Grow Your Own Medicinal Plants, Part I

Fruits can be turned into simple natural remedies to treat insomnia, constipation & more. Transform medicinal plants into treatments!

Since the dawn of history, humans and animals have sought healing from plants. In the past it was common to grow your own drugs. Not so much these days, most popular curatives are compounded in laboratories, there are still vast numbers of commercial remedies whose major medicinal ingredients are derived from green herbs, trees, and shrubs. But you needn’t rely on store-bought products for botanically based medicine: Many of the most common and effective healing plants can be grown in your own healing garden, in a backyard as lovely as it is useful.

Many people think of plants as purely ornamental, something to brighten up back gardens and window boxes, but in this six-part series, ethnobotanist James Wong demonstrates how to transform familiar plants into simple natural remedies that could help ease the symptoms of minor everyday ailments, as well as how to make some pampering beauty treatments.

In this opening episode, James reveals that there is more to some fruit than just the nutritional value. He uses figs to relieve constipation, hops for a good night’s sleep, turns kiwis and papayas into a soothing face mask and uses goji berries in a soup that could help feed a cold – and all from things that might be found in any fruit bowl.

James tries out his remedies on members of the public, with some surprising results.