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Medicinal Plants of Haiti With Wilnise
Watch the video here or read the transcript below!
In today's Video Wilnise Francois will be sharing some of her favorite Haitian Traditional Plants. Wilnise Francois is a Haitian-American Licensed Nurse and Herbalist that has worked in the allopathic modality of healing for over a decade. Her role as an herbalist expanded with the personal need and integration of herbal medicines from her coveted traditional Haitian practices and studies in Western herbalism. As a community herbalist, she is working to revolutionize the cultural affinity of our plant friends through our relationships with the earth and stars. Her aim is to integrate the very love our herbs show us and implement that essence into our daily lives; creating a lifestyle of health and wellness.
Time Stamps:
0:00 Introduction
3:51 Influences on Haitian Herbalism
8:23 Favorite Way to Use Plants Daily
8:30 Molokhia, Egyptian Spinach, Jew's Mallow
11:42 Vana Tulsi Basil
14:16 Djon Djon Mushroom
17:20 Castor oil and Castor Plant
21:43 Lemongrass
KhadiYah: Hello everybody. So I'm here joined with Wilnise Francois, I hope I pronounced your name right. So I'll give her a little bit of time to introduce herself and then we'll get into today's chat.
Wilnise: Hi. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Wilnise Francois, and, yes, you did
pronounce that correctly. I am a herbalist and private chef that infuses the plants
and love of the earth into my daily lifestyle, specifically those that are indigenous
to the spaces that I inhabit, and of course, Haiti. So I';m excited to share with you
guys today and I also want to thank KhadiYah for allowing me into her space to
share about some of the beautiful plant friends that are indigenous to Haiti, and
we'll go ahead and get started.
KhadiYah: Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate you as well. All right, so our first question was what was your experience with the plant as a child?
Wilnise: I tend to say that plants have been in my life probably before conception,
obviously. Being from the diaspora, the African diaspora specifically, my parents
come from Haiti and a lot of our culture is highly medicinal with the plants. And
so I think plants have been in my life from the time of my mother's postpartum
care to growing up, having to need certain oils and herbal teas to stay well, to
planting gardens with my father during the summer and spring in New York, and
just always being fascinated by the plant kingdom.
KhadiYah: What part of New York was that?
Wilnise: I grew up in Brooklyn and we lived a little bit in Queens too, so I spent a lot of
my childhood between Brooklyn and Queens and yeah, during those months,
specifically the spring and summer and fall as well; like, those were my favorite
seasons because it was the time for us to be in the garden.
KhadiYah: Okay, because I actually was born in Brooklyn and when we were two, my mom moved us to Queens so I actually lived there until I was 14 and then we moved.
Like a lot of people did that. Their grandparents moved to the north, we moved
back to the south, so now I'm in Tennessee. So it's good meeting another New
Yorker. So you actually begin your own personal journey then with the plants?
Wilnise: My personal journey began - like a committed personal journey to plants began - I want to say teenage years, right. I think during those moments as a woman and we're starting to menstruate and do certain things, with our bodies started
changing, I think my need to learn how to take care of my body a little bit better
helped me dive a little bit deeper into plant medicine. And that's how it started off
for me but I feel like even as a child, I always had a really intimate relationship
with the plants, specifically the flowers. Like those were the things I love to plant
in the garden and just be with and pick and really curious about. But actually
implementing into my daily habits definitely started in my later adolescence,
early, early adulthood. Yeah.
KhadiYah: Okay. Awesome. So what are some of the historical influence then on the culture
of Haiti? You can talk about just the culture, the cuisine or herbalism. What are
the influences that you can talk about?
Wilnise: Okay. Well, like many of the African Diaspora countries here in the west, Haiti is deeply rich and entrenched in just like its relationship to the earth, culturally. Like
a lot of what we eat, a lot of what we do is always tied right back to the earth,
much like most African cultures.
And what I like to coin Haiti as being little Africa, and because of the reasons why is we have a lot of indigenous plants that are indigenous to the island or to the continent of Africa that you find in Haiti because of course our ancestors brought those things with them, right. Carried a lot of the medicines with them, and we still implement them to this day.
A lot of the foods that we eat is richly African. One of my favorites, we're going to dive into a little bit later, which is Lalo, but it is a plant that's found in western Africa
as well as in the northern regions, indigenous to those space and it is a delicacy in
Haiti. Like we enjoy that meal so deeply and it's again, one of those plants that
draws us right back to our traditions in Africa. So I always say everything that we
do in Haiti is the indigenous and African imprint that's just like screaming out of
us and all of the plants that we use in every aspect of our lives is again, ties us
right back to the continent.
