Healing plants

The master

No exhibition on medicinal plants would be complete without the involvement of a man who knows the subject like the back of his hand. This is how José António Salgueiro joined the initiative at Santa Rita.

His face hints at his 91 years, but his speech has all the lucidity of youth. He talks with eloquence and assertion. “Drinking rosemary tea will prolong people’s lives. It’s good for the liver, strengthens the intestines and lowers cholesterol. It’s also good for people with poor memories, while silver leaf tea is perfect for the bladder and kidneys. Turnip, carrot and onions are sacred when it comes to the respiratory system”, he adds – thus finding virtue in nearly everything that surrounds him.

This herbalist from Montemor-o-Novo has dedicated his life to the knowledge of Portugal’s medicinal plants. He’s living proof of an ancient empirical knowledge, at risk of extinction. He laments that he has no apprentice, because “young people aren’t interested in this”.

Salgueiro’s life-passion began in a poor, rural Portugal. He was born in 1919 – and he’s been walking the countryside since childhood. In the old days, he used to accompany his parents to work in the fields. He watched his mother gather herbs and plants for all sorts of uses – and so began his knowledge of Nature’s bounty.

“In the old days, we almost didn’t need doctors. There were so many natural things – like teas, poultices and other concoctions which have now disappeared from people’s lives”, he told.

A cobbler by profession, he used to scour fairs and markets in the Alentejo for plants that he didn’t know - but it was only after he reached the age of 50 that he managed to dedicate his life exclusively to herbalism.

Since then, he has carefully registered the location, means of gathering and form of conservation of a huge variety of medicinal plants.

With already one book published and another on the way, he receives people from all over the country at his Alentejo home. And although now a little deaf, he still conducts consultations over the telephone, and sends his medicines wherever they’re needed.

“People are returning to the old-fashioned ways because, these days, almost everything we eat is contaminated”, he explains – adding that the subtleties of modern life damage our health.

“In the old days, men did a lot of physical work, they sweated a lot and got rid of the impurities in their bodies that way. Now people sweat less and toxins stay in the body”.

But Salgueiro is no radical. He believes that natural medicines can and should be used in conjunction with more conventional medication. And he’s certain that even in the future “plants will continue to have a broad spectrum of applications which no-one will ever fully appreciate”.

The last folk healer

Of course, in its simplest form, folk medicine can’t always fix everything. When the problem was complicated, country people and those who worked the sea sought out the help of people with more knowledge – “bone-setters” and “folk healers” / “white-witches”.

These last two effected cures by reciting enchantments and incantations based on religion. One of these healers with ancient wisdom still lives in the countryside behind Tavira.

And it’s for this reason that the exhibition dedicates a number of panels to Maria Tolentina Pereira, 76, the folk healer of Santo Estêvao.

Over the last 21 years, “who knows the number of people that I’ve blessed with healing”, she told us. Tolentina is well-known locally for being “always available” to those needing her help.

She learnt her art with the women of the family – her mother and grandmother. “When I was six-years-old, they began teaching me all about healing through blessings and prayer. I was little, but very interested. I wanted to see how it all worked, and then I made little rag-dolls (to practice)”, she recalls.

She knows prayers and incantations for all sorts of ailments – some even metaphysical (like the “curse of the evil eye”). Some of her incantations are accompanied by plants, gestures and everyday objects – scissors, combs, needles and a ball of thread, which are placed above the affected part of the body.

Superstition? Does anyone really believe in this these days?

Many of those who come daily to her door carry children in their arms. Some come because conventional medicine has failed them.

The most common complaint is “afito” – gastric upset that provokes swelling and stomach pains.

But the most complicated case Tolentina’s ever had to deal with involved a nine-year-old boy from Portimão. One of her neighbours knew the sick child’s parents, and seeing them so desperate, suggested they visit the folk healer.

“His parents had been to every doctor in the book. One in Coimbra had told them to get ready for the boy’s passing – that he was going to die. He came and stayed in my house – and on the third day, he started to improve”, she recalls.

In these cases, Tolentina’s incantations and healing have to continue over nine consecutive days – with the application of a mixture of Pork fat, plant leaves, fig brandy and a lot of faith.

Tolentina never asks for money for her healing – and she refuses any donations when she can see that “the people are really poor”. But, on the other hand, she’s horrified that more and more people seek her out through “envy” – wishing to cause harm/ bad luck to others.

We ask her if she feels she has a gift? “I do. I feel that wherever I put my hands, I do God’s will”.

The exhibition

The exhibition is the culmination of an educational project that ran from 2008 to 2010. It involved more than 20 classes of schoolchildren from the borough of Vila Real de Santo António.

“The idea was to put children in touch with local people and get them to investigate the old-fashioned uses for the Algarve’s flora”, explained CIIPC’s director Catarina Oliveira.“This knowledge is an important aspect of our cultural heritage which we need to preserve. But sadly it is increasingly fragile as it depends on transmission from generation to generation – and we know that this exchange of knowledge has already suffered alterations”.

Without doubt, plants “had a greater importance during the time when people had limited access to doctors and had to solve health problems much more on their own”. We also know that “the dropping” of this aspect of folk culture “hasn’t always resulted in benefits”, she adds.

The exhibition is aimed at the public in general, as well as schoolchildren. It has various sections: there’s the model of an old-fashioned herbal shop, where visitors can come into contact with various plants and get information on the way they were used in rural times, and another section which “sets out to re-create the home environment where the mother or grandmother prepared remedies for simple illnesses and ailments.”

The CIIPC’s next project will be: ““O que comiam os nossos avós. A alimentação no sotavento algarvio” (What our grandparents used to eat. The diet of the Eastern Algarve). The centre is open weekdays from 9am to 5pm, until October 2010.