While many people swear by Caribbean herbs, a warning came this week from a medical doctor that Black Sage tea contributes to kidney disease.
Dr Devon Francis, speaking to Godfrey Augustine on the programme ‘Doctor on call’ said that he has seen patients who became afflicted with kidney disease after regular use of Black Sage and is therefore discouraging the use in brewing local teas.
The local General Practitioner with fourteen years of clinical experience and ten years of hospital experience also has four years under his belt as a District Medical Officer. While he did not refer to Black Sage as poisonous, he explained that Black Sage leaves are coated with a type of crystals which “somehow end up as a lining in the kidneys.”
According to research, the highly aromatic plant with the scientific name Salvia mellifera may even be problematic for the lungs if inhaled for a long time while burning. However this is still a ritual practice in some countries.
While it is a common practice to consume local herbal teas sometimes even as remedies, it is now a known fact that not enough is known about some of these trees to calculate the safety of their consumption. Therefore when visiting a doctor the information on herbal intake is vital to a diagnosis.