KhadiYah: All right. And do you also think getting the independence so early as well, you all were able to keep a little bit more of the culture as well?
Wilnise: Oh, definitely. I think our intelligence with the earth, and that's obviously coined from the indigenous peoples of the island of Haiti, that were there, that already had just like this vast knowledge of the landscape of Haiti helped in a lot of the rebel fighting during that revolutionary war that happened on the island. So there was a lot of plant ecology and biology and alchemizing that happened with the
plants to help us defeat some of those folks that came to terrorize the island and
the people.
KhadiYah: Yes. Okay. Those folks. I love that. So what are some of your favorite ways that you're using plants daily?
Wilnise: I think every way, like there's plants implemented in every aspect of my life, from what I'm putting on top of my skin, to what I'm using to help nourish my hair, and of course what I'm ingesting in food. One of my favorite ways, I think the most
favorite way of implementing specifically herbal medicine is through the kitchen,
for me. I love adding plant medicine into my food in every way; breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, whether it be powder form, tinctures or just like using the live fresh
plant medicines into any form, cakes and oils and stews, soups, whatever it is. I
think I intentionally implement plants medicine specifically into everything of my
life. So it's an embodied lifestyle and I think that's what helps to keep me well and
balanced and then also grounded in my work as well as the work for my clients.
KhadiYah: Okay. I think one of the titles you have, because you have so many, I think one, I've seen that you also are like a chef.
Wilnise: Mm-Hmm. Yes.
KhadiYah: That love of cooking. Is that from your mom or?
Wilnise: Oh, definitely. I think, yeah, we grew up in the kitchen, and me and my mother still to this day are in the kitchen. A lot of our bonding happened over the stove, and since a child, I was just always so curious and fascinated with the way she
nourished us and nurtured us. Like I was blessed enough to have that relationship
with her where she really took the time to cook us a home cooked meal every
single day, and still does to this day, you know, especially when we're home.
But yeah, a lot of my love for being in the kitchen and just nourishing and nurturing
others comes from that demonstration that I saw growing up. And so she does a
really beautiful job at teaching how to be in the kitchen, and she also has this
really mad, beautiful flare about her that I guess I wanted to emulate and I've
embodied that just to, I think every respect and I love being in the kitchen just as
much as she does.
KhadiYah: Okay. Awesome. All right, so tell us about some of your favorite plants, and I'll just give you the floor to talk about all of them. So which or do you feel called to
talk about first?
Wilnise: Let's talk about Lalo since that was the one who came up in conversation first. Yeah, so Lalo is the Haitian term or the Creole term for what some of us in the
West would recognize as being Molokhia or Jute leaves, and another name we
could recognize it as being Jews Mallow. Another name also is Egyptian spinach.
So it's within the spinach family and it's a really beautiful leafy green that we
ingest in Haiti as a food delicacy. It is richly medicinal with things like vitamin
A's and K’s and Iron, and in Haiti, it's used as postpartum medicine for moms to
eat after giving birth, to help rebuild blood cells within the body system; after
labor is childbirth. So within the regions of Lani, which is an area in Haiti that's a
little bit coastal, you'll find the Jews Mallow growing wildly.
And because it's just a treasured food, it's almost as if every time you have a
family member that's traveling to Haiti, you make sure that they're bringing you
back a bundle of that leafy green. And it is truly one of my favorite medicines to
ingest. Much like how we have here in the west, in western herbalism, nettles are
raved for just how deeply mineral rich they are, while Jews Mallow is an
equivalent to that mineral rich goodness that you'll find in plant medicines. And
so drinking and infusion of it is also recommended, but we in Haiti love to have it
as a stew. And the other reasons why it's used postpartum for moms specifically is
because it has really a beautiful mucilaginous context to it. And so whenever you
have a plant medicine that's really rich in mucilage or that coating material that
helps to coat the body system, that means it helps to cool us.
And so if you have things like frayed nerves or just need anything to just kind of
like cool down any form of inflammation in the body, beautiful way of
incorporating that medicine into your system. And so Jews Mallow is probably
one of my favorite foods that I think is very specific to Haiti, especially in the
way we eat them. But we find that there are many other cultures across the
continent that love to enjoy it just as we do. In spaces like Nigeria, it's called
Ewedu. In Egypt, they call it Molokhia and it's just a delicious, delicious, just
slimy rich green stew that I always recommend everyone to try, at least once.
