As soon as she learned that she had Corona, she was feared and panicked, and her suffering increased from the chronic diseases that she suffers from, in addition to that, news coming from patients and hospitals does not please anyone.

The 60-year-old Hajja Umm Salem Nuseirat, who lives in one of the villages near the city of Salt, west of the Jordanian capital, Amman, was terrified for herbalists looking for prescriptions to fight disease, adding to Al-Jazeera Net that she brought heat medicines, the required vitamins and antibiotics, and besides her a lot of medicinal herbs and wild plants. Bring it and eat it.

The case of Nuseirat is similar to thousands of cases of patients with the Coronavirus, who are looking for an effective treatment between medicinal herbs, honey and its products.

The young man in his thirties, Raed Al-Qouza, took with him honey mixed with medicinal herbs to the medical isolation room in a government hospital, after he was injured by Corona, and he was keen to eat it morning and evening, because he believed that honey and herbs help in healing the injury.

As of the beginning of this week, Jordan recorded 257,000 cases, which are the total number of injuries, including 213,000 recoveries, about 3335 deaths, and 40,000 active cases, and the epidemiological curve during the past week began to flatten and stabilize, indicating a decline in the number of injuries and deaths, which ranged between 12% and 14% of examinations. Injured.

A journey searching for recipes

In the old city of the Jordanian capital, Amman, the forty-year-old Fares Al-Amarin rotates around spices and herbalists, accompanied by his wife, looking for a wild herb or prescription to face the dangers of the Corona virus after it infected their family.

Many and multiple prescriptions that Al-Ammarin wrote on a sheet of paper, some of which are concerned with raising the immune system, including for influenza and others for winter illnesses. “Medicinal herbs and honey products are our weapon in our battle with Corona as long as no effective vaccine and medicine is available to treat it,” Al-Ammarin tells Al-Jazeera Net.

Al-Ammarin is similar to many who suffer chronic diseases such as cancer and chest diseases, and those infected with the Coronavirus, believing that it helps in treatment, which raised the demand for medicinal herbs by more than 200% according to herbal dealers.

Over the past months, social media has been crowded with folk medicine prescriptions that some believe will cure Corona, while specialists warn of those prescriptions aimed at financial gain at the expense of the health of patients and the injured, in light of the inability of medical research to find a cure.

Jordanians' interest in consuming medicinal herbs is a folklore (Al-Jazeera)

For immunity and winter diseases

The desire of Jordanians to consume medicinal herbs is considered a folk heritage, which children inherited from their parents and grandparents at a time when there were no medicines and medicines to treat them decades ago.

In a shop full of bags and shelves of medicinal herbs in the center of the country, the owner of the oldest aromatic shop in Amman, Muhammad Al Han, prepared large quantities of medicinal herbs, wild flowers and honey products to meet the customers' requests. It helps in facing Corona, "he tells Al-Jazeera Net.

He adds that customers' demands are focused on specific herbs such as Indian premium, wormwood, star anise, iris, caraway, starfish, and various hot herbs, and the shop is intended for customers from various poor and rich social classes.

The increase in demand for medicinal herbs raised their prices, and as a result of the comprehensive ban during April and May, and the import of goods from abroad was stopped for periods of time, the quantities in the market decreased and their prices increased with traders.

Herbalists Shadi Koueider told Al-Jazeera Net that the demand for honey and its products has increased, especially bee propolis by 100% (Al-Jazeera)

They cling to a straw

In the spice market adjacent to the Husseini Mosque, shoppers buy honey along with herbs, as the demand for medicinal herbs was accompanied by an increase in the demand for honey and its products. Herbalists Shadi Qwaider, owner of Hariz Herbalists, told Al-Jazeera Net that the demand for honey and its products, especially bee propolis, increased by 100 %.

And the patient - according to Kwaider's description - is related to straw, so any recipe he hears or finds that other patients have benefited from, he takes them, and perfumers sell herbs to consumers with a simple description of how to use them, while consuming medicinal herbs in abundance and without specific amounts carries great health risks, some of them may Renal failure, blood poisoning, or others occurs, according to specialists.

Medicinal herbs and wild plants have always been a matter of dispute between doctors and specialists in what is known as "alternative medicine" (Al Jazeera)

Backfire

Medicinal herbs and wild plants treatment has always been a matter of dispute between doctors and specialists in what is known as "alternative medicine". Member of the epidemiology committee in the Jordanian Ministry of Health, Dr. Bassam Hijjawi, does not recommend taking herbal prescriptions without medical controls, and on scientific grounds determined by studies.

Hijawi explained to Al-Jazeera Net that consumers consume wild herbs and various qualities as preventive measures, but without scientific and medical studies that clarify the benefits and risks of these herbs and how to eat them, which may expose them to more medical risks than the desired benefits.

And between the doctors' disagreements about the benefits and harms of medicinal herbs, resorting to them remains a strongly proposed option, until a vaccine for the virus and a successful treatment are obtained.