Medicinal plants and toilet paper

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Mike_E_from_NZ, Dec 29, 2005.

  1. Mike_E_from_NZ

    Mike_E_from_NZ Junior Member

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    I received a copy of "Gaia's Garden - A Guide to Home Scale Permaculture" by Toby Hemenway last week. It is a truly interesting book.

    He talks about multipurpose plants and mentions in passing that a student of his listed 20 medicinal plants that could also be used for toilet paper. But he didn't list the plants - of course.

    Would anyone care to help me with the names of any plants that have proven useful as toilet paper? This is more for my interest than my intention to use them. But, who knows, it might be the start of something truly beautiful.

    (It would be quite helpful if they could match my wifes triple ply super soft extra fragranced variety :) )
     
  2. Mike_E_from_NZ

    Mike_E_from_NZ Junior Member

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  3. earthbound

    earthbound Junior Member

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    Nice one Mike.... I like the links discussion, but I don't know about rocks, smooth or otherwise....

    I reakon some type of grass would be number one on my list... Pass on eucalypt, to hard, acacia, generally to small and thin. I was recently on my folks property and we were pulling out weeds in a swampy area, mainly arum lily, that would make a fine toilet paper and I'd feel happy about using it for that purpose.

    If your anywhere around a water supply, water is still used in many many countries as the sole means of cleaning....
     
  4. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    I heard of a bloke using sandpaper fig once in an emergency. I wouldn't say that he recommended it, though. He said he did an interesting dance afterwards. :oops:
     
  5. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    We have lots of bananas, and in the wet season, a hand ful of banana leaves does the job... in the dry, they make a crinkly mess....

    I have seen a Peace Corp manual that suggests leucaena leaves (ha, ha :lol: ) which would work, if you washed your hands with soap afterwards :lol: .

    Toby is teaching a PDC here at Maya Mountain Research Farm in February, so will ask him what the plants are he suggests..... and will tell you (if I remember!)
     
  6. bella

    bella Junior Member

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    I've a few friends who use water, followed by cloth wipes.

    I go for the tree free or SAFE brands myself, so far.

    We have stacks of banana leaves, never crossed my mind to use them for wiping bottoms!?

    Bel
     
  7. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Bel,

    We have a modified pit latrine (pit latrine with bags of sawdust r rice trash next to thrne, so each depostit is carefully covered.... keeping flies down, etc).

    We also have up to 8 volunteers or interns and up to 20 students at a time, and, especially with the interns who are here for months, the TP can run down... and then you find your self, on the throne, ready to move on, after a bit of wiping, the milk can where the rolls of TP go empty, with a banana leaf hanging down, dead and greyish brown, and pliable and soft, though not porous, and, reaching over and stripping off enough to finish the job... you are thankful for the forethought of locating bananas everywhere on the farm, so that the tooilet (we have had dozens of manifestations over the years) is located near enough to get the "free TP".

    All of which is probably more information than you asked for... :oops:

    C
     
  8. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Comfrey sounds okay to me. Better than poison oak...

    Googling produced Brachyglottis repanda (NZ native, apparently), common name is "Bushman's Toilet Paper". Maybe you could import some plants to Oz...

    In all my plant books, I have never run across a list of "Toilet Paper Plants". Some authors just don't seem to be capable of covering all the bases! :lol:

    Sue
     
  9. bella

    bella Junior Member

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    Ah, Christopher. I am too close to the supermarkets to think like you...

    Thank you for the description. You never cease to inform and entertain me with your posts, each one.

    Bel
     
  10. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    EDITED TO ADD A WARNING: WARNING! PLEASE REFRAIN FROM EATING OR DRINKING ANY BEVERAGES WHILE READING THIS POST AS YOU MAY EXPERIENCE AN UNPLEASANT NASAL/FOOD/BEVERAGE INTERFACE, LIKE SUEINWA DID, RESULTING IN FOOD AND LIQUID SPRAYED ALL OVER KEYBOARD AND MONITOR.
    THANK YOU
    PERMACULTURE BOARD TO AVOID HAVING FOOD AND LIQUID SPRAYED ALL OVER KEYBOARD AND MONITOR


    Bel,

    Thank you.

    I hesitated to post on this thread, since Stevie wevie isn't here for his share in the poo bum fart humour spoils, so I will have to take all of the glory on my own... Stevie wevie, this would have been so much better with you here....

    Bel, there were two ways you could have taken all of that info, and you took the right way ( :lol: ). You win a prize, being my sincere appreciation for your kind words!

    Necessity being the mother of invention, if you ever find yourself in a compromised situation (as they say, and as we have all experienced, shit happens), ready to hit the road, with no map to lead the way, you might try this technique yourself!

