It's All About Australia, Mate by Denis Gregory

Author:Denis Gregory
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel/Australia & Oceania
ISBN: It's All About Australia| Mate
Publisher: Exisle Publishing
Published: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Native flora

Herbal medicine is big business. More than 50 per cent of Australians use the plant substances at least once a year in an effort to stay healthier, stronger and more energetic. Echinacea, horse radish, astragalus, wild yam, valerian, dandelion root, celery seed, St John’s wort and passion flower are just some of the plants offered as alternative solutions to problems like viruses, influenza, weakened immune systems, headache, insomnia, fatigue, infections, hay fever, ulcers, arthritis and diabetes.

The natural therapy industry has even developed a plant-based sex performance enhancer for men and women called Veromax, which it says has no harmful side effects. The increasingly popular notion that if it’s natural it’s better, and the fact that herbs account for less than 1 per cent of all toxic reactions to medicines, has resulted in a boom.

The industry in Australia is worth $140 million a year; worldwide, it is worth $22 billion. And it is growing at the healthy rate of 15 per cent. Southern Cross University at Lismore has decided that this boom is worth working with, and has established the world’s first herbal medicine quality assurance centre, which works alongside its research and development facility. Herbal medicine manufacturers have been invited to shift their operations there. A variety of herbs will be grown on-site and by contract growers in the district. The university’s Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research, Professor Peter Baverstock, says the plan is that the centre will become the Silicon Valley of herbal medicine.

If you’re in herbal medicine anywhere in the world and you do not have something happening in this centre, in some ways, you are nowhere. Professor Baverstock and his team have worked closely with the industry, forming the Cellulose Valley Advisory Group, which includes representatives of all the major herbal medicine manufacturers in Australia.

Professor Baverstock says the medical establishment is still sceptical of herbal medicine but the pharmacy establishment is moving rapidly towards its use – pharmacy shelves contain 60 per cent herbal medicines. The main consumers are 30 to 40-year-old professional women.

Although the widespread use of herbal medicine is relatively new, country cures and bush remedies have been around for a long time. Whether they work or not is anybody’s guess, but many people grew up with them.

Carrying a potato around in your pocket was a popular old-time cure for rheumatism. Wearing a red flannel belt was a remedy for backaches and chills, a vinegar compress cured headaches, garlic in the shoes stopped coughs and a cut-up onion bound to the soles of the feet reduced a fever.

For infected fingers, old-timers often resorted to breaking a hole in a raw egg, pushing the finger into the yolk and then bandaging the egg and finger together. For persistent sore throats, a dirty sock wrapped around the neck was believed to work wonders.

Brandy and salt restored the hair, although sheep dip was held by some to be much better. Goanna oil was a popular remedy for many complaints. People believed its penetrating power was so strong it could seep through a glass bottle.

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