(ambient music)
- [Announcer] The
following is a production
of New Mexico State University.
- [Narrator] One in four
drugs on our pharmacy shelves
and 65% of cancer drugs come from plants.
Taxol, the most widely-used
cancer drug in the world,
is made from the bark of the Pacific yew.
Here in Jordan, Bedouin
nomads have been using
native plants for medicine
for thousands of years.
Today, scientists are racing to unlock
the secrets of these ancient remedies.
- What you have is truly a treasure.
What you have is not very
available everywhere.
- When I started working
on these medicinal plants,
the first thing I thought of,
how powerful are these plants?
- [Narrator] The question is made urgent
by the ongoing destruction
of a natural habitat
for these native species.
What did ancient practitioners
of the healing arts know,
and will we be able to use that knowledge
to discover new plant-based cures in time?
The answers lie in the
extraordinary convergence
of Ancient Roots, Modern Medicine.
(uptempo music)
(soft ambient music)
- [Narrator] To the Western
eye it looks like moonscape.
Harsh, barren, unforgiving.
This is the body of the Middle East.
To look at it in the dry season,
which is most of the year,
it's hard to believe this
land can support life,
much less produce plants that
are beneficial for humans.
But there are those who believe otherwise.
- [Woman] For any person,
it is a dry, empty space,
but for me, it is a paradise.
- [Narrator] Jordanian
botanist Dr. Sawsan Oran
is on a journey to catalog and preserve
the wild plants of her homeland.
She sees beauty in the
more than 4,000 varieties
of plants she's found to date.
Beauty and possibility.
- I noticed that 40% of
those plants are medicinal.
Knowing that our ancestors
used those plants
for treatments, this has encouraged us
as scientists or as researchers
to look for the specific active compounds.
Every time I go to the field I feel that
I'm going to the field
for the first time, why?
Because I'm hoping to find something new.
Hoping to find medicinal plants
with medicinal potential.
- [Narrator] While out in the field,
Dr. Oran seeks out local people
and traditional healers to find out
how the various plants are used.
(speaks in foreign language)
- This is gesum.
- Do people in this area use this plant?
- Yes, they use it.
They use it for stomach
pain, when you get a cold.
- Do they boil it and drink it?
- Yes, they boil it and drink it
and some people use it with tea.
- Which part do they use?
All the plant or just the flowers?
- Just the flowers.
- [Narrator] The medicinal
uses of these plants
have been tested and refined
over thousands of years.
For example, these Mediterranean gourds,
colocynth or hanzal in Arabic,
were used by the Greeks and Romans.
Today pharmacological
research is confirming
their effectiveness in treating diabetes.
Ancient Arabic texts are
another important source
of information for research
on medicinal plants.
Many Westerners don't realize
that while Europe was in the dark ages
Arab physicians of the
eighth to the 11th centuries
were laying the foundation
of the institutions
and science of modern medicine.
Arab scholars studied and
translated the Greek texts,
they open the first true
hospitals and pharmacies,
and designed early clinical drug trials.
They understood the importance of diet
and produced medical texts that were used
until well into the 19th century.
What contributions might they
make in the 21st century?
Dr. Oran and her colleagues
believe important clues
might lie in Arabic folk medicine,
still practiced by the Bedouins
or Bedu as they call themselves.
Tribal nomads, the Bedu
proudly traced their lineage
back to Ishmael, son of Abraham.
They are known for their distinctive tents
which squat low to the ground
to withstand stiff desert winds.
This is the Badia,
a largely undeveloped desert,
roughly the size of North Dakota.
The Badia makes up 80% of Jordan
and reaches into Syria
Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
To survive here a plant
needs deep roots and stamina.
With an average annual rainfall
of only two to eight inches
seeds can lie dormant for months,
even years waiting for rain.
When it comes usually in the spring
there is an explosion
of bloom and new growth.
(ambient music)
The basalt plains cover
much of the northern Badia.
These stones make it
hard to drive or to walk
for humans and animals alike.
Camels able to travel long
distances without water
were for centuries the only
reliable transportation
in the Badia.
But today herdsmen drive trucks
and camels are greatly
outnumbered by sheep and goats
who threatened to
overgraze the Spartan land.
Jordan has two and a half million sheep,
three times as many as the
land could comfortably support.