KhadiYah: Yeah, and I have tried it and it definitely, I guess especially if you don't grow up eating it, it can be an acquired taste because of the texture. But I did actually like the taste, so -
Wilnise: Oh, awesome. I'm glad you did. Yeah. You don't usually find people finding it, so that's awesome that you were able to incorporate it into your diet. Definitely.
KhadiYah: Yeah, I think it was an Ethiopian restaurant that we went to that we tried for the first time, so that was really nice. Yeah, so what about Basil?
Wilnise: Oh, Bazilik. Oh gosh. Basil always has my heart. Bazilik is such a sacred plant
ally in Haiti and it's used across the lifespan from babies to our elders. It is one of
those plants that we also know in Western herbalism is revered for just how
powerful it is in helping to keep the balance in the body system, right. It keeps
homeostasis. Well, so Bazilik is the creole term for basil. And what's revered in
Haiti and also found wildly is the variety of basil that's called Ocimum
gratissimum or Vana Tulsi. So, it is a form of Tulsi that you can find growing wild that a lot of the goats are enjoying and eating the tops of. But basil is one of those plant allies that you can ingest in about every way, whether it's tea in your foods, having it topically.
One of the ways in Haiti that you'd often find people using them is topically. So
you know, Haiti is an island, and it's filled and riddled with mosquitoes and bugs
and all types of things and you'll find in most homes that they'll keep a little basin
of basil water near the home just to kind of spray the children after they're outside
playing just to keep the bugs at bay, as well as whenever they find like sting bikes
or anything that kind of like creates inflammation or abrasions on the skin. You'll
often see people creating poultices with the basil or the bazilik often in Haiti. And
then again, it's used postpartum. It's also used for our children to help quell any
colic or upset stomach that's found. Yeah, Basil is revered deeply, and also within
my personal practice, I enjoy basil in every way. I mean, I eat basil, I drink her in
tea, I'll have basil oil around, I love infusing basil with honey just to extract a lot
of that rich essential oil that you'll find to make it beautifully and sweet. So basil
is just one of those allies that I think everyone should have within their home and
enjoy because everyone in the home can enjoy it.
KhadiYah: Yeah, and I love that you mentioned basil, and I can definitely see the Africaninfluence because, you know, basil, actually there are like three or maybe even more species of basil that do originate from Africa and so I love it. And then the
use of it as poultices and on the skin definitely hail from Africa, so I learned a
little there.
Wilnise: Definitely.
KhadiYah: So next, I don't know how to pronounce the mushroom that you were gonna talk about, but yeah, please share a little bit of your knowledge on the next one.
Wilnise: Yeah, I think we've saved the best for last one. This might not be the last, but
Djon Djon is very specific to the island of Haiti. It is a fungi. And Djon Djon is
again one of those delicacies that we all enjoy within the diaspora of Haiti. This
fungi is so deeply medicinal that if you soak the mushrooms and some water, the
water becomes black because of just how rich it is in carbon and helping to
alkalize the body system. And you'll find that some of our elder teachers speaks a
lot about Djon Djon and how it helps to alkalize the system. And so our ancestors
in Haiti understood the relationship that our African bodies had with rice and so
one of the delicacies that we have in Haiti is Djon Djon rice, where we infuse rice
with a Djon Djon water to create black rice.
And that again helps to pacify some of the acidity that would happen in the body
when we're ingesting all of that sugar and carb from the rice. And so, you know, it
gives us a little bit of leeway to have our rice, but still be balancing and well for
our body systems. But Djon Djon is also enjoyed medicinally, like you'll have
some people use it post, you know, a little bit too much partying, you know,
they've had a little bit too much of a good time, they'll often drink that water again
to help quell the digestive system and bring back balance to the gut flora, because
it is, again, most mushrooms or must fungi you'll find really does a beautiful job
at helping to balance the gut flora in the body system. So Djon Djon is a digestive
aid. It is rich and powerful and iron.
And so anything that really brings out the carbon in water, for instance, imagine
what it's doing to our body systems, right? That's also that connection to the
melanin that we have and our relationship to our wellness in our body systems.
And so can Djon Djon be found anywhere else on the earth? No. Literally the
island of Haiti is the only space where you find that specific particular fungi and
there are some ecologists and mushroom fanatics who are trying to find other
spaces where you could find it growing. But so far from my research, I found that
Haiti is really the only place that, one, uses that particular fungi within food to
ingest and can be found just growing randomly.
