The Food & Medicine Garden

14/02/2026

A pilot registry study found that treatment with an oral gotu kola extract (Centella asiatica) significantly improved the closure and healing rates of chronic venous leg ulcers when used in addition to best management treatment.

The study included 160 patients with venous ulcers and chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). One group received 675 mg/day of oral gotu kola extract (standardised to 35% total triterpenes) along with best management (BM) practices (compression, elevation, wound cleaning), while a control group received only BM.

The results demonstrated a significant improvement in the herbal group:
• Ulcer Closure Rate: 96.2% of ulcers in the gotu kola group achieved complete closure after 90 days, compared to 83.7% in the control group.
• Faster Healing: after just one month, 65% of ulcers in the gotu kola group were completely healed, versus only 18.75% in the control group.
• Reduced Ulcer Area: the average ulcer area in the gotu kola group decreased dramatically (from 2.34 cm² to 0.33 cm²), a significantly greater reduction than that observed in the control group (from 2.4 cm² to 1.61 cm²).
• Improved Microcirculation: the herbal group showed enhanced microcirculatory parameters, including improved skin resting flux and transcutaneous oxygen/carbon dioxide partial pressures, indicating better blood flow and tissue oxygenation.

Gotu kola remains our leading herb for tissue repair and microvascular support, and this trial further vindicates its clinical value. Notably, the dose used was high, but still realistic and achievable in practice. The benefits observed in this venous ulcer study are well explained by its established pharmacology. The triterpenes asiaticoside and madecassoside improve microcirculation and venous tone, helping reduce venous hypertension and local tissue hypoxia—central drivers of ulcer chronicity. At the same time, the herb promotes healing through enhanced fibroblast activity, collagen synthesis, and extracellular matrix repair, accelerating granulation and re-epithelialisation. Its anti-inflammatory effects temper chronic wound inflammation, while modulation of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signalling supports angiogenesis and tissue remodelling.

For more information see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40719428/

22/01/2026

People who don’t know better say that wild violets are annoying w**ds… Read more 👇💬

21/01/2026

This is terrible, please share this if you live in the Western Cape. Somehow something should be done about this! First step is awareness.

*THE SILENT SCREAM OF THE TORTOISES*

_Author: Brenda Walters_

Many of us have watched helplessly as fires have devastated local wildlife across the Western Cape, with Cape angulate tortoises severely affected. However, for the past seven years I have been raising another ongoing concern with the Overstrand Municipality: the killing of tortoises through aggressive mowing.

As someone who regularly walks in the Franskraal area, I have repeatedly witnessed tortoises being fatally injured by bossiekappers, with photographic evidence of each incident. These animals do not flee danger; they instinctively retreat into their shells, which offers no protection against mowing machinery. Note that other wildlife is also affected - snakes, lizards, mice.

While grass cutting is necessary, and large machinery has its place in firebreaks, bylaws do not allow these machines to be used in a housing plot and same should apply to small pavement or residential areas. Yet this continues to happen, often in areas meant to be maintained with w**d eaters.

I understand these services are contracted out, but there needs to be greater awareness, better oversight, and coordination – for example, litter could be collected first and in the process wildlife can be protected. Note I have sent numerous emails, messages, and had meetings in this regard. I would just like to see the We Care approach implemented and also spin off into working with contractors that care.

Residents who witness mowing are encouraged, where safe to do so, to walk ahead and check for tortoises.

With ongoing threats from fires, vehicles, poaching, urbanisation, and habitat loss, we cannot afford to lose more tortoises unnecessarily and in such a cruel manner. The attached photo shows a recent bossikapper victim on Vasco Street, just before the festive season.

These losses are cumulative – and entirely preventable, and through this communication I wish to raise greater awareness and concern for a species we are losing at every turn.

(Article published in the GansbaaiCourant )

20/01/2026

23/11/2025

You are a herbalist. You are a seeker and maker of joy. Get out there and be it.

23/11/2025

Sometimes I feel so little, so temporary.

23/11/2025

Botanical gardens are places of wonder. Most of the time you wonder what tree or plant that is, but you also wonder why you don't visit every day. Or at least every week or OK, every month if you don't live close to one. Entrance here in New Zealand at the Christchurch Botanical garden is free. Yes, I was in awe. 😊

23/11/2025

I went to a permaculture farm today in Canterbury, NZ. It occurred to me that everyone interested in a garden or growing their own food should totally follow a permaculture way of doing it. It is a way of working and playing with nature, in nature, for nature, into the future and you get to taste, smell, feel, and share your bit of nature.

18/11/2025

Roses

Roses are flowers with hips ,
Their petals are fairy haberdashery,
They go all over into hats and lapels, vases
and strewn around lovers,
Roses are given, stolen and wished for,
plucked, dried, photographed and painted.
They are in poetry and in cards, in books
and in labs and apothecaries.
Roses have thorns.
But it is true as well, that thorns
have roses.

I am falling in love all over again with roses, through my sister's eyes and her passion for roses. And as a herb lover and poet, I am charmed, seduced and healed all at once. Thank you Tonoli Herbs for sharing your passion.

16/11/2025

06/11/2025