“My grandmother was a herbalist, she thought me how to mix herbal to cure ailments, I grew up with her from the age of 16 and up to when she died I have been involved in herbal mixture and I also used it to cure a lot of people who orthodox medicine could not cure even though a lot of people have abused herbal medicine. Selling herbal mixture popularly called (agbo) has also been a great source of income to me and my family”
These are the words of Olubumi Adewole, a herbal medicine trader in Abuja who has been into the business for over 20 years.
Herbal vs orthodox
The ancient tradition of herbal remedy is making a resurgence and finding its way back not only into the market, but more especially into the heart of many people, who despite the orthodox medicines, are re-integrating their healthcare solution needs to the raw provision of nature.
Traditional herbal medicines are naturally occurring, plant-derived substances with minimal or no industrial processing that have been used to treat illness within local or regional healing practices. Traditional herbal medicines are getting significant attention in global health debates.
Herbs comes in various form raging from local gin and herbs such as Agbo Gbogbonise, Sepe and Paraga, Opa eyin, Sapele water, Atato, Opelebe, Dagrin,Kainkain, Jedi, and Karaole, among others.
Herbal growing population is fuelling and is to some extent fuelled by increasing scientific interest in herbal medicine. WHO estimates that of the 35,000-70,000 species of plants that are used for medicinal purpose around the world some 5,000 have been submitted for biomedical scrutiny.
Scientific evidence of efficiency is beginning to emerge from randomised controlled trial in which herbs compare favourably with orthodox.
Another reason for the growing popularity of herbal medicine is that many people believe they are safe more natural than pharmaceuticals. However, studies have shown that not all natural products are safe, some poisons are also natural.
Status of herbal medicine in Nigeria
Nigeria has a rich traditional of herbal medicine. With its diverse cultural and traditions, Nigeria is rich in traditional medicine and has eminent and respected traditional healers involved in taking care of the teeming population. In Nigeria, traditional medicine practices are a main source of livelihood for a significant number of population who depends on it as their source of income.
High population growth rate (2.8% annually) and poverty coupled with dwindling economic reserves in the country make Nigerians resort to more affordable sources of their immediate health needs.
As the population increase, demands for traditional medicine will increase. In order to provide affordable health care services especially, to those who cannot afford orthodox medicine, several state governments through tradomedicine fairs and exhibitions which seek to enlighten the public on the possible cures from this kind of traditional medicine.
Nigeria has established national and state traditional medicine boards from regulation of herbal medicine practice and to promote cooperation and research. The Federal Collage of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Lagos under the Federal Ministry of Health which is to train herbalist on its use and practices.
Effect of Herbal
Herbal medicine, been a cultural gem of various communities in Nigeria and the world over is used for medical purposes and had been in existence long before orthodox medicines. The use of herbal medicine in the world is becoming widespread.
Indigenous cultures in Africa and around the world uses herbs in healing, to reduce inflammation, control pain, relax muscles and improve digestion and elimination, as well as boost appetite in some cases.
From the herbal bitter to the herbal soap, toothpaste, cream, and even tea, it also encompasses all kinds of folk medicine, unconventional medicine and indeed any kind of therapeutically method that had been handed down by the tradition of a community or ethnic group.
Herbal medicines are also sold as tablets, capsules powders, teas, extracts, and fresh or dried plants. Many people turn to herbal medicines for different reasons, to maintain or improve health.
They are used for chronic illnesses such as back pain or coping with stress related conditions, which may appear very difficult to manage.
Beyond the use of herbs to improve the health, however, many now use herbs to solve sexual problems. However this is not new in the Nigerian society.
Body energizers or action pill have always been with Nigerians from the time, when some women went about with calabash on their head selling powdery substance to enhance manhood, to when the Hausa/Fulani men went around with different root called Burantanshi or Ogun Aleko by the Yoruba herbal sellers of western Nigeria.
Sexual boosters are getting increasingly popular among young adult and sexually active men to boost their sexual powers. The growing influx of sellers indicates that the sale of libido enhancers is an emerging booming business in Nigeria with users increasing in bounds every day.
While some of these hawked herbs have their target consumers mostly made up of not so educated persons or the low income earners such as bus drivers, mechanics, and labourers, the packaged variants reach out to the elite and upwardly mobile individuals across sections of the society of the working class professionals.
Herbal medicine however, natural can cause serious illnesses from allergy to liver or kidney malfunction to cancer and even death. Interns of carcinogenicity for example, the toxicological potential of natural plant chemicals.
Most herbal products in the market today have not been subject to drug approval process to demonstrate their safety and effectiveness. Some of them contain mercury, lead, arsenic and corticoids and poisonous organic substances in harmful amount.
