AsiaLIFE

The medicinal herb stall in any open-air market in Cambodia is recognisable by the variety of dried products stacked in plastic bags and on bamboo trays. These include flowers, long sticks with thorns, various roots, chalks, berries, fruits, leaves, bark, sap, and on occasion sea creatures, amphibians and snakes.

Phnom Penh offers a number of alternative medicine options with an eastern tradition. Treatments using herbs, cups, acupuncture and massage can be an alternative to pharmaceuticals or a visit to a western doctor. Words by Naga and Naomi T. Robinson.

“Quit worrying about your health. It'll go away,” Robert Orben once famously said – advice that may be a little too true given Cambodia’s filth-stricken streets. Asia Life checks out the capital’s pharmacies to sort the wheat from the chaff.