In Argentina, an Innovative Traditional and Natural Medicine Initiative Sprouts from Urban Agriculture
Trading jokes with his housemates as the sun sets over downtown Rosario, Argentina, nursing student Miguel Suarez drags a hose across the courtyard of the Medical Student House to water a leafy burrito plant (Aloysia polystachia). Leaning from a lawn chair to pick small leaves, agronomist Custodio “Lucho” Lemos explains that burrito herbal infusions are popular remedies for digestive and liver disorders in traditional Guaraní folk medicine in northern Argentina and Paraguay. A 2012 Brazilian study in the Journal of Medicinal Plants Research found burrito’s oil more effective against E. coli, Candida, and Trichophyton bacteria than first-line commercial drugs Gentomycin, Amphotericin B, and Terbinafine, respectively.1
A block from the historic central avenue Boulevard Oroño, the Medical Student House is part of the Medical School at the National University of Rosario, a city of 1.3 million best known as the hometown of Leonel Messi and Che Guevara. But on Tuesday evenings like this one, the dozen residents have been putting textbooks aside and becoming urban farmers in the new community garden which opened in their courtyard last May.
“It’s called kenaf,” says a female speech therapy student in the Medical Student House garden. She holds out a long segment of pale green stalk, tugging at the fibers. “You know Ford uses it now inside car doors? It’s an acoustic insulator—and very light. I want to know if we can use it inside hearing aids? ” she says, tapping on the back of her ear.
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