Further damage occurs when people cut down
or dig up woody shrubs for fuel
which worsens erosion
and ultimately eliminates
that species from the landscape.
To raise more food so called deep plowing
is used to cultivate
the edges of the desert
so that grain crops like wheat, barley
and lentils can be planted.
The ecology of the Badia teeters the brink
as pressure to feed growing
populations increases.
The Badia landscape may be inhospitable
but guests are always
welcomed in the Bedu tent.
No traveler is turned away.
Bedu hospitality is legendary
and there's a matter of honor and pride.
Today guests are expected
at the tent of Abu Shayem.
The extended family is
already making preparations.
Bread is being made on a curved metal pan
propped up over a fire.
Here on the private side of the tent,
the women cook and tend the children.
At night the family sleeps here.
On the other side of a fabric wall
is the public space where
guests are received,
news exchange and coffee served.
According to tradition
a goat is slaughtered
to prepare a feast for the guests.
This marks the day as a special occasion,
something that occurs
only perhaps once a month.
By mid-morning the sun
is already high enough
that Abu Shayem and his
wife raise the fabric walls
to provide more shade and air circulation.
Summer days in the Badia
can be as hot as 120 degrees Fahrenheit
nights are much cooler.
Winter temperatures get
as low as 40 degrees.
Snow is rare but not unheard of.
Normally Abu Shayem and
his family would live
four months a year in
their cement block house
in a town 40 miles away
where the older children attend school.
But since the drought of 1991,
they've lived year-round in their tent
so they can cover the distances necessary
to find enough pasture for their sheep.
Today the herd is some 20 miles north
near the Syrian border.
Abu Shayem uses this
ancient Mercedes truck
to visit the herd,
pull water from a lake northeast of here
and drive to a market
an hour and a half away
for fresh vegetables and other supplies.
Fuel from propane tanks
is supplemented by brush
that has been collected from the Badia,
a process that can take
several hours a day.
(uptempo music)
Bedu collect wild plants and
use nearly 170 plant species
to treat everything from
colds and skin disorders,
to bites and stings.
Today, Abu Shayem is going
out to collect Artemisia herbs
alba or wormwood as it is
commonly called in English.
Abu Shayem knows its many uses.
- We use it when we get a bad cold
and when we have a bad stomach ache.
It's good for the sheep too.
When they have stomach worms
this plant kills the worms.
It's a good medicine plant.
Some people collect it and
sell it to the herbalist.
They also take it to the pharmacies
and many medicines are
made from these plants.
- [Narrator] Back at the tent,
the food is ready to be served.
Abu Shayem invites his guests to a feast
featuring a goat and vegetables.
Meanwhile in the kitchen,
the artemisia is boiled
with water to make a tea
the Bedu use as a general health tonic.
Different parts of the
plant can also be used
to successfully treat diabetes.
Just as they move their herds
to take advantage of
changing pasture conditions,
the Bedu shift between folk
medicine to modern medicine
depending on the circumstances
and the nature of the problem.
For example, when Abu
Shayem's young son Badi
became ill with abdominal
pain and a fever,
his father took him to a pediatrician
in a town 30 miles away.
But after three weeks of
medicine the boy was no better.
- We took him to the doctor
but we got no results
so we took him to the
healer and he is okay.
- [Narrator] The healer they
visited lives in Safawi,
a town an hour and a half away,
more than 15,000 Bedu have settled here.
Om Owyed is Bedu,
her face tattooed in the old fashion.
She says that years ago
her people kept camels.
Her knowledge of healing
has been passed down
from her mother and her
mother's mother before that.
Today she teaches her son.
Much of Om Owyed's inventory
comes from an herbalist.
She uses special non-toxic
medicines to treat children.
Her reputation is known
throughout the Badia.
(speaks in foreign language)
- I treat children from one
month old to five-years-old.
I treat him for ecto and rami
and if he gets a rash on
his skin and starts crying
we apply this material to his skin
and make him inhale some and cover him.
Then he will get well if God helps.
- [Narrator] Islam teaches
that God has provided a remedy
for every illness
and man should search for them
and use them with skill and compassion.
Bedu healers offer their
service free of charge
believing it is their duty
to help anyone who needs it.
But most patients like
Abu Shayem and his son
return later with a gift for the healer
if the cure is successful.
Just as in modern medicine,
there are many specialists
so too do the traditional
Bedu healers have specialties.
