Skip to main content

Farming communities use rice as medicine


While pharmaceutical drugs are taken in when common illnesses strike, indigenous knowledge in three provinces comprised traditional rice varieties (TVRs) as home remedies.

In the “Ethnoguided Survey and Collection of Philippine Medicinal Traditional Rice Varieties,” 18 rice varieties were identified as medicinal in Palawan, North Cotabato, and Zamboanga del Norte. Across three sites, TRVs are used to treat fever, cough, measles, stomach ache, and diarrhea.

Floper Gershwin Manuel, research lead, said that in Rizal, Palawan, the community herbalist who is regularly consulted for various illnesses, identified munahan, minandiris, and pindinga as medicinal.

“The roots of Munahan is used to treat urinary tract infection; the grains and leaves of Minandiris or Binaritos are believed to regain men’s virility and treat herpes; while the roots, leaves, and grains of Pindinga are supposed to cure allergy, itchiness, and bloating,” Mr. Manuel explained.

Mr. Manuel, an anthropologist, noted the common belief of preparing grains in odd number, specifically, in most cases, seven grains. In treating itchiness thru Pindinga, for example, decoction is produced by boiling seven grains.

“This could be because in Pythagorean era, odd numbers were related to origins of diseases,” he said.

According to the senior science research specialist, locals use rice as medicine because it is readily available within the neighborhood and is much cheaper than the generic drugs. Moreover, crossing rivers 2-12 times to reach the nearest health center compels them to try household remedies before seeking physician’s help.

In Arakan Valley, Manobo elders shared that Dinorado, Bagtok, and Sawwi are used in treating indigestion and other sicknesses including those that may have been caused by “supernatural” powers.

To treat indigestion, Manuel said that patients chew few pieces of raw rice grain. However, community herbalist informed that rice cannot be eaten when suffering from other sickness.

In dealing with sickness caused by supernatural or “magic,” the community herbalist, who performs rituals and incants prayers, serves the cooked black variety of Bagtok to the patient. Moreover, the white variety of Sawwi is used in recovering strength from sickness.

In Sergio Osmeña, Zamboanga del Norte, Magaraya is known to treat fever, stomach pains, diarrhea, colds, cough, measles, body pains, and any illness.

During field work, Mr. Manuel interviewed a mother who shared that nine of her children have never been confined to a hospital and that they were only treated with traditional/herbal medicine.

He also said that the municipal doctor in this town noted the use of Magaraya as medicine, although it is not included among the country’s Philippine traditional medicines.

“[The doctor] said that patients only come [to the health center] when they have not yet recovered from their illnesses three or seven days of suffering. If he asks them what they have taken so far, they just say ‘tambal (herbal) only’, maragaya,” he shared.

Mr. Manuel added that ethnobotanical studies confirm that certain plants such as TRVs have role in the healthcare system of some communities for long time, providing benchmark for scientists to explore opportunities that these plant species may have to offer.

Meanwhile, PhilRice food scientist Marissa Romero said that TRVs, which are usually pigmented, is rich in antioxidants such as phenolic compounds, vitamin E derivatives, and y-oryzanol that are effective free radical scavengers.

“There are claims about the medicinal benefits of rice but in the Philippines, we have yet to conduct clinical studies to verify these properties,” Romero said.

Similar study conducted by Rosa Mia Cabanting and Loida Perez are published in Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2016.

For more information about this study, the lead researcher can be reached through flop.gershwin @gmail.com. (PhilRice)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become an annua

PIDS expert says income tax cuts justified; warns gov’t of revenue loss

Proposals to amend the personal income tax schedule appear to be well-justified. However, these proposals should include measures that will allow government to recover the revenue loss from lower income taxes. Dr. Rosario Manasan, senior research fellow of state think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said at a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Senate, that government should look for new revenue measures to compensate for the projected revenue loss that will arise as a result of the implementation of any of the various proposals to restructure the personal income tax. Currently, there are several income tax reform proposals pending in both houses of Congress. All of them, according to Dr. Manasan, have the same objective of addressing the phenomenon of bracket creep, which results from “non-indexation to inflation of personal income tax brackets”. Simply put, bracket creep occurs when employees’ income increases over time as a result of inflation. Th

PGIN honors Ilocano heroes of past, present through Heroes Walk

SPO1 Allan Lampitoc Franco of Banna, Ilocos Norte and PO2 Jovalyn D. Lozano of Adams, Ilocos Norte receive a resolution of commendation, a certificate of college scholarship grant to their family members and a P20,000 cash incentive each from the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte represented by Governor Imee R. Marcos and Vice Governor Angelo M. Barba in recognition of their bravery and heroic acts in the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao on January 25. Mr. Franco and Mr. Lozano were recognized on March 10 in time for the unveiling of the second batch of Ilocano heroes at the Heroes Walk located along the Sirib Mile in Laoag City.  (Lei Adriano) By Jennifer T. Pambid PGIN-CMO In honor of the heroes who brought freedom, fame and glory to the province as well as to the country in the past century, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) through the Education Department and Sirib Youth Office launched the second batch of Ilocano Heroes Walk on March 10, 2015.