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Tropical Garden Grow Guide
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Botanic name:	Neurolaena lobata
Plant type	perennial  shrub
pH	5.5-7
soil prefernce	well drained loamy
Uses	medicinal/therapeutic

 

The herb grows to be approximately 3 to 12 feet tall.  At maturity the leaves develop 3 points at the tip, one in the center and one on each side. At the end of the plant stems small clusters of yellow flowers develop and the plant is ready for harvest.  All parts of the plant, the stem, leaves, flowers and roots are used in a wide variety of healing applications as a tea, infusion, tincture and ground up from dried or roasted leaves to be applied for wound care.  Jackass bitters contain sesquiter pene lactones dialdehyde, flavonoids and alkaloids.  True  to  its name, all parts of the plant are intensely bitter and have numerous reported  healing properties for internal and external disease treatment or prevention.  The bitter substances in the plant stimulate the gall bladder and helps purify the  blood.  A handful of leaves brewed in a gallon of water and cooled can be used to soak or bathe skin irritations   Drinking a tea or infusion is more effective taken on an empty stomach. The book Maya Herbal Medicine by Aurora Garcia Saqui recommends following the traditional Maya practice of drinking jackass bitters for a week, three times a year to stay in good health and to help ward off diseases like cancer and diabetes.  Taken as a tincture or tea around the new moon is a long held tradition for preventing and treating parasites.  Rosita Arvigo and Michael Balick's book Messages From the Gods is full of additional recipes for many ailments.

 

Recipes:  Traditionally the method used to prepare jackass bitters is to add a slight handful of fresh leaves, or a smaller handful of dried leaves to a quart of water and boil for 10 minutes, then cool.  It is often drunk in ½ cup doses starting before breakfast and two times  during the day for 10 days as a treatment for parasites and amoebas.  As a diabetes preventative the young leaves are chewed. As a head lice treatment a handful of leaves is boiled in 2 quarts of water for 10 minutes; after the brew has cooled the scalp is soaked in the decoction, then wrapped with a towel which is left on for 30 minutes; this is repeated once daily for 3 days. It is good to have jackass bitters tincture in your medical supplies.  Fill a clean glass jar about ½ full of dried leaves, cover the bitters with rum and seal the top.  Place the jar in a dark closet or cupboard for one month.  Shake the jar daily, then strain the tincture into dark dropper bottles. In the event of snakebite quickly mash up a large quantity of leaves and place on the snakebite.  The tips of the jackass bitter plant can be chewed and swallowed on your way to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.

 

In the event you do not find plants growing in your backyard you can purchase tinctures until you have plants in your garden to harvest. Jackass bitter plants can be grown from seeds or propagated from stem  cuttings of the plant. Find a sunny location in your garden with well draining soil, cultivate the area to loosen the soil, then plant the seeds by scattering them over the area and covering them with approximately ¼ inch of fine soil and water every other day until the plants are established.  The flowers at the end of the stems produce seeds for growing your own.  I discovered the flowers turn to seeds surrounded by fluff and have been scattering the seeds around the outskirts of the gardens and orchards to allow Mother Nature to take over the new crop. You may send your request for jackass bitters leaves, cuttings or seeds to gardening sites on Facebook including the Pro-Organic Belize FB site.