Muna Muna

Sajama National Park - Oruro and Palca Canyon
Teachings with brother Lino Quispe.  Jan 7, 2006

Thank you for a beautiful day. 

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Brother Lino Quispe is Aymara Shaman.  He lives and works in La Paz, Bolivia, as an environmentalist, plant medicine man.  He proudly carries the tradition of the Condor.

Protect yourself,  thank plant and get blessings before consuming; 

rub plant between palms to inhale

Incans used as an aphrodisiac

boil drink tea for headache or stomach ache, gas, parasites.

field notes

Mu˜na Mu˜na   (Satureja parvifolia)

When inhaled, plant opens the lungs, is a bronchial dilator and used as an expectorant.

Drunk as a tea to relieve stomach pain, 
release gas that has built-up in the stomach.
It helps neutralize stomach acid, indigestion.
Rids bacteria that cause diarrhea. 

As a poultice, it kills skin parasites that cause Chagas disease.  Chagas' disease is a Neglected Parasitic Infection being targeted by CDC for public health action.



Photos by Dave Ahrend



Used  as a natural botanical insecticide against Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite that transmits Chagas' disease to animals and people by penetrating the skin or mucous membranes.

See  http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/ for more information.

Chagas disease was discovered in 1909 by Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas. The  T. cruzi infection is known as American trypanosomiasis.

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