Tuesday, December 15th 2009 - 07:57 UTC

Indigenous “medicinal plant” tourism a few miles from Punta Arenas

When most of us need digestive, analgesic, anti-inflammatory or antibiotic medicinal treatments, we walk down the street to the nearest pharmacy. When the indigenous Huilliche in the south of Chile need medicine, they stroll into the forest.

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The 3-kilometre trail showcases 38 medicinal plant species

To help show us their way and preserve their ancestral medicine, the Huilliche have created the first interpretive trail for medicinal plants in Chilean Patagonia.

The 3-kilometer walk is in the Magellan forest reserve, 8 kilometres west of Punta Arenas. It offers boardwalks, benches, signage and an indigenous health workshop where visitors can buy medicinal plants with instructions on how to apply them.

Of the 38 plants on display, 10 have been recognized by Chile’s Ministry of Health, with the others in the process of being certified. Treatments from a species of fuchsia provide relief from menstrual pain, dandelion for stomach and liver ailments, valerian root for anxiety and Monterey pine for respiratory and rheumatic diseases.

The Huilliche are a group under the umbrella of the Mapuche, with their traditional home area between Valdivia and the island of Chiloe. They travelled further south to Patagonia with colonists on the ship Ancud in 1848.

By Jeremy Valeriote – Santiago Times