Homeopathic remedies: Know your herbs

Homeopathic trends are on the rise in Isalamabad.

ISLAMABAD:

Hidden within the dust-ridden and crowded Aabpara Market alleys, a khoka (shop) display jars and bottles of local health and beauty products (lower end but all natural), herbs, oils and weird paraphernalia - pickled sand lizards being the key attraction amongst these products.

“They are for enhancing virility. You eat them,” says the old vendor with a wry, toothless grin.

This nameless shop is one of many in the city which often sells hack and dangerous health and beauty products. They cater to mostly those who can’t afford better or aren’t savvy enough to buy brand supplements and beauty regimes off the racks at stock pharmacies. Some of the more far-fetched goods — like the lizard in jars — cater to a mindset gullible enough to place faith in them.

Still, the alternative, organic and herbal trend is catching on fast in Islamabad. The needs haven’t changed; for instance the culturally-embedded for the holy grail of skin whitening now finds outlets in homeopathic remedies.

As the federal capital’s gyms, spas and health clinics get swankier by the day, health-conscious citizens are becoming increasingly wary of what they put into their bodies.

“I buy a packet worth Rs100 of something called ‘Husne Yousuf’ (a herb) from Saeed Ghani and it works like a charm,” says Nayha Jehangir, an Islamabad-based multimedia artist. Jehangir believes that after using harsh face washes “for whitening this and whitening that”, herbal products are a huge relief; they’re affordable and ensure healthy glows over obviously bleached out skin.

It’s no wonder that Homeos are the new Hermes; it has become almost fashionable to buy powdery tablets from homeopaths and hakims because what they sell is 100 per cent au naturale, no added chemicals or toxins. This trend peaked over a year ago, when Saeed Ghani, who manufactures oils, botanicals and herbal beauty products since 1888, opened a shop in Islamabad’s central Super Market. Since then, every auntie worth her Chanel clutch has found something of interest in the confines of the store.

But it’s not just herbal beauty products everyone’s after. Stores like the Islami Dawa Khana (Islamic medicine house) and Shaheen Homeo Store and Clinic have been selling natural and majority local products for over a decade now. Thanks to Saeed Ghani’s success, their popularity has also spiked.

“I’ve stopped getting vitamins and supplements from the GNC [General Nutrition Centres] store because I’ve been told that not everything they’re selling is FDA approved,” says Sheeba Afghani, who frequently buys cinnamon, linseed and black seed oils for good skin and overall wellness at bargain prices from Dawa Khana. She also finds the proprietor extremely helpful since he holds consultations before prescribing the necessary medication or supplement. The Khana also has a quaint makeup section, selling local products like ‘Binger surma’ apparently meant “for those lovely lamps, the windows of the soul”.

“A lot of our customers come to us for weight-loss supplements. We recommend them Phytolacca Berry tablets. These are herbal and have no side-effects like other weight-loss drugs,” say Kashif, Shaheen Homeo Store’s manager.

Again, homeopathic bleaching and whitening creams like Duchman creams and rose water products are also recommended here, as well as Alfalfa tonic for overall wellbeing.

Though we’re all better off with homeopathic supplements and emollients, it’s difficult to deny the tried-and-tested appeal of brands like L’Oreal, Olay, Neutrogena, and Garnier — their fancy packaging and big advertising campaigns have ensured that these mass-produced items still maintain their monopoly over beauty.

There’s also the matter of convenience and trust associated with known brands: buyers know what to expect from their Garnier ‘lightening’ face wash as opposed to a congealed and dubious looking mass of jari booti. Chewable vitamin C tablets certainly trump pickled lizards.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2011.