserve what could me a gold mine of natural medicines.
I believe that in this age of mysterious diseases, we should all turn to Mother Nature and the forests for natural cures.
#MotherNatureHealsAndCures!
#DiscoverTheGardenOfLife!
(First photo shows the flower of a toothache plant I picked in the forests of Bukidnon while the second photo of the same flower was downloaded from a public website.)
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