Hepatic failure and even death following ingestion of herbal medicine have been reported. Research has shown that 25% of the childhood blindness in Nigeria and India were associated with the use of traditional eye medicines.
Side effect of some medicinal plant have been reviewed. Perhaps the biggest problems in Nigeria with herbal medicine are a lack of standardisation and of safety regulations.
Standardisation of a herbal medicine that may contain hundreds of chemical constituents with little or no evidence indicating which might be responsible for the presumed or proven therapeutic effect is a an issue.
Mind of the People
A lot of Nigerians have reacted negatively and positively towards the consumption of herbal medicine, while some say it has been effective others believe it is dangerous to the body and should be properly tested before consumption.
Olubumi Adewole, narrating to NAIJ.com on how she gets so much patronage even from medical practitioners said, “I get very high patronage because the herbs are working and people can see it, in fact people call me from outside and within Abuja every day to get them these herbs even medical practitioners, I prepare some of them while I also import some from Ghana. I treat all kind of ailments including HIV/AIDS through herbs.”
According to her, “we use a combination of these herbs such as Agbo to treat many ailments, but now people selling all sorts of things as Agbo to make money are bringing disrepute to the business. I also pay my children’s school fees from selling herbs; every day.”
Speaking also with NAIJ.com, Tosin Ayodele a herbal trader said despite the fact that there have been so much fake herbal mixture, she also do research to satisfy her customers.
“We do not sell concoction all in the name of doing business, we also do research and have names of different herbs and their plants, each plant have their specific use.
“The knowledge of herbs is ancient and it Is passed on from generation to generation and what we do when people come to us is to prescribe herbs of relevant plants depending on the ailment to be treated.
“Sometimes we either prepare it for them or they go home to do it themselves, I will always tell my customers to mix these herbs with water and not dry Gin (ogogoro), Dry Gin is very harmful to the body it has a long time effect,” Ayodele said.
Tosin further stated that, “most people who sell the herbal mixture popularly called agbo at bus stop are quacks, they just get some herbs mix them with Dry Gin to sell and the people that buy such, take it mostly for the sake of the ogogoro in it, not because of the herbs.”
Speaking further also to NAIJ.com, Adams Ayo a regular consumer of herbal mixture (agbo) said agbo has been the reason for his good health for the past 10 years.
“I have been taking agbo for the past 10 years and have not had any problem with my health, I have never been to the hospital for treatment since the last 10 years even if I fall ill as soon as I take agbo, I become well again after two days.
It is working, many people criticize it but as far as am concerned agbo is the best for anybody”.
Alice Bayo a regular herbal mixture consumer, speaking to Naij said, “I have five children and all of them are very healthy, because I buy herbs regularly and I make them take it every day, that has helped my family a lot because I cannot remember the last time I visited the hospital or any pharmacy for ailment or to buy medicine.
“My children don’t suffer dysentery (jedijedi) like most children do today because I make sure they take herbs which have helped to flush out anything bad in their system.
“What attracted me to giving herbs to my children was when one of my daughters had pie, we treated him with orthodox medicine it did not go but when a friend of mine introduced herbal medicine to me I tried it and within one week the pie was gone. Since then, I have preferred herbal medicine to orthodox medicine,” Bayo added.
James Udoh a regular herbal mixture (agbo) consumer, speaking with NAIJ.com, also explained that herbal mixture had existed long before the orthodox medicine and therefore if taken with caution could cure any ailment.
“Before now our forefathers were dependent on herbal treatment and if you look closely they lived longer and healthier, herbal medicine are natural from roots, plants and leaves which is the best.
“Orthodox medicine most times are harmful to the body even though there are meant to heal ailments in the body, before I started taking herbal I was not as strong as I am today, I was always having body weakness but since I discovered herbal medicine and I began to take it, I work harder than I use to, so it works even though I am aware of quark herbal sellers I also know that I should be careful when buying.
“Am not buying herbal medicine because I don’t have money to go to the hospital but I buy herbals because they work for me, before now I spend a lot on orthodox medicine but I don’t get results Udoh added.
While some people have a good story to tell about herbal medicines, others believe it is poisonous.
Helen Adejo a business woman told NAIJ.com that, “herbal medicines are dangerous to the health because most of them do not undergo proper testing to satisfy that is good for the body, I have never taken herbal medicine and I don’t intend to take them, I am okay with the orthodox medicine, they work perfectly for me,” Adejo said.
Some liquid and dry herbs ready for consumption
Medical Science
Speaking on the consumption of herbal medicine, Dr. Nnamdi Opara, a medical consultant in an interview with NAIJ.com said government should discourage the use of herbal medicine by individuals, stating that they contain harmful chemicals that could be harmful to the liver and kidney.
