I bought a strawberry tree at the markets yesterday. It looks like it could be useful.

Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)

PRODUCTS

Food: Fruits can be eaten fresh or cooked but has little flavor. The fruit contains about 20% sugars and is used to make delicious and nourishing jams and preserves. The fruits can be fermented to make aromatic alcoholic beverages. In Portugal, strawberry tree fruits are fermented to make a strong tasting wine known as medronho or medronheira, tsipuoro in Greece, Fior de Corbezzolo in Sicily, Creme d’Arbouse in Corsica among others.

Medicine: The tree is little used in herbalism but deserves modern investigation. All parts of the plant contain ethyl gallate, a substance that possesses strong antibiotic activity against the Mycobacterium bacteria. The leaves, bark and root are astringent and diuretic. They are also a renal antiseptic and so used in the treatment of infections of the urinary system such as cystitis and urethritis. It is used in the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery and, a gargle can be made for treating sore and irritated throats. The flowers are weakly diaphoretic.

Timber: The wood is used in Greece to make flutes. Fuel: The wood makes good charcoal.

Tannin or dyestuff: The bark which contains 45% tannin has been used in tanning leather. Tannin can also be obtained from the leaves and fruit.

Mycobacteria are a type of germ. There are many different kinds. The most common one causes tuberculosis. Another one causes leprosy. Still others cause infections that are called atypical mycobacterial infections. They aren’t “typical” because they don’t cause tuberculosis. But they can still harm people, especially people with other problems that affect their immunity, such as AIDS.

Sometimes you can have these infections with no symptoms at all. At other times, they can cause lung symptoms similar to tuberculosis:

Cough

Weight loss

Coughing up blood or mucus

Weakness or fatigue

Fever and chills

Night sweats

Lack of appetite and weight loss

Medicines can treat these infections, but often more than one is needed to cure the infection.

And another one…..

Buruli ulcer (BU) is a neglected tropical disease that is increasingly common in Australia and has become an important public health issue in rural sub-Saharan Africa in the past 30 years.1 BU is a slowly progressive destructive infection of skin and of adipose and soft tissue caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, an environmental pathogen that produces a potent toxin.2 It is because of progressive destruction of subcutaneous tissue that the characteristic ulcer becomes widely undermined. BU only occurs in specific endemic areas, particularly coastal Victoria, where the disease is known locally as Bairnsdale ulcer.

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Jeffrey Coson