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The Pawpaw Leaves

There are some little things we take for granted that may sometimes affect us negatively. In this post, I share my experience from trying to cure stomach pains with pawpaw leaves. Find out more in the post

Herbal medicines come in various forms; seed, leaves, fruits, roots, bark, animal pats etc

Have you ever used any herbal medication or have you been cured of any sickness by using herbal drugs? I have been a fan of herbal medication and treatment for a very long time. This is mostly because I don’t like swallowing pills. My dislike for pills is so intense that I would rather choose an injection than take a pill, no matter how sweet it is.

Another reason for this preference has to do with my upbringing. I come from a traditional home. My mother would always boil pawpaw leaves, neem leaves, the bark of certain trees, their roots and many other things that I don’t remember

No matter how sweet medicine is, I never want to take it, maybe give it a different name and I will gladly take it

for the family to drink or bath with whenever we were sick, and they always proved effective. After getting medication prescribed at a visit to the hospital, there was sure to be some herbal medication to be taken after completing the hospital medication, and though the herbs always tasted bitter than some of the orthodox drugs, I was more comfortable taking herbs than any other. I am one of those people who will throw pills away or never complete their medications. We used to tease my mother with the sobriquet “Doctor Home” because she always knows which herbs to get for your ailment. The focus of this post is not on Doctor Home, rather it is a story; an experience I lived. It is about how one of such herbal treatment nearly cost my life.

It was a Sunday afternoon. Church service had ended but I had to stay behind. I had a meeting with a few friends (Miki and Ruth) and other members of the church, and when it finally ended, we left the church premises later than most of

Ruth, me, Miki and Ellen, we were always part of the last people to leave the chapel every Sunday

the congregation. We were hungry by that time. My friends and I went to my hostel to have lunch together. It was part of our Sunday ritual; we rotated rooms every Sunday, and whoever’s place we were at would treat us to lunch. Sundays are special, the hunger that you feel on Sundays is quite different. It’s the kind of hunger that will make you want to eat and get so full that the only thing you can do is to sit where you had the meal and wait for the food to go down a bit before you can make any movement.  To make things faster for us, instead of one person cooking the entire meal, we split the process up into chores: the famous “Economics’ Division of Labor”, Ruth, would peel and cook the yam, I will grind the ingredients for the sauce and Miki would prepare the koobi (salted dry fish). Sharp – sharp, the food was ready: cooked yam with some garden eggs and peanut butter sauce garnished with some eggs, koobi and slices of pear.

Garden eggs and peanut sauce with Kobi and eggs, best enjoyed with yam

After the meal, Ruth somehow mustered up strength to go to the kitchen to do the dishes while Miki and I sat at where we ate and idly chatted. We slept off after Ruth returned, and when we woke up, we went to see Miki off to her hostel. Ruth and I were not in the same hostel but we were always together at my place. Lunch had been a heavier affair than we had expected so we didn’t cook anything until the next day. I was glad that evening. It had been a good day: I had had a good meal and the company was awesome.

Pawpaw leaves are said to have a lot of health benefits

Monday morning came, I woke up to a severe stomach pain. I wouldn’t be able to go to work so I called to ask for permission to take the day off. Being a fervent believer of traditional medicine, I boiled some dried pawpaw leaves. I had carried them from Wa to Winneba. I had tried the pawpaw leaves in Winneba before but they didn’t have any bitter taste. It was explained to me that because of the presence of the sea in Winneba, the trees absorbed a lot of water from the humid environment, affecting the concentration of the constituents in the leaves. After my mixture had sat undisturbed for some time, I drained and drank about a liter expecting to get better after a few hours. That was the beginning of my woes. Shortly afterwards, I had the urge to go to toilet, I carried my phone and went to sit comfortably on the toilet seat when Splash! All I heard was the sound of what sounded like water being poured on the water in the toilet! I had had runny stomach in the past but this was different, the stool was very watery. I had heard of watery stool but this was the first time I was experiencing it: it was very unnerving. No one advised me to put the phone away. After about 10 minutes, I felt ok, so I left and went back to bed. It didn’t take up to an hour before I felt another rumble in my stomach and almost at the same time, the urge to use the toilet.

Ruth my nurse, her heart is as beautiful as herself

A routine soon developed. From 10am to about 2:30pm, I would re-enact this process more than eight times: rumble – toilet – bed. While this cycle continued, it never occurred to me to go the hospital. I really believed in my pawpaw leaves erh. Ruth asked that we go to the hospital, but I told her I was going to be fine and there was no need to go the hospital. At this point I was so weak, and I was starting to worry, so I took my phone and started sending messages to all my doctor friends. All of them said the same thing, “Go to the hospital”, but I was still stubborn and hopeful that the pawpaw leaves would still work some magic or maybe a miracle. Then one of them said something that really scared me. He said, “Diarrhea kills!” and went on a lengthy explanation about how the loss of fluids in the body could result in death and he advised that I should drink water or other fluids, but I could drink neither water nor any other fluid. Ruth, at this point my nurse/caretaker got a taxi and took me to the hospital.  The doctor on duty that evening said after examining me that it was good we arrived at the time we did because my condition would have worsened if we had delayed a bit. He asked what quantity of the herbs I had taken but I had no idea honestly. They gave me three intravenous drips to replace the fluids I had lost and some other drugs. Ruth was the one running up and down from the ward to the Out Patient Division (OPD), to the pharmacy and the reception while I lay on the bed, very weak. I had to spend the night in the hospital and I was discharged the following day, Tuesday morning.