According to him, “When you keep drinking herbs that are not good, the liver and kidney keep working to eradicate them, they leave dangerous components in these sensitive organs aside from over working them,” he said.
He said, many of the concoctions which are taken raw, contain substances that have not been analyzed to know their effects in the body.
Opara express worry that some raw herbs contain very toxic chemicals that could only be removed pharmaceutically from the body.
“When you take something that has not been analyzed to know whether it is useful or not, then you are exposed to danger. Some herbal preparations are not even useful when you analyze them. “They are as good as drinking water while some are as potent as any poison can be,” he added .
He further stated that abuse of herbal medicine is rampant in the rural area because of the lack of health care facilities. He urged government to make available healthcare facilities especially in the rural areas to address the issue.
NAFDAC
Recently, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) shut down 16 herbal medicine facilities and seized products over illegal operations in some part of the country.
Dr Christiana Esenwa, a Deputy Director and Coordinator of the NAFDAC speaking to NAIJ.com stated the move by NAFDAC to put a stop to illegal herbal sales in Nigeria.
She said that the agency had sanctioned no fewer than 100 practitioners and affected companies for illegal manufacturing, sales, hawking and unapproved advertisements since January 2015 to date.
According to her, some of the manufacturing facilities had a lot of unregistered products that were discovered.
“We had earlier sensitised the herbal medicine practitioners to the need to have their companies and products registered as well as avoid illegal advertisements of their products.
“Rather, they choose to ignore the warnings of the agency and have developed a habit of going back to business even after sanctioning them.”
She said that the agency was planning stiffer penalties against defaulters with an upward of the current N20,000 administrative charge, to deter illegal practitioners from operating without the agency’s approval.
“Before any company goes on air or begin to sell herbal product, such company must register their products, get certificate and advertisement permit.
“From what we saw during the recent raid, most of the products are unsafe for consumption and may pose health hazards to consumers since they have not been tested for purity and toxicity.
“We discovered at another facility that the manufacturing environment was not conducive and lacked minimum good manufacturing practice,” she said.
According to her, the defaulters with manufacturing outfits will be enlightened on how best to manufacture products that are safe for consumption.
Esenwa, however, said the raid and seizures were not punitive or meant to chase practitioners out of business but to make sure peoples lives are not endangered by these products and for the manufactures to appreciate the importance of due process in their respective businesses.
She further called on herbal manufactures to follow the NAFDAC due process and cautioned consumers on the consumption of the product.
“Consumers of herbal medicine should be careful, they should make sure what they are buying and consuming is properly registered by NAFDAC which is a way to be satisfied that these products are not harmful to the body.
“We have had cases of people dying from consuming herbal medicine that are not properly tested by NAFDAC,” she said.
The future of herbal in Nigeria
Experts have argued that Nigeria has what it takes to diversify her economy through earnings from traditional and herbal medicines. They have therefor called for a proper reorganisation of the herbal medicine sector to allow Nigerians benefit from it.
Recently, Prof. Maurice Iwu, Professor of Pharmacognosy said, herbal medicine is an area where many countries have properly harnessed , yet Nigeria is yet to harness the area to a significant level.
“We know what happens in China, a lot of people in Nigeria buy products from them and also India where people buy a lot of food supplements”
“We are hoping that one day, herbal medicine practitioners will be able to look at the global trend and key into scientific traditional trend. We are convinced that traditional medicine is the key into the future of Nigerian health system.”
“On the commercial gains in herbal medicine, the United States recently reported that the growth in herbal dietary supplement, herbal medicine and functional food is 200 million dollars with growth rate of 8 per cent.
“We have a lot of these functional foods like cashew nuts, even cocoa is an antioxidant proven to fight cardiovascular diseases, we also have dogonyaro. What we lack mainly in Nigeria is awareness of the abundance of these herbs; even today, many don’t know the efficacy of bitter leaf which is good for fighting diabetes, while some know.
Also speaking on the future of herbal in Nigeria, Dr. Opara Said that all the available technologies should be completely integrated into developing the societal role of traditional medicine in Nigeria.
“It is the duty of the government to create these visions and maintain them for the creative growth of the health care of individuals and for the security and stability of societies. The future of traditional medicine can help in the development, in sustainable manner of foods and health care products including drugs for a dramatically expanding population.
“Also in the development of multidisciplinary, national, collaborative research programme should be encouraged which will encourage the local scientific development of the natural resources.
“ I am aware that Herbalist are also being encourages to register their proven and efficacious standardised herbal preparations with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
“A team work amongst ethno botanist, ethno pharmacologist, physicians and phytochemist is must for the fruitful outcome on medical plants. While the Ethno pharmacologists have a greater role in the rationalization of combination of activists, the phytochemist role will slightly shift towards standardization of herbal medicines,” he added.
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