Pharmacies: A pharmacy changes natural remedies for detergent and shampoo

Sancti Spíritus/The old ceramic jars still take their place behind the wooden display cases, as if nothing had changed in the historic natural medicine pharmacy of Sancti Spíritus. However, on the counters, where for decades neighbors came to look for passionflower, linden and other traditional remedies, small plastic containers of shampoo, dyes, peroxide and detergent are now lined up. The pharmacy retains its appearance from other centuries, but has lost what gave meaning to its existence: the medicines.

Located on Máximo Gómez Street number 38 South, in front of the Mayor Parish Church and very close to the Hostal del Rijo, the establishment occupies a building built in the 18th century. Its stone floors, large dark wood cabinets and porcelain containers are part of a heritage that has survived the passage of time, although not the deterioration of pharmaceutical services.

“This pharmacy has always existed, for as long as I can remember, with natural products that were in demand by the population,” he tells 14ymedio a neighbor who regularly went to buy passionflower and linden for her mother. After finding the store closed on several occasions, he managed to enter this week and discovered that the remedies he was looking for were no longer available.

“Now they sell products that seem Creole (of national and artisanal production), such as shampoo, dyes, peroxide, detergents and anti-mosquito lotion,” he explains. The woman also points out the presentation of the merchandise, in small plastic knobs with rudimentary labels. “I have nothing against them selling those things, but I don’t like losing access to natural medicines at all,” he laments.

The photographs taken by this newspaper show long rows of blue, yellow and white containers on the old furniture of the pharmacy. Behind, protected by glass display cases, remain the ceramic containers with inscriptions that recall the names of plants and medicinal preparations. Some shelves are practically empty. The traditional jars seem to have remained decorative elements of a business that now offers other merchandise.

The transformation is especially striking due to the history of the property. A heritage guide to the city recalls that the building was restored in 1986 and converted into a green medicine pharmacy, with furniture inspired by the town’s old pharmacies. Among the objectives of that intervention was expressly the rescue of traditional medicines.

The case of Sancti Spíritus is not unique on the Island. In September 2026, Peralta Pharmacyin Holguín, also appeared converted into a kind of variety store, with private products sold on consignment and only a few medications available. A client who came to look for drugs found that the offer was reduced to a few bottles of eye drops.

The disappearance of natural remedies has been progressing for some time in Cuba. In July 2025, a pharmacy in Matanzas presented a similar panorama of empty shelves. “They don’t have jars, they don’t have anything,” summarized a consumer who remembered the times when the establishment itself made its own preparations.

In September 2024, the pharmaceutical authorities of Camagüey They recognized the difficulties to obtain garlic, onion, oregano, aloe vera, sugar and alcohol, in addition to imported raw materials essential for the production of syrups, extracts and creams. The collapse of agricultural production had ended up affecting even the remedies that for years were promoted as an alternative to industrial medicines.

The irony is greater in Sancti Spíritus, where, a few steps from this old pharmacy, the Catholic Church distributes medicines free of charge to patients who cannot find them in state facilities. Every Saturday, chronically ill patients and family members come to the parish with their prescriptions in search of treatments for hypertension, diabetes and other ailments. Whoever enters Máximo Gómez’s pharmacy now looking for a remedy to relieve headaches can leave, in the best of cases, only with a bottle of shampoo.