Versatile Vegetation

By “Awake!” correspondent in Zambia

MANY persons are awestruck by the beauty of vegetation. Even a certain poet doubted the existence of “a poem lovely as a tree.” On the other hand, there are persons who thrill at the cry of “Timber!” as they watch another giant of the forest crash to its doom as fodder for the sawmill or as raw material for the papermaker.

Somewhere in between those extremes is a view of vegetation held by people who live close to the earth. They may be living in the forests of the Amazon valley, in habitable parts of Asia’s mountains, or in villages amid the African bush.

These people keenly appreciate the versatility of plant and tree life. While inhabitants of “advanced” countries frequent the drugstore for preparations to combat symptoms of illness, individuals who live close to the earth often find remedies growing naturally that produce similar effects.

“What is troubling my poor little baby this morning?” asks a mother in Zambia as she joggles a teething child slung over her back. “I think his teeth are bothering him again.” She sends an older boy to get bark from the muSompa tree (Brachystegia floribunda, according to botanists). As quickly as you could recognize the label on a bottle of aspirin, the youth spots the correct tree with its dark-brown bark, fissured and scaly. He hurries home with a handful of bark scales and watches with interest as mother mixes up a concoction to soothe the gums of the crying infant.

Common to families living under primitive conditions is infant diarrhea. In this respect also many have come to appreciate versatile vegetation. A small woodland tree with apricotlike fruit has proved to be helpful in treating this malady. Known to certain tribes in Zambia as muBangalume, this tree has bark and roots that contain an agent for cleansing the bowels.

The list of ailments is vast, and so is the number of medicinal plants useful in treating them. Certain powdered roots, for example, will ease the pain of toothache and earache. Cuts and sores respond favorably to a preparation made from the bark of a tree known as mWangula to the Lozi, and as muKamba to the Tonga people of Zambia. Beneficial too is the baobab tree, common to tropical Africa. It yields cream of tartar and pectin and, in its dried fruit pulp, it has the highest known concentration of vitamin C. Dissolved in water, this pulp makes a refreshing drink.

Would it be wise for someone inexperienced to experiment with plants so as to treat illnesses? Beware of this! Even plants with medicinal properties can harm persons if taken in a wrong dosage. The bark of the muBangalume tree mentioned earlier is an example. Though in small doses this bark will correct infant diarrhea, it is said that an overdose leads to inflammation of the kidneys, and may result in death.

Some plants are deadly, though they may have innocent names. A hedge plant of West Africa known as “cherry pie,” for instance, has a quininelike alkaloid in its leaves. This can make animals sensitive to ultraviolet light, as well as produce dermatitis and intestinal hemorrhage. Few would associate danger with the lima bean. Yet its seeds and leaves (not the bean itself) contain elements that can kill an animal within an hour of their entering its stomach. Also dangerous are the seeds of the wild sweet pea. If eaten by children, they have been known to cause death, following the symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and the twitching of the limbs.

The shrub known to botanists as Capparis tormentosa is unusual. Its fruit is eaten voraciously by monkeys and birds, but it is poisonous to humans. Another poisonous plant is muWa, which has purple-petal flowers. And our list would not be complete without reference to what is here called fwaka. This is the tobacco plant, widely cultivated in Central Africa. The leaf contains nicotine, a highly poisonous liquid alkaloid that produces death by paralysis of the respiratory system. The reaction from nicotine is extremely rapid when it is taken in its raw state.

However, natural poisons can serve a beneficial purpose too. The low bulbous Scilla hyacinthina, which has purple-spotted leaves and purple-green flowers, is used as a rat poison in Zambia. Bark and pods of the wild syringa, seeds of the wild melon and bark and red sap from the muKwa tree serve to stupefy fish for easy catching. Fish caught in this way, however, should be boiled before they are eaten.

Many indeed are the varieties of vegetation and their uses. Reflecting on this fact makes us exclaim with the psalmist: “How many your works are, O Jehovah! All of them in wisdom you have made. The earth is full of your productions.”​—Ps. 104:24.