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Welcome to Plant by Plant Your Gateway to Traditional Food and Healing Plants |
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This site is about plants.
It is designed for use by people.
To this end, we strive to provide useful information on a small, but growing, number of plants that are chosen for their healing properties and offer outstanding potential to help relieve suffering from some of the most pressing global health problems seen today. These plants will be nontoxic.
Some are traditional foods; many of them fall into a category
somewhere between food and medicine.
They will also be either widespread or easily propagated.
They should, therefore, be generally safe for most people to use
with no threat of damage to the environment or extinction of the
species. Ensuring this
will, of course, require responsible management and cultivation of
plants by the people who use them. Modern disease, such as diabetes and
cardiovascular problems, have been associated with the transition from
traditional diets to the processed diet of the modern, western world
which includes many foods
high in fat and refined carbohydrates.
A return to wholesome, nutrient rich food promises benefit for
everyone. A return to plant-based medicine is
also desired. When
preliminary scientific research confirms medicinal value of plants,
western medicine has focused on isolating “active compounds”.
Research then proceeds only on isolated, and usually synthesized,
chemical compounds that can be patented and sold for high profit.
Their use can then be regulated and controlled as prescription
medicine. Sometimes, this can result in access to the medicine being
denied to traditional healers responsible for making the medicinal
knowledge known to science in the first place.
Placing our faith in chemicals instead of plants has led to a
curious alienation and distrust of nature.
Healing this estrangement from the botanical kingdom by
cultivating individual person-plant relationships may well prove more
important than curing disease through the medicines that plants provide. The first plant on the website will be
prickly pear cactus, Opuntia spp.
There are over 200 species of prickly pear on the planet.
Propagation is relatively easy --- the pads can even be tossed on
the ground. Traditionally a
food source for Native Americans, it is now suspected to have protected
these populations from diabetes. It
lowers cholesterol, regulates blood sugar, and has anti-inflammatory
effects. You are invited to share any
information you may find here freely with others.
And we hope you will share your experiences, photos and knowledge
with us, too. Together we
can acquaint ourselves with the healing power of nature.
Together we can heal the world by healing each other, one by one,
and plant by plant. Gena Fleming |
ARTICLES PLANTS Moringa Bitter Melon
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People
who believe that life forms should never be patented.