Table 2 Food, medicinal, and other domestic uses of non-indigenous plants, and animal, mineral, and industrial products quoted in the study area
Product (local name) | Local use |
|---|---|
Animal rennet (stomach of very young animals) (sirisht) | Used for producing cheese, but also as a starter for making yogurt#; anti-diarrheal |
Ants | Used in the past as a rennet substitute# |
Bear’s fat | Used externally for treating rheumatisms# |
Beer | One glass of beer, drunk, is considered healthy for the kidney |
Black piece of cloth | Tied onto cow’s neck or horns, as a protective amulet against evil eye# |
Bullet | Attached to clothes and worn as a protective amulet against evil eye# |
Buttermilk (dhallët) | Drunk as a post-partum reconstituent or for treating intestinal troubles and hypertension; used as starter for producing home-made yogurt |
Chicken | Cooked for a long time, until obtaining a gelatinous material, which is further cooked together with onions, corn flour and vinegar to create home-made soap# |
Clarified butter (tlynë) | Drunk for treating hypotension |
Clothes dressed on the wrong side | Protective amulet against evil eye# |
Coffee powder | Spoonful is ingested for treating hypotension; decoction (“Turkish coffee”) for hypotension; externally applied to cuts |
Copper sulphate | Used externally for healing lameness in sheep# |
Cow’s milk | Drunk in cases of constipation |
Cut | Cutting the ewe’s ear and letting blood coming out was considered an effective method for treating several sheep diseases# |
Dried sheep and cow’s faeces | Burned, the resulting smoke keeps the bees away while taking honey# |
Goat milk | Applied (warm) into the ear against earache# |
Gunpowder (barut) | Its odour is exposed to the nose of sleepwalkers, in order to bring them back to consciousness#; odour was also considered a repellent for werewolves# |
Hare’s meat | If consumed, believed to inhibit fertility# |
Honey (mjalt) | Consumed for improving blood circulation or as a post-partum reconstituent: Ingested for treating sore throats |
Knife | A knife placed under the pillow is considered preventive for sleepwalking# |
Leech | Applied externally for “sucking the bad blood”# |
Lemon | Drunk to treat hypertension; sometimes used in the past as rennet for making cheese# |
Match’s head | Topically applied for treating toothaches# |
Mother’s milk | Instilled in the ear for treating inflammations/earache |
Mud | Applied onto bee stings for pain relief# |
Oil | Ingested to treat constipation |
Pork fat | Externally used on burns# |
Propolis | Tea or macerate in raki used for treating cough/respiratory problems and intestinal discomforts (all of which are considered “new” uses) |
Ricotta cheese (gjizë) | Consumed, is considered “good for the blood” |
Royal gelly | Consumed for improving mental faculties (“new” use) |
Salt | Brought to the Islamic spiritual guide (hoxha), who “wrote something” with this# - this was considered essential for treating the evil eye of a member of the family; mixed with water, and the resulting solution instilled in the ear or eye for treating inflammations; mixed with hot water in external bathes for treating chilblains; |
Applied topically for treating toothache | |
Soap | A small piece inserted in the anus, as a purgative# |
Snow | Applied on the feet for relieving arthritic pains |
Starch | Ingested for treating diarrhoea |
Stone | Pressed on skin zone affected by the bee bite, in order to relieve the pain |
Sugar | Externally applied to cuts; mixed with water (sherbet) for treating stomach-ache; burned and ingested considered a medicine for sore throats |
Tobacco | Haemostatic |
Urin (human urine) | Externally applied on cuts#; drunk against hepatitis# |
Vinegar from honey (uthull dëgjetes) - produced at home fermenting in water honey and raw wax for a couple of weeks | Used as rennet#; Externally applied on the front or feet for treating fever; applied on the chest for treating bronchitis; applied on the belly of babies when crying or colicky |
Yogurt (kos) | Post-partum reconstituent |
Water | Drunk against high blood pressure; Fumigations of hot water (eventually heated by previously heated stone) for treating cold |
Whey (hirra) | Drunk as a diuretic, or against hypertension, or “to decrease fats in the blood” |
Wool | Raw sheep wool externally applied for treating bruises# |