Cockpit cure-alls

Bron: The Jamaica Star 27/02/2007

Like local environ-mentalists, popular Cockpit Country-based medicine man Delroy 'Ras D' Scott, thinks that allowing bauxite mining in the lush green mountain range, which spans Trelawny and St. Ann, would be a big and costly error.

The lanky Rastafarian, from the Alps (near Ulster Spring) area of the Cockpit Country, has been experimenting with and creating folk medicine from plants in the lush green mountains for the past 25 years.

"There is a cure for every imaginable ailment in these mountains," said Ras D, who boasts of being able to cure every ailment from the common cold to complex conditions such as memory loss.

In an attempt to prove that his medicinal claim is more than just hype, Ras D, whose youthful features belie the fact that he is a grandfather, offered up his six children as evidence of the power of folk medicine derived from the Cockpit Mountains.

"My children never go to doctor from them born - their only medicine is folk medicine," said Ras D. "People in this area don't go to doctor yet they are living to be over 100 years old - right now the doctors are grumbling that people are not coming to the clinics to get their check-up."

During a tour of the Cockpit Country with representatives of the South Trelawny Environmental Agency (STEA) recently, the articulate Ras D, proved to be a wealth of knowledge on plant life, identifying the many and varied plants, detailing their medicinal use and explaining how they should be used.

"Folk medicine is in my genes, my grandfather was a top bush doctor in this area," said Ras D, who resides in the Alps. "I have travelled outside of Jamaica and I have read countless number of books on herbal medicine - I see myself as a master at what I do."

STEA's chairman Hugh Dixon, who along with numerous residents of the Alps, including a number of elderly women, was a part of the tour, told THE STAR that there is nothing unusual about what Ras D is doing and is claiming.

"These people have been healing themselves with folk medicine dating back many generations," said Mr. Dixon. "That is why I believe that these lands should not be turned over to bauxite mining without first trying to determining its true value from a pharmaceutical perspective."

While he has never been to a medical school, Ras D has been working closely with both local and overseas student/researchers for many years but while he is anxious to share his knowledge, he is weary that residents of the area might not benefit from the proceeds of medicine derived from research done in the area.

"If we tear down the mountains for bauxite, in a few years all we will have is abandon mud lakes and barren lots," said Ras D, who blends and sell tonics to cure matters ranging from sexual malfunction to sexually transmitted diseases. "If we preserve the area, we will have medicine, the beautiful caves, the streams and the local knowledge to share with the world until the end of time."

Some of the plants identified in the Cockpit Mountains by Ras D, which he says can cure common ailments are:

Gashy - Cancer

Red rock bush - Herpes

John Crow Bush - Headache

Cow Foot Bush - High blood pressure

Snake Bush - Relaxes the bowels

Fig tree root - Liver spots

Gashy Birth - control/diabetes

Rock Rose - Cancer

Chicken weed - Gonorrhoea

Man broom - Remove gall stone

Saledine - Cure boils

Christian Bush - Good for nerves

Tar pod - Ease back pain

Cow tongue bush - Eye problems

Dandelion - Prostrate problem

Ram goat national - Good for flu/enhance memory