I noticed a jar of dried leaves in my Dad’s kitchen and asked the maid what they were. I take it for coughs, she said. She walked me outside to show me the plant and said it's better to take it fresh- three leaves rolled up together and swallowed whole. She was from Indonesia but had spent some time working for a local herbalist’s family and had spent time filling capsules of this herb for their store.
It’s Andrographis paniculata a herbaceous plant in the family Acanthaceae, native to India and Sri Lanka and a relatively common local weed, which you will see everywhere once you recognise it. It is widely cultivated in Southern and Southeastern Asia, where it has been traditionally used to treat infections and some diseases.
It's an ancient herb that's used in both Traditional Chinese and Ayuredic systems, also known as Indian Echinacea, mostly the leaves and roots are used for medicinal purposes.. There's evidence that it may be effective in the treatment of uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infection. During the Covid pandemic in Thailand there was an announcement promoting Andrographis paniculata use for treatment of mild COVID-19 patients in Thailand
It is wickedly bitter and our jar of dried leaves never fails to raise a laugh and generate some seriously puckered faces - usually visiting mixologists as I try to get them interested in employing this extraordinary botanical source of bitterness in coming up with a local bitter campari or negroni type drink. No luck so far.
It’s also on my work list to graduate to a wellness product, not so much as a magical cure for upper respiratory issues but as an interesting immune support herb. In this article in the NYTimes How not to fight colds, studies made over the last couple of decades, conclude that it is not the virus that causes cold symptoms but the host's inflammatory response.
This herb’s superpower goes against the logic of the plethora of alternative remedies out there that want to 'strengthen' the immune system, instead what we really want instead is immunomodulation - to help our immune system to not overreact but to remain on even keel to function effectively.
I love that it is a medicinal herb used in all our local Asian healing sytems: Ayurvedic, TCM, Malay folkloric that is substantiated in modern allopathic medicine. I also love that its a weed that grows everywhere. I first discovered the work of Jeff Geys and this notion of wild medicine which underscored his installation Quadra medicinale at the Venice Biennale where he partnered with ethnobotanists like Ina Vanderbroek to artfully document mundane ‘weeds’, growing in the cracks and crevices of urban cities that had extraordinary medicinal value. Luckily I managed to see this art installation in Singapore at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art where it is now permanently installed