[Music] it's a tropical trademark lush green vegetation a perfect intermingling of fruit trees plants and weeds that create a picturesque homogeneous backdrop to life this seemingly Evergreen makeup of many Caribbean islands is the main reason why tropical climates are such an attractive vacation destination but for some these plant species do more than just decorate the landscape in fact many of the fruits plants and weeds that are often taken for granted are part of Mother Nature's medicine cabinet take this plant for instance this is the pomegranate now most people know it for its fruit but what a lot of people don't know is that it has another purpose that's right Janisha oh sorry how are you now this is Mr Larry sewer he is known here on St Thomas as a local herbalist yes tell us a little bit about what other things this plant can be used for well I call it the multi-purpose plant okay I use the flour to make my tea with oh okay the leaves are used for diabetes and blood sugar control it has it's an insulin type produce implant okay and many people know of the pomegranate juice as myself but many people don't know what part of the plant that is used and how it's used third part of what part of the plant is the skin in particular is the part of the plant that you use okay but I love to make my tea with it because it comes natural a lot of people don't know an additive to making that drink they use the grape juice oh that's where you see that dark color and um in Afghanistan for example they have a different specie it has a deep red skin so you may not have if you use that particular specie you may not have to use the grape juice but I use the skin for making my tea and then I dry it out and I grate it as well but the bark of many of our plants are also good too because um if you can use a leaf if you can use the skin of of the plant you must be able to use the back also a lot of people probably don't know that because so you know that's why the over practitioner is an ideal person to have herbal practitioners and herbalists are people who study the use of medicinal properties of plants in the case of herbal practitioners they are skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants and in the therapeutic use of such plants the use of herbs to treat disease is almost Universal among non-industrialized societies the practice predates written human history as for Mr sewer it is something he's been doing for practically his entire life I'm so sure you obviously know a lot about plants tell us a little bit about what got you into this you know how did you get into you know learning about plants being an herbalist well it started when I was three years old that's what I wanted to do and my mother knowing what I wanted to do that was my task whatever aired the family it was my task after she showed me what the plant was my job was to go and get it was making mommy my task was to go and get them every season okay back was maybe the ginger if it had to do with making the guava Berry rum my task was to be not only the tester but the one who would put all the ingredients together and I still do it up to now my mother she's the one that makes the syrup and I I do the blending so I started from there they say never ask for something because you're going to get it when I went into the air force that's the field of work I was in okay the whole environmental series for water quality wastewater treatment processing chemistry biology pretty much wow so what I asked him for he set me there and eventually it became my function in military I got out I said if I can help somebody I can help myself help my people and that's what I'm doing so this is what we're looking at is your laboratory yes so people call it the yard my laboratory and that I observe the plant and see it function and I go into my books and now I have computer I research and I come up with the same information and I take the plant and I test it now what plan is this that you would use this thing we call it Congo root but it's actually of the Jensen family okay if you would check the route you will see it's the same type of root structure that the ginseng plant will have okay okay this in particular is good for varying things but more so for people who have asthma it's very useful for that would you like to taste of a piece yes a rule of thumb always take a small piece this is about one millionth of an inch of the entire plant you're gonna see that it has more or less like almost salty type taste okay so you have protected your system so just by just by doing that some people think you have to boil water and steep no no just take the plant and have a taste of it see all plants have energies you can tell where the energy of the plant goes there's good in three areas the head the midsection and the lower section so so you know your body has a way now of being protected because like I say again our plants have energies officially known as peteria Alicea Congo root is a flowering plant species of the pokeweed family native to many parts of South America Mexico Central America Florida and the Caribbean this deeply rooted perennial shrub is known for its strong garlic-like smell its medicinal properties are well documented throughout South America many cultures have used the plant's flowers leaves and roots to treat many ailments ranging from intestinal gas to skin conditions in Guatemala some tribes use its crushed Roots as an inhalant for sinus problems today the plant is being researched for its use in fighting both cancer and Leukemia as well as immune disorders it's important for us to note that Mr sore is a very knowledgeable herbalist who has been studying plants for years so we do not suggest to anyone to begin tasting and testing or self-medicating themselves with plants now just a few feet away from the Congo route Mr sewer points out a familiar weed that's actually edible oh by the way let me show you two important plants this is the dandelion okay yes it's also edible there are two species of the dandelion weed found worldwide both are edible in their entirety they are found on all continents and have been gathered since pre-history for consumption mainly in Eurasia in some places the flower petals along with other ingredients are used to make dandelion wine medicinally it's been used as a diuretic and to treat infections if you notice if the bees can eat it or take pollens from it you can do it too oh yeah let me try it try it so what do you eat just the I use the flour and at the same time I make tea with the leaves my rule of thumb or finger three inches right okay I can this much is enough for making tea usually people use a a whole lot of of the ingredients and over those themselves without realizing it so rule of thumb is always