CLEAN-India Promoting Medicinal Plants
What You
Can Do To Save Our Herbal Treasure
Home Remedies For
Common Diseases Using Herbal Plants
CLEAN-India
Promoting Medicinal Plants
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Quick, can you name 5 plants which can be
used for curing health related problems?
The younger generation today will probably
have a difficulty answering this and even more in terms of telling how
these plants may be used. Do you remember your grandmother making effective
decoctions and pastes for all the small ailments one had at
home?
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Students planting
medicinal plants
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India has an 3,000-year old medical
heritage whose main resource base is Medicinal Plants. For
centuries, we have been using herbs, plants, roots, etc., as
effective home remedies. Medicinal Plants constitute a very important
"national resource" of India, and we have perhaps one
of the richest botanical traditions in the world.
Unfortunately, in the modern age this has
been replaced by costly medicines, overcrowded hospitals, side
effects from drugs, reoccurrence of diseases and general poor
health. Due to the decreasing awareness of this old science, most urban
people turn to other forms of modern treatment, which not only
cost money but also have many side effects. Our traditional
wisdom is also being patented by developed countries, thereby
depriving us of our rightful use.
CLEAN-India has thus taken up the project of
Medicinal Plants, which aims to save our dying traditions of
healing through various plants and in the process promotes and
conserves different plants. The objective of this project is to
familiarise the students with common herbal plants and their
uses. The CLEAN professionals visit schools to create
awareness about the importance of medicinal plants and their
benefits.
To begin with, the students plant a few
medicinal plants / trees in their campus and thus create a Herb
Corner of sorts. The plants are further labeled properly and
charts explaining their properties are displayed. Students then
research on the medicinal properties of these and other plants.
They are also encouraged to add a larger variety of medicinal plants
to this Herb Corner by getting saplings from different sources.
Young plants with a brief write-up on its
properties and uses are sometimes sold to parents during
the Parent - Teachers meeting or during School Carnival or Annual
day so that they may also be grown at home. We hope that this
would eventually create awareness about our rich heritage and
people would also be able to save on medical costs. These plants
are also given to people living in slums who are also
educated about their uses.
