In recent times, attention has shifted to local herbs in the treatment of certain ailments often referred to as stubborn diseases. This is against the hitherto sole dependence on orthodox medicines. ELEOJO IDACHABA in this piece examines the rationale behind the shift and the attendant testimonials.
Mr Francis Ossai, a resident of Kagini, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had suffered from severe pile for over six months in 2018 despite every medical advice. However, respite came his way in August 2018, when a traditional medical practitioner in Dutse, Bwari area council who goes by the name Madam Cordelia recommended a combination of pawpaw leaf, scented leaf mixed with bitter leaf for him to take. He said since he began to take the medication in August last year, the ailment has disappeared. While narrating his experiences with Blueprint Weekend, Francis who works with one of the transport companies in Utako said, “My brother, I have never seen anything like this before. All the medicines I used did not work until this woman recommended those herbs for me. We have everything here, but we don’t know how to use them.”
His story is not different from that of 32-year-old Uche Amobi, a graduate of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Abuja, who had been battling with the problem of lump in the breast for over three years. While also narrating her ordeal to Blueprint Weekend, she said: “I went to the Maitama General Hospital and was told that I needed to undergo chemotherapy and other surgeries in order to remove the lump. When I was told about the cost implication and likely implication, I almost gave up until someone referred me to a traditional medical practitioner who advised me against surgery. She gave me some herbal preparations for use within six months with the assurance that the lump would naturally dissolve. Initially, I did not believe her, but I stuck to her prescriptions. To my amazement, in October 2018, three months after I had begun to the medication, I realised that the lump that I noticed at the lower side of my left breast was getting smaller. As at February 9, this year, I didn’t see any lump again; it had disappeared! The herbs I used were common species of leaves that I never knew could have any importance to human health. The good thing is that there was no adverse reaction from using them except the application which is usually at night.”
Before now, the use of local herbs was restricted to the hinterlands because of the belief that it is only indigent persons in the village who cannot afford orthodox medicines that use them, but these days, not only has traditional medicines made incursions into the cities, practitioners openly display their wares in public places while those who can afford it take space in the media to advertise their goods. In fact, many now live large through the proceeds from treating illnesses using local herbs. This is the extent to which traditional herbs have made inroads into the nation’s alternative pharmaceutical market.
When eventually, Blueprint Weekend located Madam Cordelia in Dutse where she lives, it was evident that she is a master of her arts. At the entrance to her apartment is an array of sacks containing varieties of herbs ranging from peeled barks of plants, leaves to seeds of known and unknown plants and dried grasses. The woman, who works as nutritionist in one of the general hospitals in the FCT, said it is too early for her to fully disclose her identity in order to secure her patent rights, more so as she is a civil servant.
She, however, said: “There is no sickness that cannot be cured through local herbs if the patient reports the condition early enough. It is not witchcraft, but simply understanding the value of what nature freely provides. Sometimes, there is an ailment that will only require you to drink your urine and be healed of the disease while some will require you to strictly avoid a certain food for days just to stabilise certain abnormalities in the body. It’s all about discipline.
“There is no blood sacrifice or anything of the sort in using local herbs. Depending on the ailment one has per time, the herbs may be within the sufferer’s neighbourhood. All it requires is to be shown the way to administer the herbs and be disciplined to abide by it; that is all.”
Researches score local herbs high
According to the US National Library of Medicine, “in traditional healing, practitioners use barks, leaves, nuts, fruits juice, and roots and parts of domestic animals to cure ailments. They practise their craft mostly in Africa, Asia, and other third world countries; they are variously called juju priests, diviners, herbalists and witch doctors. Cases of achievements in their contributions to preventive and curative health have been documented. In Nigeria, for example, clients regularly patronise both orthodox and traditional medical practitioners for certain ailments. Their remedies include healing the bite of the very poisonous carpet viper, chronic bronchitis, and peptic ulcer and heart problems.”
The research further stated that in Cross River state, for instance, it was demonstrated that 165 (61%) of respondents went to traditional healers for treatment as far back as 1995. It stated that, “Part of the continued popularity of traditional healers is the person-centered approach that is virtually lacking in orthodox hospitals, although this humanistic approach to therapy is gradually gaining inroads into Western medical education. The services of both kinds of medicine could be harmonised by open-minded appraisal, identification of positive aspects and acceptance of their complimentary nature.”
