In La Paz, Bolivia a six-inch-long reptile called a Jararanko, translated to “lizard” in the Indigenous Aymara language, is used in place of traditional medicine.
The animal’s ground-up remains are known to them as a “lizard patch”, a supposed healing method to treat muscular alignments. Bolivian law allows Indigenous nations to kill the animals for traditional medicine as long as it’s used for subsistence purposes, within their ancestral territory, and with practices prior to the Spanish invasion.
Victoria Flores is a lady discussed in this article who grinds up the meat of the Jararanko in a stone mill and mixes it with wild herbs such as wichullo, black kettle, and arnica, until it turns into a pasty green mass that she places on top of her injury.
“There is no pharmacy, no medicines, none of that,” say traditional Andean healers who have sacrificed the Jararanko for medicinal use for generations. But scientists say it could do more harm than good.
This looks like it will work, Megan, but you will need
to practice pronunciations. Consider writing out a
phonetic pronunciation: jara-RAN-ko (who will know
if that’s correct? No one)
Finding someone to comment on putting ground up
lizard on their basketball injury should be fairly easy.