Folk Wisdom or Superstition? (Part 2)

Categorize each item if Folk Wisdom or Superstition. State your basis.

21.             Corn silk tea – it is good for the kidney. *

When boiling green corn, include the inner husk and the silk. Add more water than normally needed. Drink the decoction like tea.  It is an effective diuretic. But how can we make it available when we need it?

22. Avoid laughing while planting kamote (sweet potato) otherwise the roots will become liplike. One who has incomplete teeth (bungal) should keep his mouth closed when planting corn, otherwise the plant will bear empty or poorly filled cobs.

These are purely superstitious beliefs.  But maybe we look at it this way. One who is not serious in his work is likely to commit mistakes. What happens if the planting materials are not well placed in the soil?  A bird may come after the uncovered corn.  If the distancing of the cuttings is irregular, naturally crop stand will be poor.  Too much fun leaves a lot of work undone.

23. Guava seeds cause appendicitis.
Guava seeds are simply too large to enter through the appendix canal and lodge in this rudimentary part of our intestine as to cause infection and inflammation. Like other abrasive materials, it is possible that guava seeds may cause irritation that may lead to infection.
24. When you eat twin bananas you will bear twin children.

It would be a good business, if this is really true. But having a double supply of potassium, minerals, a lot of vitamins and other nutrients, helps in healthier ovulation, conception, and child bearing.

25.            Garlic drives the aswang away.

If aswang (ghost) being referred to are pests and diseases, then there is scientific explanation to offer, because garlic contains a dozen substances that have pesticidal, antimicrobial and antiviral properties such as allicin, from which its generic name of the plant is derived – Allium sativum. Garlic is placed on doorways, in the kitchen and some corners of the house where vermin usually hide, which is also practiced in other countries. It exudes a repellant odor found effective against insects and rodents – and to many people, also to evil spirits, such as the manananggal (half-bodied witch).    

26.             Choose pakwan (watermelon) with wide, well-spaced “ribs.” It is sweeter and fleshier.

True.  The rind is thinner and the flesh juicer and redder. These are indications the fruit had reached full maturity, often on the vine, when it was harvested.  When cut crosswise the carpels (longitudinal divisions) appear well-filled, intact, soft but firm.    

27.             Oranges with indented bottom are sweeter.

This is just a varietal property of a kind of orange, such as Ponkan.  There are oranges with round or protruding bottom that are as sweet, if not sweeter, notwithstanding other qualities.

28.             Put table salt on the cut stem of newly harvested fruits to hasten their ripening.

Sodium chloride seals the base of the peduncle (fruit stem) and protects the fruit from fungi and bacteria that may cause rotting during ripening. Not all fruits though respond to this treatment, but this is a common practice of old folks on chico, nangka, atis, guyabano, papaya, mango, and the like. It is usually effective.  Try it.

29.            Cassava grown from an inverted stem cutting is poisonous.

This is not true.  But let us take it this way.  Cassava cuttings if planted reverse will take a much longer time to grow, if at all. Those that survive become stunted (bansot), thus at harvest time they are left behind in the field. Come next planting season, and they are roughed, their tubers are now a year old or so. Tubers accumulate poisonous cyanic substances as they mature, so that the longer they stay in the field the higher is the poison level in their tubers.

A one-year old cassava tuber has twice the amount of cyanide than regularly harvested ones do (4 to 5 months in the field). Thus cassava poisoning is not uncommon. Beware of cassava tubers harvested from borders or along fences. By the way, when preparing cassava, choose the freshly harvested tubers. Completely peel off the bark where the poison is concentrated.  While boiling, take off the pot cover in order to allow the poison to escape as gas.  Cyanogas is similar to the poison gas used in executing convicts in the US.  

30. Poultice made of moss heals wounds and relieves pain.

This is a common practice in the highlands where moss is plentiful and luxuriantly growing. Fresh moss is crashed into a pulp and directly applied on a fresh or infected  wound, loosely wrapping it around.

Lourdes V. Alvarez in her masteral thesis at the UST Graduate School demonstrated the effectiveness of moss (Pogonatum neesi) against Staphylococcus bacteria, the most common cause of infection. Moss extract contains flavonoids, steroids, terpenes and phenols, found to be responsible for the antibiotic properties of this lowly, ancient byophyte.  

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*
Sister Corazon C. Loquellano, RVM, in a masteral thesis at UST came up with corn tea in sachet.  Just powder dried corn silk and pack it in sachet like ordinary tea. The indication of good quality is that, a six percent infusion has a clear amber color with the characteristic aroma of sweet corn.  Its has an acidity of about 6 pH. You may add sugar to suit your taste.