Showing posts with label Trees of Mexico Red Gumbo Limbo Medicinal Uses for Skin affections Pain Colds Flu Sun Stroke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trees of Mexico Red Gumbo Limbo Medicinal Uses for Skin affections Pain Colds Flu Sun Stroke. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Trees of Mexico Red Gumbo Limbo Medicinal Uses for Skin affections Pain Colds Flu Sun Stroke, Blod Purifyer

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 350-365


Red Gumbo limbo (English), Chakah or Sip' che' (Maya), Bursera simaruba, Burseraceae family. Red Gumbo Limbo is native to the Americas; a deciduous tree most notable for it’s peeling deep reddish bark, and soft wood, nowadays use by Maya carvers.  Chaca's small white bloom clusters grow in spring and winter. 















This Gumbo limbo can be propagated by just planting young branches to the ground, Maya people use it as posts for fencing their parcels that with time become mature trees.  The Red Gumbo limbo or Chaca tree has a high salty soil tolerance and many medicinal qualities used by Maya healers in tea fusions, oils and anti-inflammatory ointments.

This large deciduous tree is most notable for it’s peeling reddish bark.
 
People use its resin as glue, varnish, water-repellent coating, and incense. Gumbo-limbo is considered medicinal nearly everyplace it grows.

TRIBAL AND HERBAL MEDICINE USES


Rosita Arvigo reports that the bark is a common topical remedy in Belize for skin affections like skin sores, measles, sunburn, insect bites and rashes. A bark decoction is also taken internally for urinary tract infections, pain, colds, flu, sun stroke, fevers and to purify the blood.
 
 A strip of bark about 4 -5 cm x 30 cm is boiled in a gallon of water for 10 minutes for this local remedy and then used topically or drunk as a tea.

When someone sprained an ankle or pulled a muscle, gumbo limbo resin was applied to the affected area.  I guess you just spread the sap on your skin and stick some leaves to it, twice a day, with meals.



WORLDWIDE MEDICAL USES
Bahamas for aches(back), debility, hunger, impotency, rashes, strains; as an aphrodisiac
Belize for colds, blood cleansing, fevers, flu, insect bites, measles, rashes, skin sores, sun stroke, sunburn, urinary tract infections
Dominican Republic for cystitis, intestinal problems, nephritis
Guatemala for aches(stomach), bite(snake), gangrene
Haiti as an antiseptic diuretic, insect repellant; for calculus, diarrhea, nephritis Sore, Vulnerary
Mexico for asthma, bite(snake), colic, dropsy, dysentery, enterorrhagia, fevers, stomachaches, swelling, venereal diseases, yellow fever; as an diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, purgative
Peru as an analgesic, blood purifier, diaphoretic, expectorant, insecticide; for rheumatism
Venezuela for cancer(stomach), corns, debility, hernia, rheumatism
Elsewhere for aches(stomach), muscle fatigue, obesity, renitis, rheumatism, tumors, venereal diseases, wounds

Reforestation

One reason the tree is so commonly encountered is that it's a tough, adaptable species able to endure many abuses. Just poke a stick of it into the ground, it roots, and makes a new tree. 


Cut off a branch, stick it in the ground, and it will grow.  People still make photosynthesizing fences by planting a row of branches.
 
Propagation is by seed which germinates readily if fresh but, most often, gumbo-limbo is propagated by cuttings of any size twig or branch. Huge truncheons (up to 12 inches in diameter) are planted in the ground where they sprout and grow into a tree. 

Be sure to properly prune and train a tree grown in this fashion, since many sprouts often develop along the trunk after planting. A tree left to grow in this manner usually develops weak branches which may fall from the tree as it grows older. Space major branches out along the main trunk to create a strong tree. It is probably best to plant seed-grown trees or those propagated from smaller, more traditionally-sized cuttings.