Herbal therapies that comfort and heal
It may seem unlikely, but science and traditional herbal therapies have allied to fight tropical disease. Make no mistake; it is a good thing. Jim and I witnessed first the hand the human misery clustered in the Kijabe Hospital clinic in Kenya. We did not have to go far to see people who did not have access to any care. Many suffer, unable to afford Western medicines and unable to obtain care at distant clinics.
On our last visit to Nairobi, we met a man whose life work was to tackle the on-going calamity. He pitched battle with disease and hopelessness with a clever combination of modern science and traditional herbal therapies. In fact, Sweet Annie, an herb, growing in my garden, turned out to be a major weapon in the fight against malaria.
Dr. Hans-Martin Hir, the German pharmacist and founder of anamed shared how Sweet Annie and other herbs can provide free or inexpensive, effective treatments to the most vulnerable.
Science discovers the power of healing herbs
As Dr. Hirt, shared the evening meal with us at Mayfair House, he shared his passion and his mission — to make effective, accessible, affordable treatments available to the poor in the remote tropics. On the anamed website, he shares how he witnessed a woman’s recovery from a grave childbirth complication. She was healed in two days through simple herbal remedies. Dr. Hirt’s work of studying native herbs and collecting, developing and evaluating reproducible recipes began.
Our Western medical world’s respect grows for the healing properties in wild tropical plants. However, these remedies rarely find their way to help their own native populations. In 1986, Hirt founded “anamed” (Action for Natural Medicines), an organization which conducts seminars on natural medicines at home and abroad, and has established anamed groups in multiple countries. Consequently, the poor can have access to excellent care when they cannot afford Western medicine or even access far-away clinics.
An especially effective herb, Sweet Annie fights a major tropical killer
Furthermore, the organization has also developed a hybrid Sweet Annie, Artemisia Annua Anamed, that grows taller with more leaves with richer therapeutic content. This healing herb can help treat malaria patients and temper the symptoms of AIDS. Anamed provides, seeds, and information on sowing, reproduction, storage and application of tea made from this plant.
A thoroughly non-profit organization freely fights disease
In this materialistic world, anamed has a unique mission statement. “We don’t keep something secret and don’t patent things. You can produce all our medicines by yourself at any location in the tropics.”
Anamed sells inexpensive informative booklets and encourages the readers to share this information freely.
Dr. Hirt gave Jim and me an autographed copy of his book, Natural Medicine in the Tropics. Ever after, we have admired this work, generously bringing Sweet Annie and health to the tropics
