CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT #6 MY NATURAL REMEDIES/TRADITIONAL MEDICINES THAT I OFTEN USE.

Hello 👋 my amazing friends and fellow healthcare family. How have you you all been doing? I believe everyone is doing very well and working towards achieving our set goals.

I must applaud 👏🏽the @steemhealthcare crew, the @shc-curator and all our wonderful Administrators and Moderators for the wonderful job and selfless service that they render to this community. Thank you all so much 🙏.

I am quite excited about this week’s Contest #6

📢 Contest Announcement #6 : Tell me about natural remedies/traditional medicines that you often use |Reward Pool :30 STEEM.

My natural remedy or traditional medicine that I often use is the The Bitter Leaves.

The botanical name of Bitter leaf is Vernonia amygdalina (I think she’s a girl🤩). It has different names by different tribes in Nigeria but we call it ONUGBO.

I prefer bitter leaves because they have lots of healing and nutritional compositions which set them aside as one of the regularly used herbs in my home.
My mum never did without bitter leaves, in fact she planted them round our home and in all our farms. She can just pluck the leaves, wash and chew them🙄.

The bitter leaf is very bitter just as the name implies although there are some species that are way more bitter than others. That’s the type we have in my home.

The taste is not pleasant at all but you know what? Just take a glass of water after eating bitter leaves and the taste is practically the opposite of the original taste😋 (Sweet).

The Igbo traditional families especially those from my State (Anambra State, Nigeria) use the bitter leaves to cook the most cherished and delicious bitter leaves soup (my best soup so far) and other delicacies like yam or cocoyam porridge.
We just wash off some of the bitterness from the leaves before using them in soup. This soup is used for cleansing of the stomach for better bowel movement.

Bitter leaves are super healthy and nutritional.

In my home, we wash the leaves very well with salt and water to get rid of germs and dirts and squeeze them to get the juice which we drink to prevent cholesterol and excess fats because 60% of my family members are big.
Am just amongst the lucky tiny few as they refer to us.

We also drink this bitter leaves juice to cleanse our systems of excess sugar and salt which are the major causes of diabetes and high blood pressure.
You know bitter leaves has high concentration of potassium whose duty is to cleanse the body of sodium.
I remembered mocking my Auntie who doesn’t take the juice with us because of the bitterness when she was advised by the doctor to drink more of bitter leaves juice🤪🤪.

We also drink bitter leaves juice for abdominal problems like dysentery, stomach bites, diarrhea and for fertility and menstrual pain for the ladies; the relief and feeling is magical.

The juice from the root and the leaves are extracted and given to pregnant women to induce labor during child birth.

A little amount of this juice is also given to new born babies at intervals to help ease colic pain.
We wash and squeeze the leaves to drink the juice against malaria and for blood building. This plant is a total package. It’s an amazing gift to nature.

More importantly is the use of this wonderful leaves as my bath sponge at least once in a week to prevent acne, for exfoliating of dead skin cells and for my glow 😎😊
Please, make sure you moisturize immediately after bath to prevent your skin from drying.

All I need do rub my soap on them just like my sponge and used them for my bath.

PREPARATION

How to prepare this natural remedy or traditional medicine.

• Get the leaves fresh from the farm.

• Pluck them from the stems and and wash with salt to get rid of dirts and germs.

• Then you wash and squeeze as much as possible to extract enough juice.

• Then you use a filter to separate the juice from the leaves.

You can go ahead to drink this dark green goodness or you slightly warm it over low heat and let it cool off before drinking.

I wrap up the leaves and keep in my freezer in readiness for my yummy yummy Onugbo or Bitter leaves soup 😁.

CONCLUSION

In all, the healing power and medicinal purposes of the bitter leaves can never be overemphasized. You can plant them in your garden or around your home to keep them handy because you never know when the need would arise.
Let’s us all try going natural once more because nature’s gifts to man can never be compared to man’s gifts to himself.

Thanks so much @steemhealthcare for this educating contest.
I am herbalist @nneoma08 reporting from my farm 😄😄

I invite @@@caramella111, @rechie23 and @chinadennys to come join this contest.

Special Mention
@imamalkimas
@mudajuli
@ahyar92,
@goodybest
@lidiasteem.