100. Reading Skills Comprehension: Therapeutic Value

Therapeutic Value

1 The therapeutic value and healing powers of plants were demonstrated to me when I was a boy of about ten. I had developed an acute persistent abdominal pain that did not respond readily to hospital medication. My mother had taken me to the city’s central hospital on several occasions, where different drugs were tried on me. In total desperation, she took me to Egya Mensa, a well-known herbalist in my home-town in the Western province of Ghana. This man was no stranger to the medical doctors at the hospital. He had earned the reputation of offering excellent help when they were confronted with difficult cases where western medicine had failed to effect a cure.

2 After a brief interview, not very different from what goes on daily in the consulting offices of many general medical practitioners in the United States, he left us waiting in his consulting room while he went out to the field. He returned with several leaves and the bark of a tree and one of his attendants immediately prepared a decoction. I was given a glass of this preparation it tasted extremely bitter, but within an hour or so I began to feel relieved. The rest of the decoction was put in two large bottles so that I could take doses periodically. Within about three days, the frequent abdominal pains stopped and I recall gaining a good appetite. I have appreciated the healing powers of medicinal plants ever since.

3 My experience may sound unusual to those who come from urban areas of the developed world but for those in the less affluent nations, such experience is a common occurrence. In fact, demographic studies by various national governments and inter-governmental organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that for 75 to 90-miler cent of the rural populations of the world, the herbalist is the only person who handles their medical problems.

4 In African culture, traditional medical practitioners are always considered to be influential spiritual leaders as well, using magic and religion along with medicines. Illness is handled with the individual’s hidden spiritual powers and with the application of plants that have been found especially to contain healing powers.

5 Over the years I have come to distinguish three types of medicinal practitioners in African societies and to classify the extent to which each uses medicinal plants. The first is the herbalist, who generally enjoys the prestige and reputation of being the real traditional medical professional. The second group represents the divine healers. They are fetish priests whose practice depends upon their purported supernatural powers of diagnosis. Thirdly, the witch doctor, the practitioner who is credited with the ability to intercept the evil deeds of a witch.

 6 All three kinds of practitioners have managed to keep the rural and urban populations in reasonable health. The practitioners have done well by relying almost exclusively on herbs for actual treatment while serving as the people’s spiritual leaders, and psychologists.

7 From the drug-stores in New Delhi, I picked up some well-packaged bark and roots of Rauwolfia. Serpentine, a plant that was very well-known in ancient Asiatic medicine. The store-keeper said that it cures hypertension. This plant has the power to lower the blood pressure and pulse. It is used to calm down mad people because alkaloids in the plant have a specific influence on the mind. I later learnt that the store-keeper had a medical degree from one of the Indian universities, but chose to administer herbal medicine because he felt his people were better off with local medicines than with the expensive imported synthetic drugs that had no traditional, social or psychological meaning.

8 In the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, at the Royal Drug Research Laboratory, an impressive program of medicinal plant research is being conducted.

9 The People’s Republic: of China is perhaps the leading country in systematically amalgamating herbal medicine into natural health-care systems. On the outskirts of Peking, for example, there is an experimental plantation for the Institute of Materia Medica.

10 For health social and economic reasons, it seems clear that developing countries should begin an extensive program aimed at an examination of the most important medicinal plants. In most countries, the information on such plants is dispersed and unorganised. Much of it is in the heads of ageing herbalists, who represent a dying breed. The approaches of these traditional healers should not be overlooked or described as simplistic.                                                                                                    

Questions

1.On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions :

(a) Why did the author’s mother take him to Egya Mensa? What did Egya Mensa do?

 (b) What do the WHO demographic studies indicate?

(c) What is the status of traditional medical practitioners in African culture?

 (d) What are the uses of Rauwolfia Serpentina according to the store-keeper of the drug-store?

 (e) What does the writer suggest to preserve this system of healing with plants? (Any two points)

2. Find words in the above passage which convey a similar meaning to the following :

(a) often repeated (para 1)

(b) pertaining to changes concerning people  (para 3)

(c) joining/combining  (para 9)

Answers

 1.(a) The author had been suffering from acute abdominal pain for a long time. Hospital medication had failed to cure him. Having lost all hope from hospital medication, the author’s mother took him to Egya Menu who was a well-known herbalist. Egya Mensa gave the author some decoction made from the leaves and bark of a tree. The author felt relief within an hour.

 (b) These studies indicate that 70 to 90 per cent of the rural population of the world depends on the herbalist only for its medical problems.

(c) They are considered to be influential spiritual leaders.

 (d) According to the store-keeper, it cures hypertension. It has the power to lower blood pressure and the pulse rate. It is also used to calm down mad people.

(e) There should be an extensive programme to examine the most important medicinal plants. The information about them should be organised and made available to herbalists.

2. (a) often repeated — persistent

(b) pertaining to change concerning people — demographic.

(c) joining / combining — amalgamating

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