Current Affairs
Al-Dimsissa, A Near- Complete Pharmacy
15 October, 2017
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - The herbal plant al-damsissa (also known by its scientific name ambrosia maritima) is well known for the treatment of blood sugar in Northern Sudan.
Al-dimsissa is a robust annual plant about one meter high. The whole plant is usually very hairy and grayish white, and much-branched. The leaves are alternate, 1–3 inches long.
The dimsissa grows widely along the River Nile North of Khartoum down to Egypt.
Effective Substances:
The dimsissa is used traditionally to treat many diseases including:
It aids birth-giving, helps clean the uterus from the remnants of placenta after delivery and helps evacuate dead baby from the uterus.
It is also known to cure kidney inflammation, drive out intestinal worms, boost the digestive system and removes flatulence.
The dimsissa is also helpful in colds, paralysis, nervous quivers and convulsionsa nd help cure the thyroid gland.
It also energizes the nervous system and sex derive.
The herb is also believed to purify the body from poisons (lead poisons found in battery plants and printing presses in particular).
The dimsisssa is believed to strengthen the memory, reduce embarrassment and raise the morale.
Some of these traditional beliefs have been scientifically proven.
Sudanese researcher Hassan al-Abid al-Sabaq has related, in a master of science thesis, that some U.S scientists (who were the first to work on this plant) had found that the dimsisssa infusion reduces the amount of sugar in the bodies of rats and pigs if taken in small dozes.
Researcher Hassan said had injected rabbits with the dimsissa infusion and reached spectacular results with respect to reduction of sugar in the blood of these animals.
Some scientific researches indicate that the absence of bilharzias infections in Khartoum up to the Egyptian border was because of the vast growth of this plant in the region. At the same time those researches attribute the spread of bilharzias in central Sudan’s Gezira region to the absence of the plant therein.
It was proved that the very existence of the dimsissa plant on the banks of water canals and ponds kills the snails inside which the bilharzias worms live.
The dimsissa contains a lot of poisons and to use the herb the poisonous substances has to be isolated first.
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