But before I was discharged, the doctor advised that I never take any medication whether herbal or orthodox without first consulting a health person, it could be a doctor, pharmacist, n

Neem leaves and other plants are said to have a lot of benefits

urse, anaesthetist or any other. His reason was that though the mixture might be good for the body, I might not be sure what quantity to take at what time., I asked him curiously how my mother knew the right quantity to give to us, and why we never get any complications after taking it. He guessed that I might not have paid attention whenever my mother prepared some for us. Later when I asked my mother, she said she just uses her discretion, but I also used my discretion that day (maybe experience hadn’t tempered my blade of discretion yet, lol).

From that day in 2017, I have never taken pawpaw leaves nor any other herbs again. The mere sight of it makes me sick. I am not against herbal medicine, but don’t be like me, taking it without prescription. At least we have people who are specialized in herbal medicine, who can give the right prescriptions for different ailments.

A lot of plants are known to be medicinal

If you are reading this and you are into herbal medication or you have indigenous knowledge about herbal medicine, it will be good to document and investigate it to prove its effectiveness scientifically. Sometimes, it is not that what the herbal people are prescribing is not right, in fact, they know at what point to harvest which plants, how long each plant should be boiled and what quantity of water they need to be effective. We have seen a lot of herbal health centers around who are doing marvellously well but I think there is still a lot to be explored in that field since herbal drugs are used for treatment and management of both common and isolated human ailments.

If you see me in a bush or forest, I am either looking for some herbs

That was how I learnt my lesson and stopped abusing drugs! It is rather sad that I had to learn this lesson the bitter way. I was almost getting addicted because at a point, I was taking pawpaw leaves daily, at least once a day. But now, I am free from my addiction, if you have had any experiences with herbal medicines, please share in the comment box, we will be reading your comments. CHEERS!!!

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26 Comments

  1. Herbal medicine is really good and efficient than the modern medicine in drug stores and hospital. They are really helpful. I have benefited from this herbs several times from childhood to now. Our local doctors are our mothers 😂✨💥

  2. Hmm…this issue on herbs… In actual fact, orthodox meds are derived from these natural herbs. The only difference is, an optimum and safer quantity has been weighed and other constituents added to produce the drugs. Herbs are indeed the only medicines or drugs we all have… Caution though has to be taken to take the right dose. Get the right consult! Thanks Sugar…Enjoyed reading it🙌🏽🤗🥰

  3. Thanks for the advice. But does that mean our parents are doing the wrong thing by acting on their own authority of providing for us the concoction we always take into the body?

    1. I don’t think so, but I think that they know the exact dosage to give us at whatever time, that is why I am advocating that we make sure we are taking it as it should be taken 😊

  4. This is really important. A lot of us assume because it’s natural it’s always safe but that’s not the case. Traditional or orthodox, every drug is a potential poison and should be taken with expert advice.
    Plus there are people who go to school just to study herbal drugs

  5. Another revealing piece. I am actually a fan of herbal medicine….mostly the ones that are regularly eaten as food or vegetables. There are a lot of natural medicinal and nutritional properties in the leaves and soup spices and other foods we consume. Such when consumed routinely as food (but not necessarily targeted at any ailment) may very well serve as effective prophylactics.
    Examples of such range from commonly known vegetables and spices like: kontomire (Taro leaves); Tokura/Tukpara (baobab leaves); Beduru/kwahu nsusua (Turkey berries); samia/purre (Brown Tamarind); kal/kpali/ dawadawa (African locust bean); prekese (Aridan); obnyukuo (moringa Oleifera);
    to the exotic ones like bitter leaves (swaka), bronccoli, dandelion, scented leaves, minty leaves, ETC.

    The good news is that these vegetables are growing freely around us and can be harvested free of charge or can easily be grown by us, but the bad news is that we have not cultivated the habit of consuming them regularly enough as part of the food we eat.

    We could actually avoid going to the hospital for treatment purposes if we advocated widely and imbibe the habit of consuming all the different varieties of vegebles and other natural medicinal fruits, nuts and other foid items. Going to hospital could just have been reduced to visits for check up purposes.

  6. Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up and also the rest of the site is also very good. Amandy Iggie Regen

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