    Bold researchers at the Maya Mountain Research Farm have already paved the way with years of experimentation, ( "...the research conducted at the facility has led us to reccommend a two or three ply technique, with each ply of leaf at 90 degre angles, alternating so that each ply is at a right angle to the previous one. This will assure you that should your exertions breech the structural integrity of the leaves, your hands will remain smelling like, um, well, like, uh, see, not like, um......" (you get where I'm going with this, right?) :oops: )

    Sue, when I write MY book (prolly never happen, but, for adventure, whaddaya think about "Two Fisted Toilet Stories", or for drama "Gone with the Water" or perhaps "A Tale of Two Toilets" ... ("...It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."), or, a how to book:

    How much would you pay for this information? $USD100, NO! USD99, NO! USD98, NO! USD97, NO! USD96, NO! USD95, N.., um, well, YES! For >Only< six daily payments of USD15! you can get all the secrets of personal hygiene through applied plant matter technique in the latest book on the subject, "Yes, the Pope IS Catholic, and Bears DO Shit in the Woods (and you can, too!)". Topics covered include, what species to avoid, like various cactuses and poison ivy, complete with taxonomical decriptions and line drawings... also topics like when it might be better to hold it, and strategies on how to keep the flood gates closed, and much, much more! Info is available at https://www.howtopoopinthewoods.com .. If you act now, we will include, free! (shipping and handling charges will apply), a portable toilet seat, which conveniently fits in a trunk, hat box or large backpack..."

    Or, perhaps a book written in Humour... no, you know, I think that this subject is too serious to joke about.....

    "Did you know, that in Belize at this very moment, there is someone sitting on a modified pit latrine who cannot afford TP? For only USD175 a month, you can keep Christopher in good coffee and new DVDs, um, I mean, you can help keep people in a supply of what is the basic requirement for human hygiene! Did you know that some people have to resort to using plant cellulose to perform this most basic hygeinic function, this simple everyday practice that you and I take for granted?Through our "Sponsor an Asshole Program", you can make all the difference to a needy person, and all for slightly less than a house payment and a few trips to Starbucks!")

    Anyway, moving forward, should I write any book, I will certainly list all of the plant species I know that are suitable for the hard times ahead as we move, inevitably, towards peak TP.... that time of need and paradigm shifting, when the dunny rolls of the world will litter the empty and abandoned streets.... when gangs of hooligans will roam the outback, cruising the highways in ridiculously dangerous looking cars, trucks and assorted contraptions in large, unruly and predatory packs, with mohawks, black leather and foot ball gear, and silly looking haircuts, looking for that scarce, mythical and distantly remembered luxury..... and no soft, porous, two ply paper will be available, ANYWHERE, at ANY PRICE! not for sale, not for barter, not for GOLD!

    For a post TP world, in the bitter waste land of a collapsed civilization (picture a young Mel Gibson, in leather, staring down the road next to his cool car, which we will borrow from Fran and Glenn (have you seen their car? is that coool! or what?), with the sunset shining in his eyes, serious look on his weather beaten face, with some serious music, and a serious air of serious desperation and impending disaster, holding a dead, empty dunny roll.......(no, no, seriously....) this knowledge will be worth more than marshmellows....

    (um, losing steam here...)

    G'night!

    C
     
  11. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    It seems to me that if you want to avoid using western-style dunny paper, why re-invent the wheel? Why not just do as they've traditionally done in most Asian countries? Water, plus left-hand! Tap next to dunny, with little plastic dipper thingy there. Finish "job". Dipper in right-hand at small-of-back. Left-hand poised for action. Pour slowly with right-hand. Wash furiously with LEFT hand. You can even wash the front bits as well. It's cheap, and it's super-hygienic. Who ever decided that smearing poo around with pieces of paper was a good cleaning job? Would you wipe your hands afterwards on a dry piece of paper, and then assume they were clean? Of course not. You use water. So why not "down there"? Most Asians, whilst too polite to tell you, find us westerners smell like dirty bottoms and stale urine due to our poor cleaning-habits. We could all learn a few things.

    (Do I win the "graphic" award?) :wink:
     
  12. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    Oh, and someone mentioned "cloth wipes"?

    Our septic tank bunged up a month or so ago. It was the first time we had it pumped out in 13 years, and it was fairly full. The soakage pipe was starting to block up as well.

    Guess what it was notably full of? Yep. Cloth wipes. The "baby wipe" things. Our youngest son, when a baby, used to get his bum wiped with those things, and it seems they ended up down the dunny. He turned 13 in May this year! And no, he's not a slow-developer. He's not had his bum wiped with those things in many a year. Last wipe-thing tossed down the dunny was probably 12 years ago. Yet there they were.....accumulated, and not broken-down.
     
