ANAMÚ or Guinea Henweed - a healing plant that travels the Caribbean

Meet a powerful medicinal herb - Anamú (in Spanish) & Guinea henweed (in English). Both Pokeweed and Anamú are in the Phytolaccaceae family.

Roberto Guzmán, from the Dominican Republic, tells this story about Anamú: In Santo Domingo in the era of Trujillo, there lived a man who was known throughout the city as Dr. Anamú. He was dressed all in black, notwithstanding the impracticalities of his dress in the tropical heat. He always wore a black bowler and carried a black doctor’s briefcase. He never forgot his necktie.

By foot Dr. Anamú traversed the streets of Santo Domingo and visited the Clinica Internacional, where he approached patients in the waiting room and, for every ill, he prescribed the “anamú.”

He was called Dr. Anamú because he always recommended this native herb for all pains and sicknesses. He was one of the many colorful personages of the times. And today anamú is one of the ingredients in the Dominican Mamajuana liqueur.

In Cuba, herbalists take the whole plant and use it to treat cancer and diabetes, and as an anti-inflammatory and abortive. Anamú also grows throughout South and Central Florida; however, I found it listed only in some of the data bases and books on Florida native plants.

Steve Woodmansee, Pro Native Consulting, has spotted the plant in many areas in Florida and states that anamú had great significance Pre-Columbian groups and was grown and used by the Timucuans, Jaegans, Tequestas, and Calusas (more recently the Miccosukees and Seminoles). Steve states that anamú is fairly restricted to archaeological sites and is an excellent indicator of human habitation. He says that he has never seen it in a natural area that wasn't adjacent to indigenous activity. Steve warns that the herb is very strong and should be used with caution.

Petiveria alliacea has been widely used to treat a large range of medical conditions including: venereal diseases, as an antiseptic, for arthritis, pain, cancer, womb inflammation, diuretic, decoagulant, cold, snake bite, flu, cods, hysteria, paralysis, fever, rabies, to treat arrow poison in Brazil and as a bat and insect repellent and as an abortifacient.

From the Tropical Plant Database: In the Amazon rainforest, anamú is used as part of an herbal bath against witchcraft by the Indians and local jungle herbal healers called curanderos. The Ka'apor Indians call it mikur-ka'a (which means opossum herb) and use it for both medicine and magic. The Caribs in Guatemala crush the root and inhale it for sinusitis, and the Ese'Ejas Indians in the Peruvian Amazon prepare a leaf infusion for colds and flu.

The Garifuna indigenous people in Nicaragua also employ a leaf infusion or decoction for colds, coughs, and aches and pains, as well as for magic rituals. The root is thought to be more powerful than the leaves. It is considered a pain reliever and is often used in the rainforest in topical remedies for the skin. Other indigenous Indian groups beat the leaves into a paste and use it externally for headache, rheumatic pain, and other types of pain. This same jungle remedy is also used as an insecticide.

Petiveria alliacea is called tipi in Brazil, apacin in Guatemala, mucura in Peru, and guine in many other parts of Latin America. In the French-speaking countries, it is called feuilles ave, herbe aux poules, and petevere a odeur ail, and, in Trinidad, mapiurite and gully root. Other names include apacina, apazote de zorro, aposin, ave, aveterinaryte, calauchin, chasser vermine, congo root, douvant-douvant, emeruaiuma, garlic weed, guine, guinea, guinea hen leaf, gully root, hierba de las gallinitas, huevo de gato, kojo root, kuan, kudjuruk, lemtewei, lemuru, mal pouri, mapurit, mapurite, mucura-caa, mucura, mucuracáa, ocano, payche, pipi, tipi, verbena hedionda, verveine puante, zorrillo (see Tropical Plant Database).