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Folk Medicine in Oman
Rob Arnhem digs deep to find the roots of the cures we think of as modern today

In the days before you could nip off to the local 24-hour pharmacy, like most other folk in rural areas you might just have to depend on your local plants and traditional healers for help. Almost all the medicines bought on prescription or over the counter began as natural extracts from bark and plants. The active ingredient in aspirin, that wonder drug, is salicyclic acid, which was originally extracted from the humble willow tree. Nowadays most drugs are synthesised in a laboratory, or generics, but they were first isolated in plants. In every Omani village, when doctors were few and far between, a hakim or wise man generally dispensed herbal and other forms of treatment. Most of these are practical common-sense cures based on some knowledge of chemistry. Often the knowledge of the healing power of plants is very ancient. When a child developed a fever or if you had an infected finger, or broke an arm, or got stung by a scorpion, there was a traditional cure at hand.

Every local garden still has its plentiful supply of Omani limes, which combat colds and prevent Vitamin C deficiency. Honey was used for burns, and that very expensive commodity, Omani honey, is still highly valued as a general panacea. The antiseptic qualities of plain old garlic, Allium sativum or thom, are one of the several proven properties of this wonder bulb. If its smell is overpowering, it's because it's packed with potency: its pungent oil combats diabetes and decreases cholesterol levels. Traditionally, it has been employed against an impressive range of ailments including
anything abdominal, from colic to flatulence, eye infections (the juice of a squeezed clove of garlic being applied directly to the eye!), bronchial problems, dandruff, tuberculosis and snake bite. Frankincense (luban) is still used as a cure-all, especially in Dhofar.

Traditional Omani healers base their diagnosis and treatment on the ancient Greek ideas of health and illness described by Aristotle, adapted and developed by medieval Arab medical practioners. The West used the Greek model for centuries too. The belief was that the four cardinal elements of fire, water, earth and air were reflected in the human body, which was governed by the balance of four 'humours', or liquids. If you were healthy, all these humours would be stable, but illness would result from any imbalance.

Parts of a particular plant, fresh or dried, might be crushed and drunk as an infusion, like tea. They can be used externally as a poultice ground into a paste, or inhaled as smoke. Herbs and, of course, imported spices, which are simply concentrated aromatic seeds, bark or roots – like pepper, cardamom, turmeric and its relative, ginger – may be blended as the herbalist sees fit. Knowledge of the chemical properties of plants is essential. This lore has accumulated over generations of trial and sometimes fatal error. For example, certain plant chemical compounds are more concentrated at particular times of year, so preparing the correct concentration or dilution of natural herbal treatment is best left to the expert.

The Solanaceae family of plants includes the edible potato, tomato and aubergine, but also the poisonous deadly nightshade, which is the source of belladonna, used medicinally to stimulate the heart. Another member is sharinjiban or Solanum incanum, used extensively in Oman to draw pus-filled infections like whitlows, and to treat haemorrhoids and earache. It's an easily recognised prickly bush with mauve potato-like flowers which form a large yellow berry. The juice of the fruit is a powerful alkaloid. Alkaloids contain nitrogen and form the basis of many other major therapeutic drugs like quinine, morphine and atropine. The beautiful pale lilac trumpet-shaped flowers of Datura bear prickly seed capsules which split open to reveal poisonous hallucinogenic black seeds, but used carefully as a sedative, the plant eases asthma.

While an infusion of ginger root is well known to relieve stomach cramps and diarrhoea, that herbal staple basil, rehan in Arabic, is widely used too. There are several varieties of this well-loved herb, but Ocimum basilicum (Sweet basil, or St Joseph's Wort) is the favourite. Basil contains thymol, which gives it its characteristic smell when crushed. It's also a general cure for colds and eye problems, soothes insect bites and is a cheap cosmetic and deodorant. Another useful plant is the common myrtle, or yas. It grows in thickets in the northern mountain wadis and its scented aromatic leaves make it a good soother of scorpion stings, burns, sores and ulcers, as well as a natural shampoo. The mountain dwellers of Jebel Akhdar have other plants on hand designed by nature to ease their painful joints and stiff muscles and sore feet: the leaves of the stately juniper trees are soaked in oil and used to massage pains away. The wild olive's leaves and bark are pounded to treat ulcers and blisters. They also heat the leaves of the daisy-like yellow-flowered Euryops arabicus bush and apply the mash to sore feet to draw out the pain involved in all that mountain climbing. The oil extracted from the seeds of qafas, or Acridocarpus orientalis, another attractive flowering tree of the northern jebel, massages headaches away.

Harmal is the local name for a native multi-purpose shrub Rhazya stricta. Its generic name aptly commemorates the great 11th century Arab physician Rhazes, or Al Razi. With laurel-like leaves and white flowers bearing flat pods, the whole plant is used. Like the oleander (haban), to which it is related, it's poisonous and avoided by grazing animals. Traditionally, smoke from its dried leaves is inhaled from a pipe for chest ailments. It's believed to be efficacious treatment against constipation, diabetes, eye infections, rashes, intestinal worms, fever, low milk yield and much more.

The internal workings, or not, of our digestive systems have been a perennial source of concern. The oily seeds of shu', an attractive feathery tree (Moringa peregrina) with pink blossoms, are crushed and taken to ease constipation and stomach cramps. Those mysterious bottles of brown or yellow liquid one sees offered at roadsides form part of this pharmacopoeia. Shu' oil is chemically similar to olive oil and applied to the skin for a variety of purposes including bone setting. The common garden aloe in Oman, Aloe barbadensis, or isqal, with its spike of coral flowers, was extensively used as a purgative and skin or eye ointment. The dried sticky residue is marketed commercially as 'bitter aloes', guaranteed to purge you of the contents of your stomach. The root of mulawwiyah, the pink-flowered Morning Glory, Convolvulus arvensis, is yet another strong purgative.

Folk belief, like the present fad for 'detoxification', often emphasises the 'purity' of the body's workings, especially those of the digestive and circulatory systems. The stems of the tiny pink-flowered shrub Lycium shawii are accordingly employed to flush out impurities from the blood, bowel and urine as a good general tonic. The berries are bright scarlet in advertisement. Another bitter pill to swallow, so to speak, is a member of the cucumber and melon family. It's Citrullus colocynthis, a small round yellow-and-green gourd that grows creeping along the ground. This is handal, one of the most commonly used medicinal plants. It's the inevitable laxative, of course, but also relieves the pain of insect and dog bites. It's so bitter that it's believed to keep even evil spirits away!

Several plants were used as poultices, a sort of wet dressing, over burns, boils, ringworm and external ulcers to draw out infection. Included among these were the resin of the common thorn tree Acacia gerardii, the milky latex of Euphorbia larica and the white sap of the wild fig species Ficus cordata. Plant juices were also used to treat warts and skin discolouration. Fagonia and Vernonia species reduce fever: the former is boiled and used to wash the patient, the latter taken internally. Another locally famous febrifuge is the aptly-named Teucrium mascatense.

Modern medical research is constantly investigating the traditional medical practitioner's store of plants with curative properties. Ethical questions of patenting and ownership of such cures are making the news. As rain forest falls to the saw and habitats are razed, how many natural cures waiting to be found go the same way? With homeopathy, Ayurvedic and alternative medicine gaining popularity everywhere, surely this national resource deserves more attention.