My name Menwer Rifawas from Sardia Tribe.
You're welcome to make a
interview with my mother.
You're welcome in my house.
- [Narrator] Patients visit this house
where Om Menwer gives advice
and treats eye problems.
Menwer says his mother is
between 80 and 90 years old.
It's not unusual for older Bedu
to be unsure of their age.
She learned about the medicinal
plants from her mother.
- [Rifawas] Yes, very wise woman.
She have a big mind and she
give advice to Sardia tribe.
They respect my mother.
- [Narrator] Om Menwer who
collects her own plants
and dries them,
says many are getting
more difficult to find.
She says the 10 species
grown only in her area
have already been wiped out.
Another healer, Om Salim,
grows 10 different medicinal
plants in a special garden.
She harvests and dries
them for use with patients.
Another 10 varieties have to
be collected from the wild
or gotten from nomadic sheepherders.
- I have pain on my arm
and I heard that you
have something for it.
- [Om Salim] Yes, I
have medicine for that.
- I want you to treat it for me.
- [Om Salim] This is hawajawani
and habasamra cooked in oil.
- How many times do I need to do this?
- Three days.
Take this and use it in the
morning and in the evening.
(speaks in foreign language)
This is work, this is etrophan.
- [Interviewer] What is the etrophan for?
- It is good for diabetes,
this plant for kidneys.
- [Interviewer] For the one
that has kidney problem?
- Yes.
- [Narrator] If a healer
like Om Salim doesn't have
the particular plant a patient needs,
that patient is sent to buy it
from an herbalist or atar.
Abdalnasser Al Khalidi is an atar
in a town called Mafraq.
- Al Khalidi has been
in the business 15 years
and stocks material for more
than 200 kinds of plants.
- [Interviewer] Where do
you get all these things?
- Most of it from Jordan,
some from other countries
but the majority from
the Jordanian desert.
- [Interviewer] Do you go by
yourself and collect them?
- There are some specialized people who go
and collect these plants
and sometimes just regular individuals do.
Some of these plants you
cannot find them easily,
you find them only in areas
where not many people go.
In the urbanized areas
they have disappeared.
- [Narrator] The plants
that atars and healers
rely on for their medicines,
the plants Dr. Sawsan Oran is studying,
are increasingly threatened
by environmental degradation.
(uptempo music)
Most Jordanians live in the
western part of the country.
Amman, the capital city, is the largest
with a population of two million.
Despite the ready availability
of modern medicine
you can still find herbalist
shops like this one downtown.
Efforts are underway to preserve
the Badia's native plants
and unlock their secrets.
Mining age old folk medicine
with the tools of 21st century science.
- Knowing that our ancestors used
those plants for treatments,
this has encouraged us as
scientists or as researchers
to look for the specific active compounds.
- [Narrator] Here at the
University of Jordan,
Dr. Sawsan Oran is part
of a team of scientists
working with native plants.
The Jordan Badia research
and development program
is backed by Jordan's Higher Council
for Science and Technology.
- We don't work behind desks,
we don't work behind fences.
We are there with the
people for the people.
We want to explore but
we don't want to exploit
and that's I think is the difference.
There's great potential
for economic development
through the plants and plant cultivation.
Don't forget I think the
important thing is here
that we're not teaching anybody new
or totally different,
something out of the culture,
something that needs a lot of training
or expensive training.
- When I started working
on these medicinal plants
the first thing I thought of,
the first thing how these plants,
how powerful are these plants.
- [Narrator] For more
than two decades Dr. Oran
has been seeking out her
country's native plants
and bringing them back to her lab
to be cataloged and studied.
Named Sawsan by her lawyer father
for the national flower
of Jordan, the black iris,
Dr. Oran learned to love
wildflowers as a child.
Years ago she chose botany
over a more prestigious
career in medicine.
Ironically the research
she's doing today on plants
could lay the groundwork
for new medical treatments.
Dr. Oran is excited
about helping to discover
the potential of what she calls
Jordan's wild medical wealth.
- [Sawsan] Very little
has been done on these
which I considered very
promising plants for everybody.
- [Narrator] She began by
collecting and cataloging
the wild plants of her homeland.
The herbarium she
started now has more than
4,000 different species
identified and labeled
by their Latin botanical names.
