Why we should harness medicinal properties of indigenous plants – Practitioner

A traditional medicine expert, Dr Zainab Ujudud Shariff, has advised Nigerians to harness the medicinal properties of indigenous plants in the country, saying African traditional medicine had solutions for the diverse health conditions bedevilling the country and the continent. She spoke when fellows and facilitators from the Africa Disease Reporting Fellowship (ADReF) paid her a […]

A traditional medicine expert, Dr Zainab Ujudud Shariff, has advised Nigerians to harness the medicinal properties of indigenous plants in the country, saying African traditional medicine had solutions for the diverse health conditions bedevilling the country and the continent.

She spoke when fellows and facilitators from the Africa Disease Reporting Fellowship (ADReF) paid her a visit. ADReF is organised by the Africa Diseases Prevention and Research Development Initiative (ADRAP).

Dr Zainab, who is a pharmacist and a former Head of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM) at the Federal Ministry of Health, said the country and continent were blessed with thousands of medicinal plants, adding that there was a tilt towards organic these days, including for cosmetics.

While noting that African indigenous plants could also be used for treatment through aromatherapy, she said, “Even the orange back which some people throw away is medicinal. Even corn silk which people throw away is excellent for urinary tract infection. That is to cleanse the urinary tract. These are simple things that we have got.

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“It is important for those of us that are scientists, for instance, to embrace this concept and use it for the benefit of Africa.”

The expert, who is the CEO of Zee’s Herbal Pharmacy, stressed that it was also crucial for Africans to discover and develop their own drugs instead of waiting for organisations and experts from other places to do so for them.

While disclosing that standardisation of TCAM had grown in leaps and bounds over the years, Dr Zainab said that there had been collaboration between practitioners across the continent to develop a policy and a herbal pharmacopoeia.

She said, “The first pharmacopoeia was developed in 2008 and it contained about 60 medicinal plants in Nigeria. And we have also reviewed it to add another 100. We are sharing it with the scientists and body practitioners. Pharmacopeia is a document that contains a collection of medicinal plants with some scientific standards.

“It contains the name, botanical name, climatic condition where it is grown, the microbiological tests to determine safety and other things, and even talks about the dosage and the therapeutic use.”

She further said that things were getting better with training, code of conduct, ethics system and curriculum being developed.

Asked about the concerns of dosage for traditional medicine, she explained that today traditional medicines were being made to capsules, tablets and syrup with dosage.

She said, “Herbal medicine contains many ingredients and chemicals. So, the dose has to be different. You cannot say because I said two tablets of paracetamol, then herbal medicine must be two tablets. A teaspoon is also a measurement. Those are advancements in knowledge from our grandparents.

“So, absolutely, there is dosage in herbal medicine according to how it’s produced. There is also standardisation. We are standardising in terms of quality of production, quality of processing, and even in the cultivation of medicinal plants.

“We also have good harvesting practices. We have standard processing where you collect it, where you dry it with a temperature regulator that will not allow anti-microbial contamination with that temperature. So, you produce the herbs and then you package them when you want to package them, either as powdered herbs, tea bags or other forms.”

Dr Zainab showed the fellows diverse herbs for managing different conditions ranging from hypertension to infertility.

She enjoined the media to increase efforts towards highlighting and promoting African traditional medicine.