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Local herbal remedies should only be used under the guidance
of a knowledgeable herbal medicine practioner!
Chapantyé, Justicia pectoralis, finds it way into many herbal remedies and for a variety of common ailments.  It is frequently used alone in a tea for colds or, for children’s chest colds, combined in a tea with chak chak (Crotalaria retusa), djapanna (Eupatorium triplinerve), and flowers of elder (Sambucus simpsonii).  For adult colds with just djapanna, or sometimes with djapanna, cinnamon and mint (Mentha nemorosa), it is sweetened with honey and drunk three times a day.  For coughs four inches of chapantyé are boiled with three or four inches of jiwof fle (Lantana camara), and two inches of tjitjima (Curcuma domestica.)  The liquid is sweetened with a bit of sugar and drunk. For bles, alone in a tea  or a tea made from two six-inch pieces, a piece of tjitjima, pounded, and three leaves of maho nwe (Cordia martinicensis) is drunk with a little sugar.  Instead of the maho nwe, a two inch piece of bark of gonmyé modi (Bursera simaruba) with the outer part removed may be used.  A two-part treatment for bles consists of a tea of chapantyé leaves, kalbas leaves (Crescentia cujeta, go ponpon leaves (Leonotis nepetaefolia), planten leaves (Plantago major), motel leaves (Erythrina corallodendrum), and a piece of gum of gonmyé modi followed by a rub made of soft candle, coconut oil, lard, grated nutmeg, and la bom de jes. chapantyé is also frequently used with other herbs for diarrhea or alone for bellyache.  To ``free up’’ from ``sham’’ see Leonotis nepetaefolia.

Verna Slane 1987