In the earlier half of the twentieth century, displays of local medicinal plants were common in the Charleston City Market and on the streets and grocery stores. Perhaps the most highly-regarded remedy on sale was 'Life Everlasting' (Gnaphalium obtusifolium), a bitter herbal cold medicine. A chest-rub made from 'Life Everlasting', whisky, lemon and turpentine was popular during the big influenza epidemic of 1941. The plant was put into a pillow or smoked as an inhalant to treat asthma. A more and more land became private property over the years, howvever, it became harder to gather enough medicinal plants to bring to market.
State medical regulations have restricted the practice of midwives and 'grannies' (community healers, who could 'put you on your feet out of the woods' with their traditional herbal remedies). Phoebe Taylor, a Johns Island healer, reported that she 'boiled medicine for black and white for many years.' Sentiment exists that the white physicians use the same 'plants' in their pills as the old grannies, but at much higher prices.
People skilled in healing are also assumed to have ability to harm others through inflicting illness, but grannies are in no way to be mistaken with 'root doctors'. These Lowcountry 'wich doctors' made 'roots' of graveyard dirt to cast and remove hexes. They may also, help repel an enemy or attract a lover, cure all kinds of illness, predict the future, and 'conjure' spirits both good and evil.
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