In the rural communities of Cordillera, medicine is very essential particularly in the far flung areas wherein health services are scarce or limited. The use of medicinal plants to cure common diseases is very common and being practiced until now.
Seasoning ingredients that are found in a common kitchen like chili, ginger, garlic and coconut oil can be processed to produce herbal medicines. The finished product can be used to ease muscle and joint pains, especially for those who work hard every day.
Another herbal plant that is used nowadays is the Lagundi. There are already drug companies in the Philippines who developed the medicine for cough. For villagers in remote communities they had already been using it to cure cough by boiling and drinking the decoction but only adults can take its bitter taste. By adding sugar in the decoction as Lagundi syrup even kids can drink it. The bitter taste is controlled and the sugar acts as a preservative.
In Barangay Binasaran in Abra, the Barangay Health Workers knows processing common herbal plants into medicine particularly the BLS (Bawang, Sili and Laya) ointment and the Lagundi leaves. They had their training years ago with the Rural Health Unit.
BLS Ointment Processing in Binasaran Proper, Abra
Last December 2020, the community through our partner people’s organizations requested CorDis RDS to conduct a training of Herbal preparation on the community. Those who participated were glad that they were able to attend and learned the basics of herbal medicines preparation. For the BHWs they were able to refresh their knowledge on herbal preparation. The outputs of the training were those mentioned above.
According to those who used the BLS ointment, the muscle pains they feel got lessened and led them to have a good sleep. One of the parents tried the lagundi syrup to her child with cough who ended up asking for more.
Finished product of the Herbal Medicine Preparation Training in Abra
Herbal medicines may help in curing certain diseases but, the advice of the professional and trained medical personnel is still needed.