Bush medicine is the traditional use of indigenous and introduced plants for medicinal purposes in the Bahamas. Even with access to westernized health care, elderly Bahamians in the Family Islands continue to rely heavily on bush medicines because these remedies are affordable, readily available, accepted within the culture, and considered more effective than biomedicine or over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. This oral tradition is severely threatened as younger generations are increasingly influenced by westernization and lured by greater economic opportunities, causing them to become disassociated from the land and its flora.
Ethnobotanical fieldwork aimed at documenting and identifying plants used for therapeutic purposes was conducted on two Bahamian Islands: Long Island in 1998, where 47 persons were interviewed; and on Cat Island in 1999 and 2000, where 56 persons were consulted. This investigation represents the first attempt to quantify the various medicinal applications attributed to numerous plant species in the Bahamas. Information on all plant species reported to have therapeutic value was recorded, including scientific identity, illness(es) treated, plant part used, preparation, mode of administration, and common name(s). The results were quantified for each island individually and for both islands collectively. A total of 176 plant species were reported from both islands as having medicinal value. Of those, 120 species are commonly used on both islands for similar purposes. This continuity demonstrates that transfer of knowledge between islands is extensive, with disparities most likely attributed to ecological differences affecting floristic composition. In addition, the most frequently reported species (>10%) used to treat 56 different popular or emic medical complaints are presented. Cognitive symptomatologies for each illness are described, in addition to a plant remedy’s relation to naturalistic or personalistic theories of disease causation and the doctrine of signatures.
This investigation reveals that traditional medical practices in the Bahamas are largely derived from early European and colonial medical practices and paradigms, which is in marked contrast to the prevailing theory that traditional healing systems throughout the Bahamas and Caribbean are primarily African in origin.