Lessons from my mother #1: Story of Munyukwe the natural laxative

Everyone has a good story or a memory of magical plants in their childhood. I asked a friend of mine and she remembered a flower we called "touch me not". For me the above plants holds lots of memories. A single look at it and vivid visions of my mother boiling the leaves in a black pot, humming( I guess to induce the healing power) floats around.

Last week of my vacation we were taking a walk with my nephew and my dad when we came across this young plant. It looked so familiar to my nephew who was ahead of us so he stopped - picking his brain trying to remember. He was picking the flowers and in deep thought when we caught up with him. Immediately I recognised the plant though I didn't remember the name. My dad would later remind me the name - MUNYUKWE. Yes, this plant terrorized my young soul.

My mother is a staunch believer of some traditional healing recipes passed in our family for generations. They worked for them and so they should also work for us. She taught us and now it is our duty to teach them to our kids. A single vision and I do not want to remember its benefits.

Using this plant

1. Take the green leaves and boil for 30 minutes.
2. Cool down the soup
3. Drink a whole cup at a go

Results

1. Healthy Diarrhea. (healthy because it will clean your bowels of anything not wanted) This is highly dependent on individuals, could go on for hours. So brace yourself. It will however not go for more than a day.

Benefits of this Plant

Taking the above broth is believed to have the following benefits

1. Eliminates constipation
2. Deworming
3. Clears most stomach ailments like relieves stomach aches
4. Keeps stomach ulcers away

Do I believe in all these benefits

No scientific research has been done on the plant. But it has been used to cure above ailments for generations. I choose to believe that knowledge. Also my mother used it alot on us when we were kids. When we ate coffee cherries and got all constipated. When we ate raw mangoes and had stomach aches, when we ate with dirty hands, or ate weird stuff playing house. This was the go to drug and it always worked.

My memories using this plant

Our mother has several recipes for home remedies. This I hated the most and for some part motivated me to always stay healthy washing my hands before eating. However, since kids will always be kids I would once in a while forget and do something stupid. As usual mum would boil the drink and we would be expected to drink it all -bottoms up.

The following hours were the worst. Sitting outside the toilet taking turns. We only had one toilet. Not to mention how much fun our friends would make of us for this -humiliating. But we would then be fine and all would be forgotten. Until one day, my sister was asked to boil some for us and she included the flowers and the seeds. As the story goes the diarrhea did not disappear as usual. It continued for two more days and we had to seek help from a hospital. So even if you want to use this remedy avoid the flowers at all costs.

This is the first of the simple recipes from my mother and a few lessons that i can share with you. Join me for more next time.

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