We Have Gynura Procumbens!

(No, we're not contagious...ha!)

We received the Gynura plants we ordered a while back. When researching herbal alternatives and supplements in conjunction with diabetes and high blood pressure, we found this is a plant used as a traditional medicine in different parts of the world.


We are unsure how to use it, though we have read the leaves are used to make a tea. They are also used to make extracts.


In the literature we've managed to find, some studies have been done comparing Gynura Procumben extract's efficacy in comparison with Glibenclamide (brand name Glyburide) in rats with Type 2 diabetes. It would seem from the results of these initial studies that Gynura Procumbens extract demonstrated a similar action to that of Glyburide in helping to lower the blood sugar for rats who had Type 2 Diabetes. In healthy animals it did not lower it and no adverse symptoms were noted in the report.


I don't put this here to suggest to anyone else to seek treatment this way, or by experimentation...in fact I am not sure yet how we will utilize these plants. But I do know we have reached a critical point in our lives where what our bodies need to help correct or even heal some of our physical conditions is something we're having to consider growing ourselves. We can not afford expensive prescriptions for years to come, and don't want to grow reliant on them. We also want to reverse these conditions, and our personal hope is that with the right combination of care, we can see them disappear altogether.


You can't go around randomly nibbling this and making tea out of that, if you have no idea what effects different plant parts will have medicinally on your body. There are such things as sensitivities, allergies, and toxic plants. Natural medicines are often in the form of teas and often require a gentle and steady consumption, without the "instant fix" of pharmaceuticals. Many of these herbals are naturally much easier on the body, too.


A note of caution is to please not try something simply because we are. There, I said it :)


That said, we are excited to find this plant. We had to look very hard to find a grower who could ship us a live plant. Now we have 4!


I am SO happy that we have the basis for some future remedy to support controlling or even remedying adult Type 2 diabetes. If we ultimately find a way we consider safe and effective to utilize the Gynura Procumbens, we'll be delighted! The 4 Gynura are the plants shown in the middle of the photo.



As you can see, the Gynura plants came with two little friends...one's a Russian comfrey, and the other is the spicy and fragrant middle-eastern herb Zaatar (not to be confused with the spice mix also called Za'atar).

Looks like Bucketville is growing...

I'll post more about what we're hoping to accomplish with some of the things we're growing for medicinal purposes. As with the many other areas of our experimentation, some of this is new territory for us, and a bit of it is familiar. I never cease to be amazed at what's before our very eyes along the roadsides, in the backyard, in the woods...the growing things we overlook and have lost our memory of in relation to their benefits to our health and our gardens. SO much traditional wisdom has been discarded in the past few generations! It is such a rewarding search to find places in which their memory has not grown dim, and to embrace their "re-discovery."