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High costs drive trend
Anyumel says the high cost of western-style medicine could be a factor in the resurgence of herbal medicine. She says people have overtime also possibly realized that natural and herbal medicine works.
“It is a member who has used the natural therapy or herbal medicine we recommend who will tell others and more get convinced when they realize the herbs work.
“People have found out its easier for one to get treatment using the plants around them and using other natural methods like change of lifestyle including doing exercise, eating proper food, avoiding taking alcohol, getting enough sunshine, or having enough sleep,” Anyumel says.
She, however, says western medicine remains critical for some non-communicable diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure but could be taken side by side with herbal medicine and natural therapy.
She says herbal medicine is not satanic as is held by some religions.
“That is a misconception because it is God who created herbs and told people to make use of whatever he created on earth,” she says, “In fact some of the Western medicines, for instance used in the treatment of malaria, are made from herbs and plants.”
Indeed, perhaps to emphasize her Christian credential, Anyumel’s office has the word JESUS in big bold red letters in the reception area.
She explains that herbal medicine has a long history of usage stretching to before Western religion came to Uganda and Africa and labeled it pagan worship.
Anyumel says the major challenge she has encountered are duplicates, masqueraders, and self-prescription without proper guidance. She cites the example of aloe Vera (locally called ekigaji) which many people use to treat many ailments like fever yet it may damage the liver and other organs if not well prepared.
She says herbal medicine often is cheap, has rich nutrients because they are green and, therefore, help in production of more blood in the body. They are also easily accessible and have a soothing cleansing effect after use.
Dangers remain
Despite the praise now being heaped on herbal medicine, medical experts have documented some of its dangers and precautions should be taken when using it. The U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) warns that herbal remedies can result in indirect health risks when they delay or replace a more effective form of conventional treatment or when they compromise the efficacy of conventional medicines.
“There is a perception that “natural” drugs are safe and have no side effects. Unfortunately even “natural” drugs may have significant toxity. Herbal medicine can also be associated with direct health risks,” the organisation warns on its website.
In Uganda, Dr. Nambatya is the leading regulation voice is herbal medicine.
She says unclear dosages, which in most cases are not accurate, and effectiveness of the herbal preparations in treating the professed ailments are the biggest challenges.
She says currently, however, there is no law regulating herbal practitioners and it might only come when `The Indigenous and Traditional Medicine Bill 2015’ which is currently before Parliament is passed into law.
It will establish the Professional Council for Traditional Health Practitioners which will in turn prescribe procedures for registration of herbal practitioners.
As for the dangers associated with herbal medicine, Nambatya says the ultimate solution is standardizing processes leading to production of well-branded herbal medicines that could be integrated into the national health care system.
“This can best be achieved through building alliances with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) and Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI),” she says.
According to her, UNBS would set standards for raw materials e.g. herbs then UIRI would engage interested parties into incubation of their ideas in reference to herbal formulations.
She says UNBS, for example, has recently set standards for two well-known herbs; hibiscus and chia and practitioners using these two raw materials can now have their products positioned well on the Ugandan market.
Nambatya who has her own commercial herbal remedies says the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) should also come in to help with patenting products.
“If people are assisted through patenting their inventions or innovations they will be encouraged to share their information thus earn from it,” she says.
Nambatya says there is a need to establish training platforms for people engaged in herbal medicine process chains.
“The regulatory framework for traditional medicine should be expedited so that the Council of Traditional Medicine Practitioners to be instituted would then enable various actions like disciplining those who abuse the practice, educating those who are serious with the practice, and supporting its integration into school curricula.”
Dr Nambatya has authored several books in English and Luganda on treatment of diseases using herbal medicine and nutrition therapy. She is also a frequent contributor to discussion of herbal remedies on different media. Together with other researchers, she has produced a chart of common fruits and vegetable people eat home like bananas, mangoes, oranges and avocado and their uses as far as managing certain ailments like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, syphilis, and more.
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editor@independent.co.ug
