Healing Powers of the Snail
Adey Oyenuga
Healing Powers of the Snail
The Snail is derided by some simply because of its slimy,
sluggish characteristic. Yet, for some, it is a not-to-be
-missed diet.
Health Reporters OLUKAYODE OYELEYE and ADETUTU KOYI report
that the snail is a far more valuable creature than is known.
FOR many people anxiously waiting for the rains, the
weather threatened a spanner in the works last week, with
the sudden burst of a harmattan spell.
No-one knows for how long the harmattan will be around.
But, it is obvious that it has come two or three months
late, thereby almost foreclosing the possibility of the
rains coming on schedule next month.
The off-season harmattan is good news, however, for many
people who depend on the snail, either as food, natural
medicine in the treatment of ailments such as
hypertension, or plainly for earning an income in
traditional medicine practice.
For, snails do well not only in the rains but in cool
weather generally. And this season promises a mushrooming
of snails for snail lovers.
In or off-season, the eating of snail is simply an
enjoyable culinary adventure worth undertaking.
The entire being of this molluscar creature (which is a
hermaphrodite as it has both reproductive organs) offers
itself to carnivorous man for various uses. One, the
flesh, as meat, is a rich protein, iron and calcium
source. Secondly, the shell, a zinc repository, is said to
be good for weight loss, and prostrate health and the
slimy secretion is a therapeutic agent for several
ailments.
But, for some, this wonderful creature is a taboo!
The proverb that "one man's meat is another man's poison"
does ring true for Urhobo men when it comes to snail
eating. The legend parading snail meat as a taboo for them
goes thus: In pre-colonial days, Urhobo tradition forbade
men to eat the snail which, being a slow-moving animal,
was feared would make them as sluggish. This was
considered detrimental to the clan, especially in
war-time, as it was also believed, a warrior infected with
snail sluggishness could infest an entire army with his
malaise. Interestingly, it is also claimed that even if an
Urhobo man secretly eats the snail, some latent, innate
powers of the clan, residual in him by birth, will be
greatly reduced! Whether eaten in secret or not, Urhobo
men are said to avoid eating snails like a plague! Today,
there are several Urhobo men who, liberated by Christian
beliefs or raised in disapora, eat snails freely. But, for
the women, it is said that this taboo has no binding
effect whatsoever.
But, tradition is beginning to give way to modernity and
exigency.
However, apart from its culinary value, that is, its flesh
eaten as meat, the snail, according to traditional
medicine practitioners, has valuable therapeutic effects,
such that it is an indispensable agent when treating
ailments and disorders such as stroke (hemiplegia) and
migraine. It also enjoys the traditional healers' respect
as a pregnancy 'fortifier' for the viability of the
foetus, basically to avoid preterm miscarriage.
In addition, it is believed to tone the nerves, lower
blood pressure, normalise temperature and recovery from
stroke. The healing power of snails in stroke may be due
to their effects on the carotid arteries if traditional
beliefs harmonise with orthodox views. According to Dr.
Olu Ashaolu, a sonologist and Director of Labo Diagnostic
Imaging, Amuwo, Lagos: "Anytime over 60 per cent of the
carotid arteries is blocked, then the person is in danger
of stroke." In traditional medicine practice, stroke may
be treated using the snail's slimy secretion.
To the uninitiated, this is the slimy, irritating
substance many people would not like to touch with a long
pole.
But, not so, says Dr. Samuel Olusola Fafure who claims
that the bluish substance, as it presents, when the snail
is cut at the rear, is actually the 'serum' of the snail,
which is employed in traditional medicine in treating
stroke or hemiplegia.
Fafure says snail blood has an oxygen-carrying molecule
called {haemocyanin}. "Unlike red haemoglobin,
heaemocyanin is blue, thus, we look at it as snail's
water," he said.