KhadiYah: Yeah. Oh, I love that. That's so powerful. Does it have a similar taste of some of our other mushrooms? Is it more of a loving flavor or?'
Wilnise: No, I think Djon Djon is very umami, has a very umami flavor to it, like most
mushrooms do but it is very like specific to Djon Djon, like, I don't know. From
all the mushrooms I've experienced so far, Djon Djon is very, very particular and
in both scent and what it does to food.
KhadiYah: I have castor; the castor plant.
Wilnise: Yes castor. So in Haiti, the creole term for castor is lwil maskriti, and that is the
castor plant particularly. And in Haiti you'll find it growing wildly, right. And
again, that's another plant that's indigenous to the continent of Africa, but also can
be found within our space in Haiti and we use that entire plant in many ways. I
think one of the most revered ways we use it is making an oil with the seeds, also
known as black castor oil. I mean, black castor oil is in every single household of
the Haitian Diaspora; if you have a Haitian friend, they are going to have a bottle
of lwil maskriti tucked away somewhere because it is one of the prize possessions
that we use to just keep everyone balanced and well in the body system or in the
family.
lwil maskriti is treasured because one, it helps quell fevers. We use it topically for
that reason. It's an expectorant, right. We use it to relieve any like congestion that
could be from the lungs when heated and put massaged on our lungs. lwil maskriti
is sometimes ingested if you have an upset stomach. We kind of do that as well,
like that's an old remedy that we do if there's any cuts or bruises or any inflamed
joints that you have in the body, we’ll heat up some black castor oil, then rub that
big bad boil on there just to help relieve that pain and inflammation that you'll
sometimes find. So black castor oil is revered deeply within the island, and then
as well as the leaves. The leaves in Haiti are used postpartum for mothers as a part
of postpartum care. Like in Haiti, there is a thing called a bang that's done after a
mother delivers a child vaginally where a wash is done and one of the ingredients
is the maskriti leaf or the castor leaf that we use to just, again, we balance the
space and bring back moisture as well as any wounds that need healing, as well as
stopping any bleeding that could happen postpartum.
KhadiYah: Awesome. We had a question from Chaya Chaya. She also said her aunt used to make rice with the Djon Djon.
Wilnise: Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely.
KhadiYah: Yeah. But she asked do you know of a place where you can order some of the mushroom online?
Wilnise: Yeah. You know, nowadays we live in such a beautiful world where we have
access to everything. We have everything at our fingertips but yeah, there are
some merchants who sell Djon Djon online that you can directly buy from
farmers in Haiti, I would definitely recommend sourcing a particular, there is one
brand of folk who sell Djon Djon online and I can get that information to you
soon. Yeah.
KhadiYah: Okay. And I’ll try and add that to the description because we want to make sure
we're getting it from, you know -
Wilnise: Yeah, that is sourced from our people and that they're getting their due justice of
bringing that medicine onto the west. Yeah.
KhadiYah: Right, yeah. Okay. And then we also have the Haitian Creole Language Institute
of New York says this has been incredibly informative, Thank you Wilnise for
always centering Haiti in New York.
Wilnise: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, the Haitian Creole Institute is again, another beautiful
platform that helps us to remember, those of us who are here in the diaspora, just
reconnect ourselves to the medicines through language, right, because we'll find a
lot of the healing that we needed just by speaking our mother tongue and yeah,
they'll do beautiful work. So if you guys are on tapped in, tap in. Tap in.
KhadiYah: A question from Stella. She asks about mullein leaf and yarrow. Are those two additional plants used -
Wilnise: In Haiti, I wouldn't say so to those two, but those are plants that we use in
herbalism, definitely specifically melon leaf for the congestion that happen in the
lungs. I think maybe that's what she knew when I was talking about the lungs, the
black castor oil being used for the lungs. Yeah, those two definitely can be used in
the same vein to just help clear congestion as expectorants.
KhadiYah: Okay. Yeah, but we're just not going to go on those today. We're just going to the ones here, so just for her time sake, but hopefully that answers your question. And then the last one was lemongrass. So you want to talk about lemongrass?
Wilnise: Of course. The Creole term for lemongrass is citronnelle and citronnelle is again one of those plants that everyone uses in every capacity from babies to our elders. And it's just one of those yummy teas that we all enjoy to go to sleep, to make a baby try to rest after they're being colicky, whenever we're sick with fever, right.
It helps to like decrease the inflammation and the temperature in the body system.
