West Papua – When it comes to curing certain diseases or sicknesses, traditional medicine and healing practices still become the favorite option of some people in Indonesia.
One of the provinces in the country that offer various traditional medications is West Papua, one of the new provinces in Papua.
This place is rich in medicinal plants and herbs, which are useful for traditional medication and healing practices.
These Papuan medicinal plants and herbs hold an important role as modern medicine is kept aside from traditional healing practices.
The Papuans have been using these plants for medication and healing practices because there have been many results that prove the effectiveness of this traditional way of medication and healing practices
Some Popular Medicinal Plants For Medicine
To perform healing practices, Papuans use some medicinal plants that can be easily found in their environment and forest.
As we all know, most areas of Papua are still virgin with all its natural resources, including medicinal plants. Here are some of these popular plans.
1. Mahkota Dewa (The God’s Crown)
This medicinal plant, whose Latin name is Phaleria Macrocarpa, is endemic to Papua making this plant special. It has a strong bitter taste, and it could be very poisonous when it’s wrongly consume.
Yet, this medicinal plant offers some benefits for those who consume its fruit correctly.
It effectively cures flu and headache, stabilizes blood sugar levels, boosts stamina, increases the body’s immune system, prevents cancer, etc.
To get the benefits of this medicinal plant, all you have to do is drink the Mahkota Dewa’s boiled-infused water from the person that usually performs healing practices with this plant.
Not only in Papua people outside West Papua and other parts of the island can also get the benefits from this medicinal plant
By taking a capsule that contains the extract of Mahkota Dewa because it has been use as one of the commercial ingredients.
2. Kayu Susu (Dita-Bark Tree or Devil’s Tree)
The Devil’s Tree is mostly find in the lowland of Papua, like in Jayapura, Merauke, Timika, and other lowland areas. Its Latin name is Alstonia Scholaris.
The part of this tree that is use for medicine is its tree bark. To make it as medicine,
It can be consume as fresh tree bark by taking the liquid from it or making the tree bark perfectly dry, then infusing water from it.
Consuming the Devil’s Tree bark’s liquid or drinking dried Devil’s Tree bark infused water will effectively cure fever and malaria.
Some other diseases which can be cureusing this medicinal plant are diarrhea, dysentery, and headache.
Benefits of traditional medicine and healing practices
In addition, many other medicinal plants and herbs can be use for traditional medicine and healing practices. The Papuans’ ancestors have left hundreds of recipes of traditional medicine and healing practices.
This makes Papuans rich in amazing heritage that should be well care for by the new generations.
These Papuan traditional medicines offer countless benefits for Papuans, especially everyone.
One of the most important benefits is that Papuans can easily access natural medicine to treat certain diseases.
Another benefit is that all traditional medication and healing practices are safe for people. This is because the medicine used in traditional healing practices is pure and natural as they come from nature.
In conclusion, West Papua traditional medicine and healing practices are a great heritage from the old Papuans for the new generation.
From the benefits mentioned before, there is no doubt that this would become one of the best alternatives for people’s health care in Papua, which includes West Papua.