Эксперт по натуральной медицине раскрыл потенциал биоразнообразия: от диатомовой земли против крыс до коммерческой ценности кожуры фруктов

Natural Health Follow Us on GoogleJuly 16, 2026 by Femi Kusa Plant medicines gold mine in forests of terror, horror (2) My house, on a plot of land small but cute, is like a forest in which no one appears to live. It is unlike other houses nearby on grounds bare and bland of the finger print,foot prints and blue prints of Mother nature, where birds do not come to sing joyfully at sunrise and sunset, and where the lives of rats are not endangered. I have discovered that, small as they are, rats are intelligent and communicates among themselves. For when they think my house “forest” is a safe, living habitat for them but I ensnare them with pet food loaded with “Pet grade Diatomaceous earth” (diatom or DE, for short) and they die in groups, no rat ventures nearby for months. I suspect that the escapees and the survivors tell their kits and kindred elsewhere that this “forest” is a dangerous zone. Thus, I am saved the trauma of “ terrorism” of sort by these rats in my “forest” home. How can I be called a herbalist and my home does not show I am one! It is the handiwork of Udeme Edet James, my house and business manager, inspired by me and over which I have told the man after her heart she is a builder of an intimate home where radiations of man and nature intermingle. My home is in a living mini “forest” surrounded by a landscape of concrete jungle of houses. Persons in the forestry knowledge industry tell me it can pass for an “ Urban forest”. Papaya and plantain, dwarf and tall, are flourishing. Years ago, Mrs Florence Fusi, planted thirty papayas in the dry season, but they died of drought. I became wiser afterwards. The next generation survived, though fewer in number. One of them was a dwarf papaya brought to me as a gift by a 90-year-old reader of this column for several decades who went about by bus and on his legs. Mr Seun Ogunseitan brought the plant Asian relish as a vegetable. Nigerians call it Iyana Ipaja or hospital too far. The latter appellation comes from Akwa Ibom State where health centers are too distant for emergencies and it is assumed this plant is so medicinal that it makes hospital round unnecessary. Mrs Shade Kusa my sister in-law, a university forestry graduate, brought Oregano and taught me how to make all pawpaw seedlings to become female pawpaw plant for maximum fruit yield. So, today, I enjoy whole meal papayas when they all fruit, and even relish unripe papayas stews. Flourishing in this home forest, also, are… bitter leaf, basil ocinum, patminger, Nettle, water leaf, pumpkin leaf, dandelion, Miracle plant, aloe vera, pineapple, snails, cocoyam, vervain, asiatic plant, shiny bush, oregano, lime, Awo’gba’run ( anti snake plant), yam in sacs, native Irish potatoes, water yam, bitter yam e.t.c. Last year, I smelled a rat that Udeme James may be overstepping her bounds when the aroma of Young leaves of Mango, avocado and Guava seedlings exuded from the front perimeter fence. Did she want the fence to collapse under intrusion of their roots? I had them taken out immediately. Even now, I am unsure if a baby palm fruit growing outside a flower bed would be a dwarf, which I would retain, a persona non granta if it is a tall type. This mini forest gives me the pep to become an advocate of Forest BioRefineries food, medicines and other products in Nigeria, as the first part of this series last week shows. I am not done with the mini forest in my small, one-plot habitat. The dwarf coconut is coming on board, soon. Ewe Atooo( Yoruba plant ) for healthy bone and arthritis is coming up. Maize has joined the league. Lemon grass had not shown much promise. Tobacco has outlived its time and giving way to Awopa aran (healers of 200 diseases). Chanca Piedra, for malaria, high blood sugar, hypertension e.t.c used to be an evergreen here. Could it now be that plant radiations abound here which its own disagree with? Been vision challenged, I hope to make marigold flower flourish this rainy season. It is chief commercial source of Lutein, Zeaxanthin and Astaxanthin, all popular beta carotenoids found in reputable eye care food supplements. READ ALSO: How First Lady’s support helped me expand my business – Akara vendor Before I proceed, I would like to say that I am not alone in this home forest lifestyle, and so, acknowledge two persons I am aware of who were in it before me. I doff my hat for Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former Nigerian Minister of External Affairs from August 1985 to late 1987 under the Military administration of Gen. Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida, who made a mini forest in his home on Femi Deru street, off Agbaoku Street,Ikeja, Lagos. Anytime I was there, I was thrilled to find all sorts of animals enjoying themselves in a wire fenced wooded area of the grounds. . At that time, I lived on 34 Ajanaku Street, Awuse Estate, Opebi, where I was raising about 20 free range hens for their eggs and some rabbits and snails in their cages. Thumbs up for Mrs. Fatima Oyekan, of Ikoyi Lagos, a retired principal of Crescent Group of Schools, 1,004 flats, Victoria Island, Lagos. There is a fish pond in her home forest at Ikoyi. In this forest are interesting trees and plants such as avocado, mango, star fruit (agbalomo Yoruba) orange, grape, lemon, pomegranate, sour sop, moringa, guava, butter fruit, banana , plantain, and vegetables such as ewedu, efu amunututu, spinach e.t.c. If ever-yone in Nigeria who is privileged to live in his or her home grows foods of all sorts, pressure on the food market would ease, food would be cheaper and the poor would be able to breathe better. This would be revolutionary and drive the Nigerian society biorefinery lifestyle as every-one would soon begin to think of what to do with food waste and hear of what some persons are doing with theirs. In the real forest biorefinery culture that would follow, hoodlums, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers would have no residence in our forests. Better still, these forests would not, as they have now become, launch pads for a revolution of poor, disgruntled, dis-orientented and vengeance-seeking down class and the underclass. In other countries, their revolution becomes strong enough to demand slots in the government cabinet until they were able to push the long-standing establishment aside and take over. The Orange Biorefinery When I was contemplating this subject for the first part of this series last week, my thoughts floated to De-Orange event centre near the housing estate where I live. How I wish its activities were linked to Orange Biorefinery. Last week, I suggested that some orange plantations or forests abroad may be as large as five square kilometers. They have refineries which process everything about the orange into foods, industrial raw materials, pharmaceutical drugs, nutraceutical food or plants medicines and animals feed. I mention only a few. The limitation of space did not permit a fuller address of orange peel and of orange flowers and leaves. When I spoke with Mrs Fatima Oyekan last Monday, I discovered that she was unaware of biorefinery products which may come out of them . I doubt, if she knew her mango trees were gold mine outside the mango fruits. I, too, did not know I could break the mango seeds and eat or use the seed kernel within it as medicine untill I read H. Bakru’s book, Fruits That Heal. The kernel is a broad spectrum anti-microbial for fighting bacteria, viruses and fungi. Indian women, says H. Bakru, insert it into their secret places to not only kill germs, such as candida, but sperm as well, as a form of contraceptive. Already, orange biorefineries products are producing billions of United States Dollars (USD) every year for the countries which have ventured into them, while Nigerians throw away as waste so-called inedible parts of the orange… fruit, pulp, seeds, albedo, pith and peel! Before we start blaming the government for this, as is customary of us, let us not forget that forest biorefineries originated from innovative citizens of whom former U.S. President John F. Kennedy meant when he said: “ think not of what your country can do for you but of what you can do for your country”. It was in this light that Euro-Americans discovered that orange pith is a rich source of industrial raw materials, plant medicines and dietary nutrients. Biorefinery companies process it for those medicinal products sold in the natural medicine markets. Between the fruit pulp and the Orange peel is a layer of whitish flesh material which some persons peel and throw away. This portion is a dense source of Bioflavonoids. These are useful chemical substances which fight inflammation in such conditions as arthritis or organ pain, improve connection, tissue health to prevent bleeding, and improve immunity. When your doctor prescribes Vitamin C with Bioflavonoids and gives you the natural Vitamin C, that is what he is saying, is good for you. Yet you lost it in the orange and threw it away for the goat to relish! Isn’t it wonderful that we humans have lost what the Almighty Creator through Mother Nature gave to us for radiant health but animals like goats and ants still keep indelible memories of them! Biorefinery companies sell to us pure Bioflavonoids. I do not take plain vitamins C. I prefer Alkaline or Buffered Vitamin C with Flavonoids. Mrs Veronica Momoh, of Benin, had joined me in this since I began fortified vitamin C advocacy on this page. Alkaline or Buffered Vitamin C with bioflavonoids is Vitamin C to which is added alkaline minerals to offset acidity of the Vitamin C. Nature is wise. It gave us vitamin C in the orange fruit sac, antioxidant and alkaline minerals and healing oils in other parts of the orange. We are meant to eat them all. Foolishly, we eat some and throw the rest away and pay money to the biorefineries companies to sell to us as food supplements those parts that we throw away. I discovered medicinal uses of Orange Peel in the Miracle Medicine Foods of Rex Adam in the 1990s. Since then, I eat it raw or parboiled. It helps to burn blood sugar and to check blockages of air passages in asthma attacks. I have free airways. My veritable testimonial for orange peel therapy is Udeme Edet James. She came to me as an asthma challenged person. A drop of rain water on her body got her wheezing. So did plant pollen. If she entered a banking hall and the queue was long, she went back because the air conditioning could set her breathing on fire. On the way back home, she sometimes rushed into Keysley Pharmacy, then at Pen Cinema, Agege, Lagos, for