use your finger as the measurements okay and four inches in most cases because each one of them has an inch right so you have four fingers they have four inches my fingers are pretty nice you're right and there's another in particular for okay okay for male and I only know this plant in Spanish I know it has golondrina this is good for the prostate golondrina is officially known as alternative flavo Gracia it is native to the West Indies and certain parts of South America the name golondrina is said to come from Belize it's not could you tell us about some of the other plants that you use for medicinal purposes yes remember you talk about the creams here's a particular plant we know it as butter butter throughout the Caribbean batabata is eaten as a vegetable used mainly in the traditional callaloo soup in other parts of the world such as Africa Indochina and the Philippines this plant is used as a spinach substitute this in particular this was this was the first plant that I learned to use as a child because my grandfather used to catch crab and the way to approach the crowd was to feed it okay to get all the toxin out you know the lever is the agent that takes the taxon out of the body so the butter butter detoxifies the liver so the bottom line is that in every yard within the territory there are plans that the herbs that can be used for medicinal purposes and I intentionally left this like this because I know you were coming and I want for the people to see that writing your back in your own backyard you have a pharmacy you know what they're calling it now they call it biopharmaceutical meaning that you're using the actual plant to to have remedies and cause an effect to the human system and that's what I'm doing wow foreign later on you will see as to another form that is in in a product that's named joy to Jewel of the Isles so what is it used for it's used for taking and uh infection up the skin as such sometimes you know when you're in a too moist of a location bacteria tend to form and it helps keep the the skin clean in many Caribbean islands this plant is used in baths or is made into an ointment for rashes and other skin inflammations I love this plant because I didn't know the name in Saint Croix they call it stock mahak we call it zombie Peppers little Peppers that you can eat so you can eat these edible too yes okay and the thing about it this plant helps the ice especially if you have cloudiness with the eyes and cut it back as such and that will be going into capsule so that's why I call it my laboratory I look at plants I see usually a way of identifying plants is by the flowers so most of my my books I have with the the plants are once they're In Bloom and I can match them up adequately to see if I have the same plant and then I use them the research about how long have you I mean it's something you've been doing for a while oh yes how extensive does your research go oh man it goes let me put it in hours sometime I will be to my computer from six in the evening to six in the morning wow 12 hour shifts especially you know starting a business is not easy no disrespect for the to women and child wearing what a business is similar to to having a young one you have to put more time in it for example long ago it was after five years that was far less you know your business is you if you don't have that interest in it then you cannot expect for a client to have the the whole the what's the word to be as interested or to have the respect for yourself that's what we join in our my limitation is your continuation we're a team we're intensity you know what it is that we're looking at it looks like noodles to me let's see and now what do you use this this has many purposes it's good for detoxing the liver it's also used externally for taking um infectious diseases of the skin and what I personally do I love to eat it there you go also um for example look like cheese right yeah when I don't have cheese I come on cut it up I put it in my eggs yeah multi-purpose man so you taste you love it yeah yeah it's good and you see so now when I run out of cheese I know where to come exactly you can put some cheese in my egg um the name is okay some people call it Guana tail but I've been fortunate to be in the military I spend most of my time overseas as a result my learning continued just by going there and I've been home now 41 years I've been using this plant as a means of waxing my car I don't put wax in my car is this how do you do that in the water and the The Green Solution comes off and I wash my car and when it's rained or comes like acrylic wow wow so you see this and you see these all the time yes everywhere and people I'm sure you see um that's why there's the word they call Alchemist right where you use things that people don't normally want to use or don't know how to use and you bring a final product from it and that's how Evolution takes place where people learn new things and here's a plant that I use this plant is uh name is Kitty makwani I found a way to use it I put it in powder and I put it on my toothpaste and it works like Scrubbing Bubbles wow now it's important to note that that this plant has been examined by the National Cat possible flag for its toxin resin and heart stimulant which can be poisonous now when you say find a way to use it you like go around seeing plants and maybe you've never seen and like just like you said research let's find out maybe and I experiment with them I I use them and the result that I get you pass it on with his extensive knowledge of plants and herbs it should be no surprise that Mr sewer's product line Joy short for Jewel of the aisle contains a large variety of supplements creams and ointments there are natural painkillers energy supplements and even shampoos but for me what's even more impressive than the large product line is the process of actually making the products okay so Larry I see you have here a mortar tell us a little bit about the procedure it takes to get you know from the plants to the pills that we see in these bottles yeah what I do I dehydrate the plant get the moisture out okay and from there if you see any Pharmaceutical advertising you will always see the matter so brief history I never realized what it was for until I got into accident processing capsules okay the matter is very important in that you take the raw material and you wanted to go to a powder form of the different ways of getting the the the granules from the powder and I use a process being into construction for example uh you never mix cement and sand and gravel unless you've saved the sand yeah you're going to set the sun right so I save the raw material to get a fine particle because I don't want any obstruction in in the person's throat after the