But lemongrass is just one of those yummy, yummy teas that I think all of us tend
to use across the diaspora, right. There are many names, but lemongrass is just,
baby try to rest after they're being colicky, whenever we're sick with fever, right.
mean, you can’t ever forget it, right. Although we don't ingest it in food like other
spaces do, right.
Like in the Asian countries, you'll find that they'll include lemongrass in their
cuisine. In Haiti, we strictly use it as tea and in baths, right. I think one of the
forms of medicine that we really believe in using in Haiti is a bath, right. We love
giving someone a bath so that they can get well and citronnelle is often used for
that as well as a tea. A nice cup of citronnelle tea, you could always count on your
grandmother in giving you a good cup of sweetened citronnelle before bed or to
help you concentrate and focus for school, that's also sometimes used. But yeah,
lemongrass is one of those plants that is revered here in the west as well and in
many other spaces. And again, it is indigenous to Africa, right. That's one of those
plants that we also carried with us and it's that grassy, tall, very prolific and
abundant. It's essentially a grass, right, it's not a plant, that you can find all across
the diaspora, in Africa as well as Haiti.
KhadiYah: Okay. And do you prefer the fresh tea versus the dry tea?
Wilnise: Oh, definitely, I prefer the fresh all the time.
KhadiYah: Ok. So do you have more plants on your heart that you want to talk about?
Wilnise: No, those are, I think, some of the ones that we all really enjoy in Haiti and it’s
very easily accessible to find, right. But I think they're just so distinctive on what
we all grew up doing across the diaspora and it just kind of ties us right back to
the continent to remind us like a lot of what we know stems from home. And so
yeah, I love highlighting those because, again, it's just that connection right back
to the motherland, right back to the continent that keeps us all into one fabric of
knowing that we're all one people.
KhadiYah: Awesome. Okay, so I'll give you guys just a moment to have any last questions to
put them in the chat. And while I do, I'm going to pull up, let me share my screen.
I want to show her Instagram. Are there any other platforms that you're on, other
than Instagram or?
Wilnise: Yeah, you could find me on my website, of course, at wellfedapothecary.com and then TikTok, I'm also there from time to time sharing some videos of ways I use plants in my daily life and in food. But yeah, I'm mostly active on the gram.
KhadiYah: I do have her links down below to her Instagram or her website, so do go check out all those links as well. So, I am just going to share a little sneak peek of her
Instagram here and I love that she has so many different videos, lots of color. You
can see her love of food, so you definitely will want to check her channel out. Do
you mind if I press play? I think I'll have the sound off. Do you mind if I show a
little short video?
Wilnise: Oh, totally.
KhadiYah: Do you have a preference?
Wilnise: No, I think any one of these kind of highlights what I do.
KhadiYah: All right. I did actually like this one so let me show this one here. I don';t think I
can make it bigger, but hopefully you all can see.
Wilnise: Yeah, that's one of my favorite ways of keeping the skin balanced and well, and
then using the plants that are growing right around us. I think that's, you know,
implementing them in every way possible is the way we stay pretty balanced in
this walk.
KhadiYah: And that Aloe, another one we could have mentioned, but we would just go on
forever.
Wilnise: Totally, we would've because Aloe again is one of those plants that everyone has a little bit of that growing in their backyard and if they don't have a backyard, it's
in a pot in their home definitely.
KhadiYah: Yes. And the herbs keep you glowing and moisturized and looking good. So do check out her videos. And in that one, you actually use moringa, so I just love the use of African plants. So, okay, so we just got a comment because Sandra says,
Thank you ladies; very educational and interesting. I thank you all so much for
joining. Do come back, I'll make sure I give that link to the Djon Djon if you are
able to find it. But make sure you go ahead over to our platform and support.
Okay, so if there's nothing else, if you want to add anything or if not, we'll just let
you guys go. Do you want to give any last words or? Give an advice to a beginner
herbalist.
Wilnise: Oh my gosh, good question. That's a great question. I would say take your time and have fun. There's so many plants to know, so many ways to dive into plant
medicines. You could research, you could write about them, make products, cook
them in food. I mean, there's so many avenues you can just implement them into
your life. And I was taught that when you stick to five really good plants and
really know them inside and out, that you're already master herbalism to some
respect, right. And so just know that your need to know and learn about the plants
is really just you remembering all this information because this is again, deeply
entrenched in our DNA and all of what we're doing is just reclaiming a lot of that
knowledge base and back into our homes, into our lives and making sure that
we're doing the best we can to keep our families well. So take your time and have
fun.
KhadiYah: That’s the important part about it, right. Enjoy the journey. So with that, we'll let you guys go and thanks.
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