Cannot sleep because of the mosquitoes? - hang a bunch of pennyroyal in the room

Those of you whose summer nights are rudely interrupted by buzzing mosquitoes and their poisonous jabs have a simple remedy at hand - hang a bunch of pennyroyal, plejju, in your room.

The remedy was passed on to readers by Frans Farrugia, a folklore enthusiast who together with Gorg Mifsud Chircop has just put up an array of medicinal fresh and dried herbs at the library of the University of Malta. The scientific aspect of the display was coordinated by Joe Buhagiar, curator of the herbarium at the Argotti Gardens in Floriana.

The fresh specimens at the exhibition were collected from Ghaxaq and photographed by Mr Farrugia.

Each plant is accompanied by an information tag highlighting its healing properties.

The exhibition, which will be on till the first week of December, includes pressed plants by herbalist Stefano Zerafa and botanist Carmelo Penza.

Born in Gharghur in 1791, Professor Stefano Zerafa is best known for his compendium of flora of the Maltese islands called Floree Militensis Thesaurus compiled between 1827 and 1831.

He identified and named an indigenous plant by the name of Centaurea Spathulata, popularly known as Widnet il-Bahar.

Carmelo Penza, who was born in 1892 and died in 1982 was gardener and later keeper of the Argotti Gardens. In 1969, he published Il-Flora Maltija Medicinali (Progress Press).

Gorg Pisani also had published a book on medicinal herbs called Duwa tal-Madalena while Guido Lanfranco has carried out a lot of fieldwork and research on the subject.

Dr Mifsud-Chircop, who lectures folklore and Maltese anthropology at the university, said folk medicinal remedies are still applied by some in the population although the practice is not immediately evident.

"It is wrong to assume that herbal treatments for the relief of aches and pains are old wives' tales. The pharmacology industry resorts to natural herbs in the manufacture of medicinal preparations.

"The point of departure of scientific research is more often than not the unwritten wisdom of the people, particularly those from agricultural communities," he noted.

Dr Mifsud-Chircop explained that people had, over the years, experimented to find out which part of the plant was edible, how it should be cooked and how to apply the resulting liquid or pulp and at what temperature to apply it.

One renowned healer using herbs was Frenc ta' l-Gharb, who incidentally took all his accumulated knowledge with him when he died over 30 years ago. Only one recipe survived him, a copy of it is among the items in the display.

"People used to flock to Frenc ta' l-Gharb who was well known for the herbal preparations to relieve them of a whole series of illnesses.

"Scores of people sought out Frenc when they felt that the medicine their doctor had prescribed for them was not having the desired effect.

"The folk culture and belief in the remedial qualities of these plants is an intriguing facet of folklore," Dr Mifsud-Chircop added.

Mr Farrugia said that if the flower of the prickly pear plant is boiled, the resulting liquid can be used to get rid of kidney stones but one should not meddle with herbal medicine unless one knows what one is doing.

A number of foreign botanists have written books about the herbs that grow in Malta.

"Our aim is to promote the fact that herbal culture has a long tradition," Dr Mifsud-Chircop noted.

Mr Farrugia recalled that in his younger days, they used to roast the bulbs of the cape sorrel - the haxixa Ingliza - like one does peanuts.

"The main root of the sorrel, called the hanxulu, is as sweet as sugar and we used to eat it raw," Mr Farrugia recalled.

The exhibition was financed by the Lija local council primarily because Lija mayor Maria Magda Naudi is greatly interested in the use of herbs in essential oils.

In his book Wild Plants of Malta (PEG, 2004), botanist Hans Christian Weber wrote: "The aim of this book is to make the citizens of Malta aware that they live in a botanical paradise and that what appears to be usual to them is special to me as a foreign botanist".

Group bookings for the exhibition may be arranged with Maria Abdilla on 2340 2316.