  13. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    CHRISTOPHER!!! (Did you hear that yell?)

    It seems to me that you would AT LEAST have the good graces to WARN PEOPLE not to be eating or drinking when they read that! It really hurts to blow corn out your nose while you're laughing, you know!

    SHEESH!

    Sue
     
  14. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Sue,

    PERMACULTURE BOARD TO AVOID HAVING FOOD AND LIQUID SPRAYED ALL OVER KEYBOARD AND MONITOR has now inserted a warning, so that others do not suffer the miserable experience you have endured.

    My sincerest apologies for not thinking to warn you.... I hope you don't feel the need to ignore my posts in the future so that you can avoid regurgitating corn through your nostrils... or even leave the forum over this misunderstanding.... and that we can grow through this...

    Again, my sincerest apologies,

    C
















    :lol:
     
  15. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    (snicker)

    I can't ignore you, Christopher... you're just TOO DAMN FUNNY!

    Sue
     
  16. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    How did I happen to miss this one? I have been wondering if it would be right to share my morning antics. with you lot..
    Usually, one of the first things I do in the morning, after a cup of coffee or two, and a bit of toast or muffin or whatever I can find in my pre coffee state that will you know, sort of help soak up the coffee in my stomach, is to head up to the food forest nursey and check that everyone is doing okay. If we have had less than 5 mm rain over night, I usually do some watering...
    Okay, so our toilet in the house that we live in is a flusher, that goes into some sort of concrete capped pit, that I think they call a cesspool. It is such a waste of water, that even in this high rainfall environment I just hate to do it.
    Anyway, so I'm up there at the nursery, about 300 feet from the flusher anyway, and the coffee has had time to do its thing. If I run down to the house, chances are about 50% that one of the 2-5 or more people that we share the house with, has awoken and is ensconced in the said toilet...
    So, what I have taken to doing often enough, is simply take the hose with me about 15 yards from the nursery, squat, do my business and then just hose my arse off onto the pile of poo, and then cover the whole thing with a pile of sawdust. I have been doing this for a couple of months I guess, and I sort of squat at the edge of the pile of sawdust and poo and at first the pile grew pretty quickly, but has now settled into a kind of equilibrium where it stays at the same size... I've been through a couple of 40 gallon bags of woodshavings, and a few times I have run out, and so had to "turn the pile" in order to cover the poo... Admittedly, I have been careful not to dig into the pile anywhere near where I have been in the last couple of days, but, I have also never found anything resembling poo, only lots and lots of red earthworms...
    At first it felt a bit odd, pulling my shorts back on with a wet arse, but you dry off pretty quickly and no one is worse for wear. In fact, now it feels pretty disgusting to wipe it with paper, which is pretty weird really when you think about it.
    Anyway, it is going to be cool to plant a tree on that spot one day... and I hope noone got anything untoward stuck in their nose, or was too grossed out by my story.
     
  17. biofarmag

    biofarmag Junior Member

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    A wet arse is the sign of a real man, Richard! Well done!

    I remember communicating via email once with an American bloke who was planning a trip to the Philippines, and was heading out into the barrios. He freaked out when I told him about washing his bum with water, and was planning on taking a large quantity of ziplock bags with moistened towelettes with him. He simply couldn't cope with the idea. He also freaked when I explained bathing with a bucket of cold water, and planned on wiping himself over with a flannel cloth of some sort (in the heat and humidity of Mindanao) for several weeks. What a wuss!
     
  18. Mike_E_from_NZ

    Mike_E_from_NZ Junior Member

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    Yeah, I know I asked about wiping one's bum with leaves, but this is a far better topic. Washing one's bum. It has got to be a better idea.

    But I have to know - having not used water before:

    :?: Does the water run down your leg
    :?: Does it splash everywhere. Which wouldn't be so good for inside.
    :?: Does a damp bum (given that you don't dry it, Richard) give you any other health hassles, like damp feet might.

    Have a look at this
    https://www.jenkinspublishing.com/messag ... /1125.html

    One of the posts suggests 1/2C of water - which will run down your leg, won't it?

    Mike
     
  19. murray

    murray Junior Member

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    i, for one, love the high-pressure hoses next to the toilets that they have in thailand. one squirt from those babies and you're sqeaky clean. no fishing around with your left hand. no paper. nuthin'..... :D
     
  20. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    I find that squatting solves a lot of different problems! :lol: 8)
    No related "damp bum" health issues have arisen thus far. God willing, they never will! Like I said, you dry off pretty fast. Seems like we're designed to have good drainage that way I suppose...
     

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