Tag Archives: folk medicine

Camphor Folk Remedy

Nationality: Jewish-American
Age: 97
Occupation: Retired teacher
Residence: Santa Barbara, California
Performance Date: March 14, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Yiddish

Cultural Background:

My informant was born in 1915 in New York City, to immigrant parents—her mother was an Austrian-Jewish immigrant, and her father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant. Describing her childhood, she states that “at that time, New York City had a density that was closer—or more—than that of China. There were so many people jammed together in these old tenement houses—you had a whole floor of people in your apartment, who shared one bathroom. None of them even had windows, except on skylights, or looking out on someone else’s tenement window. So, it was just a very crowded condition. For the most part, people got along very well because they all came more or less from the same place, they were all poor, but, you know, though you didn’t have much, you didn’t think of yourself as poor. . . . Life was spent on the street because the apartments were crowded, dark, and very uninviting. So, we used to spend our time on the street playing hopscotch, jump rope. The little boys were always playing ball in the street. Everything was street-oriented. . . .

“I remember going to school. At that time, I only spoke Yiddish at home, and my mother took me to the teacher, and the teacher said, when did she come from Europe? And my mother said very indignantly, ‘she was born here!’ I’m a citizen! And, I was speaking only Yiddish at home, but I did not struggle with English; I caught onto it very quickly. The classrooms were so crowded that they didn’t have enough seats for everybody. But everybody there was hungry to get educated, and at that time, of course, the emphasis on higher education was only for the boys. Everybody wanted their sons to be doctors or accountants or lawyers. But the girls would wind up being in the factories at sewing machines. The highest honor was to be a teacher. In two years you could become a teacher, and then you would be one of the elite.”

Camphor folk remedy:

“During the flu epidemic, when there was a lot of flu and bronchitis, my mother would give us each a pouch of camphor to wear around our necks, to keep us from getting sick. And it worked—we never got sick.”

My informant does not know for how long this practice has been employed. By today, the medicinal value of camphor has been accepted by the scientific community—“The principal use of camphor is as an antitussive agent to reduce coughs” (see link below), although there are also other uses, such as to relieve itching. Camphor is a great example of a folk remedy that has become accepted by scientists, gaining a place in the medical canon and among prescription products.

http://www.herbalsafety.utep.edu/herbs-pdfs/camphor.pdf

“Take tea with lemon and honey for a sore throat.”

Nationality: Korean
Age: 26
Occupation: International Student
Residence: Westwood
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

“Take tea with lemon and honey for a sore throat.”

This is a remedy that has been passed down from generation to generation in my informant’s family. Whenever he has a sore throat, his mother has always recommended drinking hot tea with lemon and honey; his mother had learned this from her mother, and the remedy keeps going back in generations.
Although tea with lemon and honey does not seem to have any medical reason for making sore throats better, it is probably the combination of hot, sweet, and sour tastes that alleviate the pain in the throat. Like most folk remedies, anything that seems to produce results is constantly reused and recommended, and this is probably how the tea has become a go-to solution for sore throats in my informant’s family.

Seven-up for your sickness

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 40
Occupation: House wife
Residence: Harbor City, Ca
Performance Date: 4/21/2012
Primary Language: English

According to my informant, whenever she had a cold as a child, her mother would give her seven up to drink in order to “burp up the toxins.” This doesn’t really ring true, but it’s also believed that the soda is easier on a sore throat and thus a good way of getting fluids. There is much speculation and quite a few different opinions on the matter, but it is this collector’s opinion that it may or may not be a psychological cure- meaning that because someone believes it to aid them in recovering quicker, they actually do.

My informant, as a mother of three, continues to use the folk remedy to this day with her own children.

Butter on your Burns

Nationality: Mexican- American
Age: 40
Occupation: House Mother
Residence: Harbor City, Ca
Performance Date: 4/21/2012
Primary Language: English

My informant told me that an oft-used folk remedy that her mother used to use on her for burns was cold butter. According to my informant, Cold butter is thought help cool the burn and soothe the irritation, but is in reality a bad idea. The greasy substance could possibly cause infection and become a breeding ground for bacteria.

This was likely thought as a good idea because of its availability in the kitchen where many burns occur, and the cool substance no doubt would feel good against the irritated skin at first.

Flour to Stop Bleeding

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 65
Occupation: Business Owner
Residence: Fullerton, Ca
Performance Date: 4/21/2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

According to my informant who grew up on a farm in a poor family, in the old days mothers used to put baking flour on cuts as a folk remedy to stop bleeding. He heard this from one of his brothers, who actually told him that the remedy was a false one. This brother of his had cut his foot when he was younger, and his sister had put flour on it in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. The blood didn’t stop flowing.

Essentially, it was a poor person’s remedy. It may have gotten its reputation as a cure for bleeding due to its absorbency, but would never be very effective on anything larger than a paper cut as it doesn’t really have anything to do with blood coagulation.