capsules dissolved I want it to be the particulate the particle will be as fine as possible so that when it's met with the water or any moisture inside the system it dissolves very fast okay so let's say we have some more products that you know you just don't have to take as pills what are some of the things we're looking at here okay this is the herbal shampoo and conditioner oh that's my kind of stuff now yes um it's made for as a matter of fact I make most of the oils I make the neem oil the cast of bean oil the coconut oil is made by my sister-in-law and xinjiang okay so I processed these three oils within a natural herbal base and it says here revitalizes as it moisturizes your hair and scalp yes experience the glows you've never seen yeah exactly and it does not burn your eyes that's good yes even a little kid if you will you know without supervision once you do they hear or watch they hear it wouldn't affect the eyes with any bones as such that's why I enjoy this because anyone can use it that's right okay so what is this we have here that's a swelling I just learned that in Saint Croix is another name for it oh what was that okay some people don't think we call it cocoa it says here that it relieves what lumps bumps swelling yes okay that's a special formula because it's ah made of plants that we know the cast of bean plant and my secret weapon was a plant that you call Noni for the past 18 years that was a secret weapon until it was revealed was six years ago okay as a Universal Plant the name tell me a little bit about the name okay I recently found out three years ago five years ago to be exact I didn't first of all back up my products have names that are locally designed but I also take it the next step further because for example Bon Congo some place in the world somebody here had to use the word and it so happened that a situation took place where a nurse had approached my mom who had the same bone conko and she said the word perfectly and my mother said yes we have Congolese word in our language and she said she's from the Congo and they say the same word okay take for example we we say the word gongolo lives in Castle tree right yeah um my buddy from Ghana they use the same word gongolo so a name in my products the way I do I am able to connect and relate to to other places you learn a little bit about history exactly exactly from raw materials to finished products today's experience was quite enlightening it's amazing to learn of how much Mother Nature provides US with natural remedies for ailments and how many of these cures and treatments are found in such common places now our day of rediscovery isn't quite over from this lovely site we travel four and a half miles west to estate perseverance the earliest records of this estate date back to 1811. at the time it was called Milner shop and this estate was one of the few that were developed for agriculture okay Leslie we've been walking for a little while now at least a half a mile yeah and this is air where we were what are we leading to where are we going we leading down to the Bayside down to Flamingo Pond okay this is the secondary Forest up in the 1950s and 60s this was used you can tell from the trees mostly treating is very small yes so this is a second life it's a nice flowers or what we call a glass three flowers okay okay within the Watershed base basin okay and what at the end of the trip what should we make we hiking toward the runes in here okay and then from there we can jump to the pond let's keep watch ing let's go so we made it to the ruins velocity yeah finally it looks really really really interesting what was this building before this is part of the the plantation for president Bay okay in 1733 muscle Plantation and centama to the particular time was cutting okay the 1722 the same year when synchronized with purchased by Denmark from the French okay and later on the uh this Plantation here with sugar and you can see some of the bylaws you can see the rings of the ballers in the area along the side and this is where down in the valley the Sugar Mill is multiply up on top of the hill on the other side and Saint Thomas the rubber one eight quarters they can sing Quest we have nine quarter like Chinese Street Prince Street but over here they have their own quarters too as well and this side this quarter haircut is outside quarter the south side quarter yeah yeah right right behind of us inside there's a dungeon we party to keep the slave last year right it is pretty dark in there yeah it's quite dark now this this area is probably around the 1800s where the this uh Plantation I noticed if you've seen some bricks the red bricks it's in yellow and of course they came and a ship it was brought in a ship but the same kind of um development like synchrist and Saint John actually the Caribbean where they use the Molasses lime and water that would in Fever matter for example this PC right there is an original um in the instructor they stole the volcanic stone or we call sedimentary Stone also this is a part of the keep the Ensley African and it could be there for a couple of weeks could be it for a month and see there's no oh no there's one particular dough and it can do everything in there otherwise defecate and everything wow people don't really understand the impact especially that not only physically but also mentally of instantly Africa in this part of the world so this is no ventilation there's no kind of ventilation you'll find inside in here wow see they're just one one in this area they keep um so this is the Only Rule now standing you could see the wild wild extremely thick okay very very um take a while and it's possible for them to escape basically you just imagine that the door probably very thick too as well I want to last that you're basically in darkness have an impact on your eyes because you have seen in the light the eyes so wow a few yards from the ruins of this room factory we come across what is locally known as Flamingo ponds these Salt Ponds are known as resting and nesting areas for several bird species to include the locally endangered bridled Quail dove the ponds are located along perseverance Bay and contain all four types of mangroves which support a high diversity of Wildlife in a 2006 report by the department of planning and natural resources perseverance Bay was described as the last remaining pristine ecosystem on St Thomas it's been a great day of rediscovery but unfortunately we've run out of time thanks to Mr Lassie Davis and thanks to Mr sewer for allowing us into his laboratory and introducing us to the world of herbalism I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as I did so until next time cherish your home this beautiful island and most of all cherish each other foreign