Texto: T. Saravanan
Practitioner and promoter of traditional medicine C.
Chokkalingampillai stresses the significance of herbal remedies.
“Please don’t step on that plant,” pleads C.
Chokkalingampillai as he guides me to his herbal farm. “It is Vishnu Karandhai,
a medicinal plant used to heal chronic fever. It is widely found in hilly
regions, especially in Himalayan range. The plant is either blue or white in
colour. It is said that King Serfoji of Thanjavur has used this herb to treat
rogue elephants,” he reveals.
Located at Avudapoigai, a village10 km north of Karaikudi,
Chokkalimngampillai’s sprawling farm of 45 acres is filled with greenery. A
pleasant aroma greets every visitor. “Many discouraged me when I decided to set
up a farm here,” says this Siddha and Ayurveda practitioner. “It was an arid
land then and people told me nothing grows here. But I worked on that soil and
made it suitable for cultivation by composting dry leaves and ash.”
He is now reaping the benefits of 25 years of relentless
work in the fields. “Many visitors asked me why I should grow medicinal plants
in my farm when I can use the space for more productive purposes,” he says. But
it was his dream to set up the farm to help people dependent on him for
treatment of chronic ailments.
His family has practised traditional medicine for more than
200 years. “My grandfather was a seasoned doctor and had relieved many of chronic
ailments,” he says. “Somehow my father developed interest in animals and became
a trained veterinarian. There is also detailed history of how he treated
domestic animals in this area.”
“I have documents of my ancestors writing about ways to
treat different ailments,” he says. His library is filled with books on
traditional medicine and around 4000 palm leaf manuscripts that are more than
500 years old. “Some are also anonymous,” he says. “But I am preserving these
documents including the one on ‘Veeramamunivar Aruliya Vaithiya Agarathi’
(Veeramamunivar’s dictionary of medicines).”
“Do you know Veeramamunivar?” he asks. “This Italian Jesuit
priest by the name Constantine Joseph Beschi had extensively researched our
traditional medicine and had compiled all the details he had collected in this
script.”
Now that he has developed his farm, Chokkalingampillai
spends more time there. “It will take four hours for me to go around the farm,”
he says. He applies only organic manure and has set up drip and sprinkler
irrigation systems. He has also established a factory inside the farm to
produce medicines.
Every single medicinal plant in his farm is hand-picked by
Chokkalingampillai. There are more than 5000 different species in his farm, of
which more than 500 are declared endangered by the government.
Whenever he is free he sets off to explore more about
medicinal plants and brings them to this farm. “I have been to almost all the
hill stations in south India including Podhigai, Kolli and Thiruvannamalai,
besides those located in Tirunelveli, Thiruvananthapuram and other regions in
Kerala,” he says. He has also travelled to China, Malaysia, Australia,
Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, and found links to traditional Indian
medicine in many of those places.
Chokkalingampillai has opened dispensaries in Singapore and
Malaysia with the help of his friends. “I prepare medicines from here and
export,” he says
In an effort to spread his message to people around the
world, he talks about herbal medicine on radio and television. He has also
extensively researched how medicinal herbs can be taken as food and has
delivered motivational talks in many forums. He has compiled a book of
medicinal herbs and their uses with their botanical and popular names.
Chokkalingampillai’s farm now has become a model for the
people in and around Karaikudi and attracts visitors regularly. He organises
seminars for them. He has also won the confidence of women’s self-help groups
in the region to popularise herbal medicine.
He recently organised a festival to promote herbal medicine
and distributed more than 10,000 medicinal plant saplings free to school
children. “They are my trump cards,” he says. “I hope they carry forward the
message they have gathered to their parents and their friends.”
Plant remedies
Athimathuram (Liquorice): It relieves respiratory
infections, cough and the common cold. It is used to treat urinary problems and
nerve-related problems. It also is said to discourage a person from chewing
betel leaves or tobacco or consuming alcohol or smoking cigarettes.
Inji (Ginger): It is used to treat intestinal and throat
infection.
Kasakasa (Opium poppy): This herb is used to treat
sleeplessness, dysentery and diarrhoea.
Keezhanelli (Phyllanthus amarus or Stonebreaker): It is used
to treat jaundice, stomach pain, urinary infections, and skin disease. It is
said to improve liver function.
Phyllanthus amarus (wikipedia, synonymis P. niruri)
Suraikkai (Bottle gourd): It is used to treat night
blindness, intestinal infections, headaches and jaundice.
Thoothuvalai (Solanum trilobatum): It is used in the
treatment of common cold, cough and asthma.
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Data: 03.10.2012
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