A plant aficionado, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov
has come up with a new miracle cure for coronavirus. He has said that the
botanical herb licorice could cure COVID-19, of which Turkmenistan has not
reported any cases so far.

“Scientists from every country are looking for effective cures,
running various studies, and one of them could be licorice root,” the
leader of the authoritarian ex-Soviet country told ministers. He has directed
the National Academy of Science to conduct research on the plant’s supposed
health benefits.

With scientific proof, former dentist Berdymukhamedov claimed that
“licorice stops the coronavirus from developing” and “even a
weak concentration of a water-based extract has a neutralising effect.”

He recommended his people to ‘systematically’ burn wild rue, a plant
with supposed medical properties, to keep the coronavirus at bay.

Also Read | Leader of ‘virus-free’ Turkmenistan champions herbal defence

The President has always focussed on boosting his country’s flora and
fauna.

While World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended wearing masks,
practising social distancing and maintaining hand hygiene since March, it took
a visit from a WHO delegation in July for Turkmenistan to adopt the measures.

But the government still justifies mask-wearing as protection against
“dust” and unspecified “pathogens”, rather than
coronavirus. Non-food shops and restaurants have been closed since summer and
bus and train timetables trimmed back.