Filipino remedy

Step inside a clinic anywhere in the Philippines and the chances are that many of the patients seek treatment for similar complaints. Chest infections, coughs and other respiratory problems are amongst the commonest conditions seen by health workers but now the traditional herbal remedy for these ailments may prove just the right tonic for the ailing agricultural economy of an island in the far south of the country.

From the air, northern Palawan - a narrow forested island that stretches for 400 km between the Sulu and the South China Sea - looks green and productive. But looks can be deceptive. Most of the five hundred families who till the mountain slopes and flat land beside the sea lack even the simplest of tools to make working the land easier and are unable to afford inputs to improve yields. The forest that cloaks the hills and protects the water catchment is being cleared at the rate of 5 hectares per year per farming household in order to get fertile land. And it is not just the trees that are falling. Average farm incomes have reached an all-time low prompting a local development organization to look for alternatives for this potentially productive area. "We wanted to find sources of cash that farmers in northern Palawan can depend on," says Lawrence Padilla, Executive Director of Palawan Centre for Appropriate Technology (PCART ).

Walk up behind many a village and it is not long before you come across a straggly delicately-leafed shrub known locally as lagundi (Vitex negundo). An infusion to treat coughs is prepared from boiled lagundi leaves but a less bitter and more convenient remedy is marketed throughout the Philippines in tablet form. Now proven scientifically to be an effective and safe treatment for a range of respiratory problems, sales of the tablets are increasing pushing up demand for dried lagundi leaf.

credit: Susie Emmett

Farmer Bonifacio Navaroza speedily snips his way around a lagundi shrub and the leafy branches fall straight into a large woven basket. He manages the first lagundi farm established to test how much each bush can produce and to interest farmers in the surrounding area in growing it themselves. One of the main attractions is that to establish a lagundi plantation there is no need to completely clear the land. Ring weeding around each young plant is all that is necessary until it is well established and the first cut of leaves can be just 8 months after planting and then every 4-6 months after that. "I like growing a plant that is made into medicine," says  Navaroza, "But the main advantage to me is that it is not like other crops where you have to plant every season. This you plant once and then just keep of harvesting it for years."

Fresh-picked leaves are taken to a central sorting shed to reject any that are damaged or diseased and then tipped onto large metal trays. Nick Aldridge, a British volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas has brought his skills as a herb farmer in southern England to help PCART develop a hot air drier which has reduced the drying time from 48 hours to just 16. In each of three chambers 30 kilos of fresh lagundi leaves lose 50% of their weight and are ready for milling. Lower down the valley, in the new purpose-built semi-processing plant a cloud of green dust billows out as the hammer mill pounds the dried leaves to a fine powder ready for shipping to the pharmaceutical company in Manila that will press it into pills. In the corner the first order of 100 kilos is packed and ready to go.

Although the company they supply has offered to buy all they can produce, PCART is well aware that they only have a narrow advantage on farmers on neighbouring islands who are also interested in growing lagundi. "That's why we are looking into the commercial cultivation and processing of 27 medicinal plants" Lawrence Padilla explains. Growing lagundi amongst a range of other food and herbal crops is what is recommended. "That's why we advise farmers never to be married to one crop alone" adds Beatrice Dioso, PCART agricultural officer, who often uses the Filipino love of gambling to get her advice to farmers. For some of the poorer farmers of Palawan, going into lagundi growing could be one gamble that does pay off.

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