Dr. Fafure, director of Fafo Trado-medicine (research)
clinic, on Olubunmi Alonge Street, Ijeshatedo, Lagos,
added: "In an attempt to arrest cases of hemiplegia,
(which is paralysis of one side of the body, movements of
the face and arm are often more severely affected than
those of the leg. It is caused by disease of the opposite
(contralateral) hemisphere of the brain) a mixture of the
snail's blood, and palmkernel oil in equal parts when
rubbed on the body shall reduce the severity of stroke."
What many people who would like to tap the healing powers
of the snail may find fascinating is Dr. Fafure's claims
that snail blood may ease tension and control severe
headaches when it is rubbed on the body.
Orthodoxy agrees that heart and cardiovascular systems
diseases can affect people at any age. Heart attacks and
Angina are said to be due to blockage of blood vessels and
subsequent death of tissues supplied by such vessels. It
is also said that pain can be felt even outwardly at the
site by the sufferer. In treating this disorder in
ethno-medicine using, once again, snail's blood, Dr.
Fafure says:
"Two tablespoonsful of equal parts of the 'blood' and
fresh lime, taken thrice daily, shall bring down,
gradually, high blood pressure."
Conversely, in treating the same ailment, the snail's
flesh is also a good remedy, as in the case of Mr. Thomas
Edoru, who lives at 64, Oyemekun Road, Ogba, a Lagos
suburb. He corroborated a diagnosis that he had been
hypertensive for years. And, according to him: "A doctor
recommended snail meat to me. He told me to eat snail meat
instead of other meat. I had to look for snails wherever I
could get them. Sometimes, I travelled as far Edo State to
buy. Since I started eating snails, my hypertension has
gone down significantly. Right now, I am not as
hypertensive as I was before commencing the snail meat
diet. The health and nutritional impact of snails on heart
patients, pregnant and expectant mothers was highlighted
by a health official with the General Hospital, Agbowa,
Ikorodu, Lagos, Mrs. Funke Kayode. She says that snail is
considered a source of healthful meat, outstanding for its
prevention of vascular diseases among which is the heart
problem.
Mrs. Kayode was particular about people constrained to low
salt diet "because it is low in cholesterol, a saturated
animal fat. For pregnant mothers, it is good for its iron,
calcium and protein content."
According to Mrs. Kayode, calcium, iron and protein
contribute immensely to the building of good bones,
especially for the baby, blood and body.
But, there is more to snail meat's recommendation for
pregnant women.
Dr. Fafure says that in trado-medicine, extracts and
herbal soup prepared with snails are a major item on the
ante-natal list for pregnant women.
He adds: "Such is given for (the prevention of abortion),
easy movement of the foetus and easy delivery for the
mother."
Added to these is a spiritual perspective to the snail.
Its shell, according to Dr. Fafure, has varied uses. He
precribes that "the snail shell is burnt into charcoal as
part ingredients for specific ailments and diseases." As
with traditional preparations, secrecy and mum is the
word, as per what the "specific ailments" really are.
But, for nutritionist Dr. Bamidele Ogaga, the snail shell
helps in weight loss while the meat is a repository of
zinc, a valuable nutritional factor in healthy prostate
glands and which is also required for vitamin A to be
absorbed into the blood stream. The land snail (which is
the commonly preferred specie) is but one out of 80,000
species of its kind. Snails which belong to the Gastropoda
class, but is a molluscan (soft bodied creatures with a
visceral mass containing such organs as those of digestion
and reproduction covered by a sheet of tissue called the
mantle) is actually a carrier of parasitic organisms which
cause diseases in man.
For example, some snail species are carriers of
clonorchis, Fasciola and Schistosoma, which, when ingested
by man, would develop to an adult worm that may cause
problems in the lungs, liver and bladder, according to Dr.
Fafure.
However, to escape these parasitic deposits, snail
consumers are advised to be careful in its preparations,
such that it is thoroughly washed with alum and lime or
lemon , because if not carefully prepared, it may then
serve as intermediate host of ova of many parasites.
Dr. Fafure warns that its therapeutic advantages should be
embarked upon only "with professional advice."
With additional reports from Fabian Odum
-- THE GUARDIAN --