I guessed last Thursday that we would be back today to Thaumatococcus Daniellii. This plants goes by other names, one of which is Sweet Prayer Plant. My friends who read my comments last week thought there must still be more to say about it. Who would not want to learn more about the medicinal uses of a leaf in which his grandmother and mother cooked MOI MOi and AGIDI for him or her?
Last weeI explained to some of them, the medicinal uses of this leaf after my first exposure in 1994, to its healing effects on the liver. In 2002, I was privileged to attend a natural medicine products conference in Accra, Ghana, co-ordinated by some universities in South Africa and in the United States. Mr. Olajuwon Okubena, who makes Jobelyn, Nigeria’s leading herbal medicine formula, invited me and I informed many Nigerians in alternative medicine business and practice. No fewer than 20 of us Nigerians were at that conference to give Nigeria the single largest contingent among participating African countries. Thaumatococcus Daniellii was presented to the conference. I took not much interest in it, even when we were told its fruits was the sweetest thing on this planet, about 2,000 to 3,000 times sweeter than sucrose or table sugar. What made the sweetness interesting was that the taste could linger on the tongue for days. Besides, the calories were so small that it many not bother the diabetic’s blood sugar balance mechanism. Before I proceed, I would like to return to the mention I made of this plant last Thursday I wrote…..
“THAUMATOCOCCUS DANIELLII. Calm down, as young people say in stressful conditions. This name is not a thunder clap. I will unmask the masquerade in a short while. I first heard of the medicinal properties of this leaf in 1994 when my wife had our last child at Duro Solaye Hospital, on Allen Avenue, Lagos. Like his brothers, he came with neonatal jaundice, the traditional management of which I had become some what aware of. I removed all beverages and glucose formulas from the new mother’s side table in the ward and replaced them with flasks filled with marigold tea and mild Aloe Vera powder tea. Both stimulate the liver. From the breast milk, the baby picked it up.
In neonatal jaundice, the baby’s liver is too weak to conjugate bilurubin, the yellow component of red blood cells breaking up. An abnormally high level of bilurubin may cross into the brain and damage it, making the baby become a “vegetable” for life. If the baby’s tummy ran on the Aloe Vera and Marigold teas from the mother’s breast milk, a dilution is advisable. Soon, my son’s jaundice cleared. But I could not offer the recipe, for understandable reasons in an hospital environment, to a mother in the opposite bed whose baby had three Exchange Blood Transfusions ( EBTs). In an EBT, some of the blood is removed and replaced with some of someone else’s blood. People who know the spiritual consequence of this do not approve of it. This woman obtained the voluntary discharge of her baby and herself. No one expected to see them at the first post-natal clinic weeks after. Meanwhile, she took the baby to her village in Epe, Lagos State of Nigeria, where the leaf of Thaumatococcus Daniellii was routinely boiled and the water extract fed to the baby. At the first post-natal clinic for babies born that time, this baby was one of the most developed and healthest! Since that time, I advise the use of the water extract of this leaf by anyone who complains of jaundice or sickcle cell crisis which involves the liver. I suggest it for Ebola prevention and management because the liver is one of the organs easily damaged, and, as we know, there is no life without the liver. When I was confronted with a recent case of jaundice, I remembered this leaf and suggested the use of the powder of the whole leaf. And to the amazement of every-one who followed the case, the jaundice wasted no time in disappearing. Ladies and gentlemen,
Thaumatococcus Daniellii is the leaf in which our grandmothers and mothers cooked moi moi and eko (Yoruba) or Agidi (lbo). We all remember the sweet fragrance this lot gave moi moi and agidi. We ate the stuff ravenously and almost ate the leaves. When we throw it away, goats ravanously devour it, anywhere. They probably know what we no longer know about this leaf … its medicinal value. Our women of today are killing us. They have replaced moi moi leaf (ewe-ran, Yoruba) with cellophane wraps which inject not only xeno-estrogens into food but petroleum residues as well.
The few studies I have checked on Thaumatococcus Daniellii say it prevents and reverses oxidative damage in the liver and in the kidneys”.
Additional information today
Every part of the plant is useful. The fruit, also called MIRACULOUS BERRY, is used in traditional medicine as an emetic, relaxant, pulmonary challenges. The seed is used as an emetic and for pulmonary (lung) challenges.
The leaf sap is useful as an antidote for the venoms, bites and stings. It is used as a sedative and as treatment for insanity.
The seed is chewable raw. It keeps the mouth sweet even when sour food is eaten about one hour later, or longer. It is in this regard that it is used in some countries to sweeten bread, fruit, tea and foods such as corn pap.
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