The plants which are
treated to protect them
from damage and decay
are preserved for anyone
who wants to learn about
this rich resource.
The herbarium also has a seed gene bank
to ensure that this national heritage
can be fully developed in the future.
Some of the endangered
species have the potential
to become commercial crops
that will help the economy.
- [Interviewer] Gesum.
- Gesum (speaks in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Others like
the plants the Bedouin use
may have medical or pharmaceutical uses.
But first they must be
saved from extinction.
(ambient music)
In this sterile tissue culture room,
Dr. Oran and her
colleagues are finding ways
to grow many new plants from tiny seeds,
pieces of leaves or simple root tissue.
The plant matter is grown
in a nutrient medium
in Petri dishes under
laboratory conditions.
When all goes well a tissue
mass called a callus develops.
- This is the product.
When I get the callus
of course I feel happy
because when I treat it later with
a combination of hormones,
this will differentiate in a further stage
into the different parts of the plants.
This is a small fragment of a whole bulb
from a plant called black iris.
So, from this fragment
I can get as you see
three to four plantlets.
- [Narrator] Once the plants have reached
a certain stage in the lab,
they are ready to be acclimatized
and planted outdoors.
- They are so beautiful, aren't they?
- [Narrator] The plan is to
re-establish them in the wild
and save them from extinction
due to over collecting by people
and overgrazing by livestock.
- [Sawsan] This plant is just
not only beautiful flower,
showy flower but it's well-known fact
it's been used by the old ancient people.
- [Narrator] If folk medicine
has provided the clues
that launched the search,
it is science that dictates the process.
- [Sawsan] We don't need the
whole plant for our tests,
sometimes seeds, we take seeds sometimes,
sometimes we take flower.
So it depends on the uses of these plants
which active part of this plant
has to be used for our test.
We'd grind the leaves for example,
we take the powder, put it simply
in a little amount of
boiled water, shake it.
Then we wait until the
precipitate comes down
to the bottom of the test tube.
This liquid part, this is the
important part of the plant
because it's got the active ingredients.
- [Narrator] The chemical compound is sent
to university chemists for
identification and analysis.
- [Sawsan] As a scientist
and as a researcher
I have to know which is the compounds
that are responsible for
treating these diseases
or these ailments.
- [Narrator] A series of tests have shown
that many wild Jordanian plants
can inhibit the growth of tumors.
Dr. Oran is especially
excited about a breakthrough
with a plant called Globularia
from the south of the country.
Tissue culture has helped
re-establish it in the wild.
Even more exciting, results from tests
done with Globularia extract
shows it inhibits tumors on
potatoes 85% of the time.
That anti-leukemic result is so strong
that further trials are now
being done with animals.
Dr. Oran dreams of helping
to cure leukemia in humans.
- If they manage to apply what we started
and find it very much
applicable and successful,
I feel that I managed
to achieve a victory.
I think that this is the
most important thing,
the most cheerful thing that
I've have ever done in my life.
And I'll feel great, really I feel great.
(traditional music)
- [Narrator] Another day ends
for Abu Shayem and his family.
In the Badia, modern
forces are slowly changing.
Slowly changing this lifestyle
that had remained essentially unchanged
for at least 5,000 years.
Along with the lifestyle,
cures used by ancient
cultures may be disappearing.
If the native medical
plants become extinct
human kind may have
lost powerful new drugs
to fight some of our deadliest diseases.
- [Sawsan] The plants in the Middle East
I can describe them as valuable treasure.
We have responsibility I mean
for the sake of saving our wild plants,
our natural resources
and saving the earth as much as we can
for our generation and for
the generations to come.
(uptempo music)
- [Announcer] Next time on
Ancient Roots, Modern Medicine.
Along the US-Mexico border
people have been using medicinal plants
for thousands of years.
Now, American scientists are tapping into
that precious knowledge.
From an innovative program at
New Mexico State University
to cancer tests at
cutting-edge research labs,
young scientists are discovering
the power of nature's wonders,
and perhaps the next breakthrough cure.
(ambient music)
(uptempo music)
For more information on
Ancient Roots, Modern Medicine
log on to www.rootsandmedicine.com.
- [Announcer] The
preceding was a production
of New Mexico State University.
The views and opinions in this program
are those of the author
and do not necessarily
represent the views and opinions
of the NMSU Board of Regents
