6. Reading Skills Comprehension: Therapeutic Value

THERAPEUTIC VALUE

1. The therapeutic value and healing powers of plants were demonstrated to me when I was a boy of about ten. I had developed an acute persistent abdominal pain that did not respond readily to hospital medications. My mother had taken me to the city’s central hospital on several occasions where different drugs were tried on me. In total desperation, she took me to Egya Mensa, a well-known herbalist in my hometown in the Western province of Ghana. This man was no stranger to medical doctors at the hospital. He had earned the reputation of offering excellent help when they were confronted with difficult cases where western medicine had failed to effect a cure.

2. After a brief interview, not very different from what goes on daily in the consulting offices of many general medical practitioners in the United States, he left us waiting in his consulting room while he went out to the field. He returned with several leaves and the bark of a tree and one of his attendants immediately prepared a decoction. I was given a glass of this preparation, it tasted extremely bitter, but within an hour or so. I began to feel relieved. The rest of the decoction was put in two large bottles so that I could take doses periodically. Within about three days, the frequent abdominal pains stopped and I recall gaining a good appetite. I have appreciated the healing powers of medicinal plants ever since.

3. My experience may sound unusual to those who come from urban areas of the developed world, but for those in the less affluent nations, such experiences are a common occurrence. In fact, demographic studies by various national governments and inter-governmental organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that for 75 to 90 per cent of the rural population of the world, the herbalist is the only person who handles their medical problems.

4. Over the years, I have come to distinguish between three types of medicinal practitioners. The first is the herbalist who generally enjoys the prestige and reputation of being the real traditional medical professional. The second group represents divine healers. They are fetish priests whose practice depends upon their purported supernatural powers of diagnosis. Thirdly, the witch doctor, the practitioner who is credited with the ability to intercept the evil deeds of a witch.

5. These practitioners have done well by relying almost exclusively on herbs for actual treatment while serving as the people’s spiritual leaders and psychologists.

6. From the drug-stores in New Delhi, I picked up some well-packaged bark and roots of Rauwolfia Serpentina, a plant that was very well-known in ancient Asiatic medicine. The storekeeper said that it cures hypertension. This plant has the power to lower the blood pressure and pulse. It is used to calm down mad people because alkaloids in the plant have a specific influence on the mind. I later learnt that the storekeeper has a medical degree from one of the Indian universities, but chose to administer herbal medicine because he felt his people were better off with local medicines than with the expensive, imported, synthetic drugs that had no traditional, social or psychological meaning.

                                                      -‘A Worldwide Role for the healing power of Plants’ by Edward S. Ayensu

Word-Meanings

Para 1. 1. therapeutic (adjective): having a good effect on the body or mind 2. Acute  (adjective): sharp or severe in effect 3. persistent (adjective): steady, lasting  4. abdominal  (adjective): pertaining to stomach 5. respond (verb): answer 6. medications (noun): medical treatment 7. drugs (noun): medicines 8. desperation (noun): despair 9. herbalist : a person who grows, sells and uses herbs for medical purposes 10. reputation (noun): honour, popularity 11. confronted with (verb): faced with 12. effect (verb): bring about 13. cure (noun): remedy, treatment

Para 2. 1. bark (noun): skin of a tree 2. decoction (noun): a liquid obtained by boiling a thing for a long time 3. extremely (adverb): to a very high degree 4. periodically (adverb): from time to time 5. appetite (noun): a desire for food and drink 6. appreciated (verb): praised

Para 3. 1. affluent (adjective): wealthy 2. demographic (adjective): pertaining to the statistics of birth, deaths, diseases, etc.

Para 4. 1. prestige (noun): respect and admiration that somebody has because of what they have done 2. traditional (adjective): long-established and customary 3. healers (noun): those who heal, cure 4. fetish priests (noun): people who serve as mediators between the spirit and the living 5. purported (adjective): supposed 6. diagnosis (noun): identification of problem, disease 7. witch (noun): Sorceress 8. intercept (verb): to interrupt or stop

Para 6.  1. well-known (adjective): renowned 2. specific (adjective): special

Questions:

1. Choose the correct option:

 (a) The special thing in the plant Rauwolfia Serpentina that influences the mind is……… 

 (i) metals                         (ii) alkaloids                     (iii) alkalies                       (iv) aroma

(b) Who was Egya Mensa?

 (i) doctor                         (ii) herbalist                      (iii) chemist                     (iv) yoga guru

(c) Which parts of the plant Rauwolfia Serpentina are used to cure hypertension?

 (i) stem and roots         (ii) leave and flowers    (iii) bark and roots         (iv) flowers and roots

(d) Who cures the evil deeds of a witch?

(i) doctor                          (ii) herbalist                      (iii) priest                         (iv) witch doctor

(e) The word `acute’ means………… 

 (i) slight                          (ii) great                              (iii) severe in effect          (iv) sorrow

(f) The storekeeper (in paragraph 6) felt herbal medicine was better as most drugs were:

(i) traditional in nature                                              (ii) synthetic and expensive

(iii) difficult to procure                                               (iv) dangerous

2.Answer the questions briefly:

(a) What was the author suffering from?

 (b) What do the WHO demographic studies display?

(c) In desperation, where did the mother take her suffering son?

(d) How is Rauwolfia Serpentina useful?

 (e) A word in Para 1 which means ‘steady and continuous’ is………….

  (f) Find a word from the passage meaning ‘well-off. (Para 3)

Answers:

1.(a) ii             (b) ii             (c) iii            (d) iv         (e) iii           (f) ii

2.(a) The author was suffering from acute persistent abdominal pain.

 (b) The WHO demographic studies display that for 75 to 90 per cent of the world’s rural population, the herbalist is the only doctor.

(c) In total desperation, the mother took her suffering son to a well-known herbalist.

(d) Rauwolfia Serpentina cures hypertension and lowers the blood pressure and pulse.

(e) persistent

 (f) affluent

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