HERBAL MEDICINE IS ORIGINAL AND REAL MEDICINE

Herbal medicine is original and real medicine, while orthodox medicine is alternative –Odukoya, professor of pharmacognosy, LUTH By AZOMA CHIKWE

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Dr Olukemi Odukoya, associate professor of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos, says that herbs play a significant role, especially now that the damaging effects of food processing and over-medication have assumed alarming proportions.She disclosed that herbs are being increasingly used in cosmetics, food and teas, adding: "The growing interest in herbs is a part of the trend towards change in lifestyles. This movement is based on the belief that the plants have a vast potentiality for their use as a curative medicine.""Herbal medicine has been described as the original and real medicine, while orthodox or western medicine referred to as the alternative.

Herbal medicine has origin everywhere including Africa, China, Japan, India, etc and recognized by the Chinese, Japanese, Indians and host of other countries and cultures in the world but unfortunately it is not so in Africa."She disclosed that the practice of herbal medicine dates back to the earliest periods of human history. She said: "There is evidence of herbs having been used in the treatment of diseases and for revitalizing body systems in almost all ancient civitizations – the Indian, the Egyptian, the Chinese and even the Greek and Russian civilizations. Plants were the mainstay of medicine and credited with mystical and almost supernatural powers of healing." "The traditional medicine of different countries and cultures vary from one to another in respect of level of formal recognition. The world is already aware of Chinese and Indian medicines. Post-revolutionary government in China and post-colonial government in India encouraged and supported traditional medicine.

African countries went through the dark ages of slavery, apartheid and most extreme form of repression and oppression. When slaves were not treated as humans, there was no question of providing any respect for their culture. Thus, there was no respect for their health practices and products.""They believed that the traditional healer was just a rogue and a deceiver who prevented many patients who would otherwise be treated effectively with modern drugs and surgery from reaching government and mission hospitals. They believed that this encourages witchcraft and wizardry, which are hindrances and stumbling blocks in the way of Christian missionary work. Thanks to Father Adodo and his formidable and dedicated team. As Christians, they have not just created awareness but also made a great impact on the use of herbs, thus disabusing people’s minds about the negative use of herbs."If orthodox medicine says that traditional medicine is associated with witchcraft and wizardry, pharmacists’ RX sign means ‘take thou the following medications in the name of Jupiter the god of healing’!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no scientific evidence for believing that western or orthodox medicine is the only effective way of dealing with the health problems in our communities."Anything that is not foreign is native.

That is why the whiteman called our medicine native medicine, but traditional medicine can be described as the total combination of knowledge and practice, whether explicable or not, used in diagnosis, preventing or eliminating a physical, mental or social disease and which may rely exclusively on past experience and observation handed down from generation to generation, verbally or in writing depending on the religion, socio-cultural belief and practices of the people. Native medicine is a derogatory term for traditional medicine. It was passed down from the colonial era. The word ‘native’ means anything not foreign or not introduced by the colonial masters.""The traditional medicine practitioner or herbalist describes a person who specialises in the use of herbs to treat various ailments and other natural products. For example, clay. The traditional medicine practitioner is highly knowledgeable in the efficacy, toxicity and dosage and compounding of herbs. About 80 per cent of the people in the developing world depend on traditional medicine for primary healthcare. This is due to the fact that orthodox medicine is mostly out of reach in both physical terms as hospitals are far away from the rural populace and in financial terms, the poverty level is high. Solutions to economic problems are, therefore, seriously hampered by poverty and ignorance to disease.""The treatment strategies used in traditional systems of health include the use of herbal medicines, mind and body approaches such as meditation, and physical therapies including massage, acupuncture and exercise programmes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), herbal medicine should be regarded as finished, labelled medicinal products containing as active ingredients aerial or underground parts of plants, or other plant material or combinations thereof, whether in the crude state or as plant preparations. Plant material includes juices, gums, fatty cells, essential oils and any other substances of the nature. Herbal medicines may contain excipients in addition to the cultivate ingredients."Medicines containing plant material with chemically defined active substances, including chemically defined isolated constituents of plants are not considered to be herbal medicine.""There has been a significant increase in the use of herbal medicine, as a result of WHO’s promotion of traditional medicine. WHO noted, "Africa today faces political, social and economic problems. These must, in the final analysis, be solved by Africans themselves with the assistance of the International Community in the spirit of human solidarity. It is now accepted that solutions to socio-economic problems are seriously hampered by diseases, ignorance and poverty. "This WHO quotation brings into perspective the challenge that confronts us as African intellectuals, scientists and policy makers to solve our problems with resources from our own back yards."In pressing home emphatically the fact that we have to solve our own problems ourselves, Dr. Halfdan Mahler, a former director general of the WHO, stated as follows: We at the WHO pledge ourselves to an ambitious target, to provide health for all by the year 2000. This ambitious goal is quite simply beyond the scope of the present healthcare system and personnel trained in modern medicine."This is why the WHO proposed that the great numbers of traditional healers who practise today in virtually every country of the world should not be overlooked. Let us not be in doubt. Modern medicine still has a great deal to tap from those collectors of herbs for medicinal purposes."