Bahamian Bush Medicine: The Love Vine

For this parasitic plant, orange, not red is the color of love. The love vine,Cassytha filiformis, is showcased alive, in the above pictures as the florescent, invasive, climbing pant. Fun side note: the tree below being attacked is actually another invasive called the Australian pine.

The vine can only live through the nutrients of its host and can actually transfer some of the secondary compounds it makes back to the host plant. It is used widely in bush medicine. In her book, bush doctor, Christine Rolle, states it can be used to give strength to a weak spine, by both tying the vine around your waist and drinking crushed vine as tea in the morning. Boiling the vine in a bath has also been used to relive itchiness and prickly heat.

Dr. Wilmanowicz  writes its often mixed with other teas and can be used to combat bedroom problem and treat arteriosclerosis. 

Cassytha is full of cytotoxic alkaloids. In addition, it contain actinodaphnine, cassythine and dicentine which can attack enzymes that trigger carcinogenisis. Decentine has been support to treat high blood pressure, arrhythmia, thromboses and arteriosclerosis.

So grab your love and start sipping the vine<3

Sources:

Rolle, Christine. Bahamian Bush Medicine. Quincentennial ed. 2000. 34. Print.

Wilmanowicz, Renate. Bush Medicine in the Bahamas: A Modern Approach. Createspace, 2012. 40. Print.