Ventolin, which may get her drowned for days. Now, all of that is gone, and she has introduced orange peel into the diet of her friend, Israel Ezekiel who is becoming a naturalist like her. Afterall, what does a leaf become after staying long on soap, if not soap? What gives orange peel its power over vessel constriction either in asthma, hypertension or venous insufficiencies of all kinds is its rich source of Anti-Histamines. Remember that histamine reduces space through which air or blood or fluid flow through. Your doctor gives you anti-histamine to open you up and save your life. Why, then, would you throw orange peel away? I used to obtain my orange peel from orange sellers by the road-sides or from the orange market. Their hygiene is poor. So, I soak the peel in strong salt water to rid it of living inedibles or in cider (white), Vinegar solution. Then, I eat it raw or parboiled. You may enjoy it parboiled with rice, beans or in soups. Later, I graduated into imported freeze dried powder from Indian or American factories. Between half or a teaspoonful in pap or other meals is good. Two weeks ago, a young mother of one whose fasting blood sugar refused to crash below 240 points after pharmaceuticals had helped to bring it down that far from a higher reading was surprised that, it went down to about 140 in one week on orange peel, chanco piedra and oregano leaf! Now, imagine what we are losing to terrorists and bandits in the forests when we abandoned the forests to them for decades, and today, cannot access them for everything they possess for us, including herbal medicines for the health and wealth of our nation and, of course, forest jobs. A biorefinery industry in Nigeria has a long way to go. Corruption and corporate malpractices discourage investment. A kitchen freeze drying machine may cost between 3-5 million Naira. Regular electricity supply and machines are central to industrial success. Imagine if freeze dried tomatoes and peppers and onion are available and cheap. I imagine if fish can be freeze dried to powder. What about crayfish and Okra in their seasons? What many persons try to make do with is the dehydrator. Courtesy of Engr. Komolafe, I bought one from FIIRO in Lagos about twenty years ago for three fifty thousand naira, preparatory to my retirement from the newsroom. It was to dry fresh pepper for export. Incidentally, I have not used it. About two years ago, I introduced one of my acquaintances to FIIRO for the same machine, and learned that it now cost more than one million naira. Many Nigerian herb producers cannot afford it. So, they go for kitchen models from India which may cost about half a million Naira. These dehydrators do not preserve colour, aroma and taste, and do not completely dehydrate, living room for moulding e.t.c. Papaya Biorefinery When I learned in the 1990s of huge papaya (pawpaw) plantations or forests abroad where the leaves, fruits, seeds, stem, sap and roots were refined into medicinal products, I tried what one may term a kitchen experiment at home in Lagos. I grew and harvested papayas of about one meter in height. I have heard of Papaya tablets from the papaya enzyme papain which was used for many things in medicine and in industry. The American-Indians who went hunting wrapped the meat of animals they killed with bruised papaya leaves. Papain from the leaves protected the meat from spoilage. The American-Indians were original inhabitants of present day United States before Europeans invaded the land and took it over from them in gun battles. Papain from the oozing juice not only tenderised the flesh, it preserved it by killing assailing germs because it digests proteins like the human Pepsin enzyme in the stomach activated by hydrochloric acid. In the human body, papain does not digest human proteins but foreign proteins such as those of parasites, Escherichia Coli ( E.coli) for example, which cause several intestinal troubles. The Nigerian Alternative Medicine community sells powder freeze dried papaya leaf from abroad. Besides, its papain, it promises vitamin K2 which increases platelets cell formation by the body to handle bleeding problems. That is why it is often prescribed for dengue fever which causes bleeding in organs, blood vessels, eye, ears, nostrils and other open part of the body such as the genitalia and the anus. It is also a rich source of chlorophyll for building the blood and immunity. I ground the papaya plants I harvested to gruel in a small machine and oven dried it for home use to supplement meals for the digestion since all the proteolytic enzymes are present in it. In the world market, papaya biorefinery products are selling well. Papain enzymes and latex from unripe fruit and the plant trunk are the main money spinners, selling for between 21-22 USD per kilogramme(kg) for the industrial grade. In industry, it is useful as a tenderizer. This is about 100 tablespoonful! The food and pharmacy grade product goes for between 100USD and 300 USD per kg(table profile), or for between 150,000 and 450,000 naira. We will continue to hear greater tiding about forest biorefineries in the days ahead. That is where investment in New uses of Agriculture is heading. We would learn from it all that yam peel is edible so shall we of potato peel, cocoyam peel, mango peel e.t.c. a new dawn will break in the plant medicine industry.