Authorities speak
While justifying the superiority of traditional medicines over orthodox ones, the former president-general of Herbs and Leaves Traditional Medicines Practitioners
Association of Nigeria, Dr Jideofo Azugbo, said people are simply ignorant of the fact that some of these sicknesses had existed before the entrance of modern technology, but said such illnesses were treated with the available local herbs. “The reason people tend to undergo surgical operation for diseases like liver, kidney, heart, appendicitis and others is because they just prefer to take orthodox medicines as against traditional medicines nowadays; but these modern medicines are not more effective when we compare them with herbs and leaves. “In the ancient days, our forefathers did not take modern medicines. They used to take herbs and leaves and that is why they live longer and stronger. None of them went to the hospital instead they used traditional medicines.
According to him, “Right from inception, herbs and leaves were used to cure diseases like sickle cell, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), impotency and barrenness, liver and kidney problems and other chronic diseases. Orthodox just came and people are so addicted to it.”
Writing in the Journal of Developing Areas, Omoleke Ishag Isola said African traditional medicine practitioners provided the earliest medical care in Nigeria. According to him, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised the need to integrate the traditional medicine on the orthodox medicine when it defines it as the total combination of knowledge and practices, whether explicable or not, used in diagnosing, preventing or eliminating physical, mental or social diseases. “Therefore, there are claims by the practitioners that since orthodox medicines cannot cure all diseases; hence, traditional medicines can intervene in the areas where orthodox medicines are weak. Such areas include social psychiatry, hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy and other psychosomatic illnesses.” He stated that the African traditional medicine has a lot to offer in saving the lives of African citizens and beyond the continent.
While justifying the efficacy of traditional medicines over orthodox drugs, Prof Joseph Okogwu of the chemistry department, University of Ibadan said no orthodox medicine can completely cure cancer. He stated that the best treatment for the ailment is local herbs. He said, “All the treatment methods for cancer have their respective side effects whose severities vary from one person to another. There has been a great improvement in the surgical procedure and most of the surgeries to remove the prostate (for prostate cancer) or cut the tube that supplies testosterone to the prostate are successful. However, in most cases, the cancer may later return even after surgery.”
Africa is endowed with many plants that can be used for medicinal purposes for which traditional medicine practitioners have taken full advantage. In fact, out of the approximated 6,400 plant species used in tropical Africa, more than 4,000 are used as medicinal plants. Medicinal plants are used in the treatments of many diseases and illnesses, the uses and effects of which are of growing interest to the Western societies. Not only are plants used and chosen for their healing abilities, they also often have symbolic and spiritual significance. For example, leaves, seeds, and twigs that are white, black and red are seen as especially symbolic or magical and possess special properties.
According to Azusa Sato in Health Policy and Planning Journal, “Traditional medicine is known to be popular in sub-Saharan Africa where over 80% have reported its utilisation. It is claimed to be easily accessible, affordable, available and acceptable, but little is known about at which stage of treatment-seeking individuals turn to traditional medicines and the resulting satisfaction once used. This is due to the paucity of quantitative demand data on how much recourse of care people take for one episode of illness, whether individuals use traditional medicines as a secondary option to orthodox medicines, and if used how satisfied they are with results.”
What Abuja residents say
In a random sample by Blueprint Weekend on some individuals, they said the times call for adjustment in many areas of life. According to Benjamin Adama, a father of three, “Necessity is the mother of invention. In an era when there is no money to spend on orthodox medicines, one has no option but to look elsewhere for what nature supplies freely. Most of the drugs we buy in the markets are taken from the herbs we have around our homes. The earlier we return to them, the better. Do you start going to hospital to treat ailments like cold and cough when you have three children down with the syndrome at the same time?”
Collins Maduka, a herbs farmer in Kurudu district in Abuja, said: “Everyone has to learn to be his own personal doctor. There is no plant that does not have any medicinal value. Even the flowers around our dwellings are beneficial to man but not many people know this. If you are a follower of friends on the social media, you would have seen many posts about treatments for some ailments using local herbs. They are not just rhetoric.”
