• A real herbalist shop has just opened in the center of Lille.

  • Its manager offers around fifty plants with multiple virtues.

  • These plants are consumed in herbal teas, capsules and even vaporization.

Back to nature. Since the dawn of time, humans have used plants to heal themselves. And if it is indisputable that some have medicinal virtues, this has not prevented herbalism from falling into disuse, in particular because of the formidable development of the chemical pharmacopoeia. Except that due to a relatively recent change in mentalities, we come back to plants. It is precisely the department of Madjid Allouache who has just opened Totums, his herbalist's shop in the center of Lille.

Herbalism is the discipline of preparing and marketing medicinal plants.

It is in a way the elaborate counterpart of the remedies of grandmothers.

And at 38, Madjid Allouache did not fall into it by fashion effect.

“Plants, I started to really take an interest in them when I was practicing Thai boxing at a high level.

Especially for my food, ”explains this native of Béthune who has been living in Lille for twenty years.

He was also immersed in this culture thanks to his parents, his mother regularly visiting the local herbalist.

"There are effective plants in all areas"

As the discipline is no longer officially recognized, Madjid Allouache followed a qualifying training at the School of Balance, in Mont-de-Marsan, which allows him today to be inexhaustible in this field. “There are effective plants in all areas, food supplements, cosmetics, medicine. And in this last area, it is even wider, ”assures the herbalist. Digestive problems, lactation, blood circulation, tobacco substitutes and even aphrodisiacs. “There are even plants that are good for many things, like CBD which is a real Swiss army knife,” he adds.

Madjid Allouache also believes that it is through CBD that plants will make their comeback on the front of the stage. “In France, there are 150 plants that do not fall under the pharmaceutical monopoly, that is to say that we can use freely. I am proposing about fifty for the moment, ”he explains. Burdock, for example, is excellent for the beauty of the skin and the hair. Russian ginseng, recommended to de-stress and stay focused to pass your driving license. There is also less exotic, but easier to find, like dandelion, recommended for the liver and kidneys, or nettle root for prostate problems ... All to consume in herbal teas, capsules and even less spilled, spraying.

Far from Madjid Allouache the idea of ​​seeing his discipline replace medicine.

“Plants are complementation.

At best, it works, at worst, it doesn't matter.

But some can be very effective on long-term pathologies for which nothing has worked, such as psoriasis or eczema, ”he says.

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  • Plants

  • Medicine

  • Health

  • Lille