Potato: Food, medicine for your stomach, knee

By Sade Oguntola - updated: Thursday 04-06-2009

Irish potatoesHistorically, plants such as potatoes are not only consumed by man as food but also used as medication. In the traditional medicine, raw potatoes are used for gastrointestinal disorders and topical potato preparations as a hot pack for pain or for softening furuncles.

Several scientists have investigated potato therapeutic effects to substantiate the many .traditional uses of potato plants and its root. These results are very interesting, especially because many people are not aware that potato contains several medicinal virtues.

An exclusive potato diet is considered valuable in the treatment of certain disorders such as chronic constipation, uric acid diseases, kidney stone and dropsy. The potato is regarded as an excellent food remedy in scurvy and it had been used in curing cases of infantile scurvy.

In some rural areas in Great Britain, raw potato juice is regarded as an excellent food remedy for rheumatism. One or two teaspoonful of the juice pressed out of mashed raw potato should be taken before meals. The skin of the potato is also an excellent food remedy for rheumatism. The skin is exceptionally rich in vital mineral salts and the water in which the peelings have been boiled is one of the best medicines for the ailments caused by excess of acid in the system.

Even in animals feed potato, incidence of diarrhea was greatly reduced. Bhandari and colleagues at the University of Manitoba, evaluating the effect of raw potato starch (RPS) in pigs, found this to be able to increase the survival of piglets from diarrhea after they were weaned.

Vegetables serve as an indispensable constituent of the human diet supplying the body with minerals, vitamins and certain hormone precursors, in addition to protein and energy. The leaves of sweet potatoes were analysed in 2006 .by scientists from the University of Uyo, Uyo and writing in the Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, they said that it contains an appreciable amount of protein, minerals, fat, fibre, carbohydrate, caloric values (energy) and low levels of toxicants except for oxalate whose value can be reduced by cooking and therefore can contribute significantly to the nutrient requirements of man.

A 2005 documentation of some food and medicinal plants of importance in North-western states of Nigeria by Dr. S. Muhammad from the Department of Biological Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and Dr. N.A. Amusa from the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training /Obafemi Awolowo University, Moor Plantation, Ibadan, stated that the decoction of young leaves of sweet potato is used for the treatment of worm and jaundice. They reported in Research Journal of Agriculture and Biological Sciences that it is also used as eye-wash and as an ointment against skin diseases.

Many medications usually have side effects when they are not used as they are prescribed by their manufactures. One of such groups of drugs are the pain relieving medications such as paracetamol, that causes damages in the kidney and the liver. Scientists in their assessment of the protective effect on kidneys and liver, reported a finding in the Journal of Medical Sciences that sweet potato extract and Vitamin C have a potential to prevent damage that could have been induced by paracetamol in both the liver and the kidney. The Nigerian scientists involved in the study were Drs. A.O. Lawal , A. Ologundudu , F.O. Obi , I.V. Ogungbe , A.O. Olakanye , A.R. Agbetuyi , O.F. Kayode and T. Medale.

At the first scientific meeting of the Western Africa Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRES) held in Accra, Ghana, experts at the meeting listed the African potato, garlic, carrot and guava as examples of plants which stimulate the immune system and as such of medicinal benefit in the management of HIV/AIDS.

An elaborate and long-term anthropological research on “Aspects of Indigenous Medicine in South Western Nigeria” by Dr. Samuel Ogundele from the Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana found that the Yoruba find the leaves of sweet potato very good for treating diabetes because the leaves have insulin–like substance.

Similarly a documentation of the ethnobotanical potentials of common herbs by Dr. A.A Aiyeloja from the Department of Forestry and Wildlife, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt and Dr. O. A. Bello from the Department of Forest Resources Management, University of Ibadan, found that in Enugu State of Nigeria, said potato leaves is used for the treatment of pile in the area.