FG Should open Isolation Centres for Herbal Management of Covid 19 - Elujoba: fmr Acting VC, OAU, Ile-Ife

Former acting Vice Chancelloer of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Anthony Elujoba, who is a professor of Pharmacognosis at the Pharmacy Department of the university, says that the National Assembly should pass the Traditional Medicine Council Bill to make its practice top-notch.

You recently said Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Presidential Task Force on COVID 19 should allow herbal medicine to manage willing victims of the virus. Is there an herbal cure for coronavirus now?

There is no cure for it yet as far as I know, but what we are talking about is the management of their symptoms. COVID-19 has never occurred before now, so, nobody can claim to have a cure for it. Herbal medicine could be used to manage COVID-19 symptoms like sneezing, cough, fever, respiratory troubles, diarrhoea and pains. There are herbs to treat these symptoms.

Is that not the same way they are using orthodox medicine to manage COVID-19 patients?

That is what I suppose they are doing but I am not part of the team, so I cannot say exactly. What I have read on some platforms which are not evidence-based is what you have said. They are also managing terrible symptoms like respiratory problems and giving the patient analgesic drugs, expectorants for cough, and adding some immune-stimulating drugs like vitamin C.  I saw another one on social media talking about giving them ARV, anti-retroviral drugs which are being used for HIV/AIDS. You know that HIV is also a viral infection. That is the same principle herbal medicine can also use. There are anti-retroviral medicinal plants in literature and there are plants that can treat all of these symptoms as well.

Have these plants that can treat these symptoms been compounded into herbal mixture, tablets, or capsules?

Yes of course. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has officially listed some medicinal plant drugs that can handle all of these symptoms. They are well prepared and well packaged and people have been using them since 1999 when the law establishing NAFDAC was made.

Are you saying these products have NAFDAC approval?

They have NAFDAC listing numbers. Listing means they are temporarily approved. I think it is renewed every two years if there are no problems. If they are now developed to the level of a clinical trial, NAFDAC can now be considering them for total approval like any orthodox medicine.

What has been preventing them from getting to the clinical trial stage?

Many things are responsible for this, but I can only talk about research and development of herbal medicine in the university. The major problem is finance. I will give you this example. In the 1990s and early 2000 when I was in the ‘Village Chemist,’ I had so many products even for people living with HIV/AIDS and all the symptoms we successfully treated in them were the same with symptoms associated with COVID-19 now. The commonest symptom in them was fever and each time you had a handshake with a person living with HIV, their palms are warm. This means their body temperature is always high. After the anti-retroviral drug, which could be given free of charge to people living with HIV came and we soft-pedalled and we were no longer treating people with HIV/AIDS. But when we were treating them, people got to know that the drugs were also useful to those who did not have HIV/AIDS.  Everybody in Africa would have malaria and we started MSc and Ph.D. theses on all of these products and the very first one we did was for malaria which was common to everybody. We prepared the drugs, packaged them and we started selling them. We had three anti-malarial products. I transferred the Village Chemist to the university and the drugs have now been listed with NAFDAC. They became popular and people were buying them, so, we patented them. After patenting, we collaborated with our doctors at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ife. They were also eager to join hands with us to write a proposal for a clinical trial. That proposal was accepted by the Ethical Research Board of the hospital for us to go ahead with the clinical trial on human beings. Now we applied for TETFund (Tertiary Education Trust Fund) grant for the clinical trial and of all the projects I was told were considered by TETFund, ours was not there.

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What reason was given for excluding it?

I don’t know, but you can assist us to ask them. After that, we sought collaboration and applied to the West African Health Organisation because I am a consultant to them, Herbal Medicine Development for ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and I have been attending meetings to make presentations on these drugs. After that, I was invited to submit a proposal for a clinical trial for the anti alarum herbal medicine. Immediately we realised that TETFund was not doing anything for us, we applied to the West African Health Organisation. At the point of signing the approval letter for the fund by the director-general of WAHO, this COVID-19 started and every fund was directed to that. We are still praying and expecting that that letter of approval before the DG will one day be signed when COVID-19 is gone. We are only waiting for external funding because the government here is not helping us.

Have you contacted the Federal Ministry of Health if there is anything they can do about it?

By their mandate, they don’t give fund, they can only support applications. It is not their mandate to fund research. The government has given TETFund the mandate to fund researchers.

But have you contacted the National Assembly which carries out oversight functions on this establishment to help push for the fund?

I don’t agitate too much about things. I wait for God to do whatever he can do about it. The WAHO invitation came miraculously, so, I believe God can do it. I do go round to meet people, I am always in my laboratory working in my way to make the country great by what I do. If the government calls me, I am ready, they use me a lot and anytime they call me, I don’t object but I don’t go about pressing buttons.

Have you made your suggestions about the management of COVID-19 cases known to NCDC and the Presidential Task Force?

I have no access to NCDC or PTF. I am only used to some officials at the Federal Ministry of Health because they have put me in some committees. I have made some moves towards that. Until now, there was no response and I can understand because herbal medicine is not yet at a stage that everybody accepts because of the disadvantages of herbal preparations. There are advantages and there are disadvantages. The knowledge of herbal medicine now is beyond the level it used to be. We cannot run away from herbal medicine because of some disadvantages. Many of them have been resolved scientifically, but many people don’t know.

Disadvantages like what?

There are a number of them already raised like it is not scientific, unhinge nix preparation, adverse effects which could come up and occultism. But science has answers to these disadvantages if I explain them one after the other. Except for occultism that is everywhere in Africa, it is in every trade and even in journalism, so, nobody can say it is restricted to herbal medicine practice. So, nobody can say they would shun herbal medicine because of occultism. We should all be prayerful and I am saying this because of my experience.  When I became the acting vice-chancellor, I introduced the second stanza of our anthem as the national prayer before all official meetings.

Are you also collaborating with virologists to achieve your goal?

Virology and other branches of science have a role to play in herbal medicine, including anthropology. We can collaborate with anybody. If virology and pharmacognosy had collaborated before, perhaps we will not be looking for an answer now. We would have had the answers to these emerging diseases like the Ebola virus, SARS and others.  I used to know a virology laboratory in the University College Hospital (Ibadan) and I sent an email to the head of that laboratory. The email was never responded to, maybe the man never received it, but I didn’t follow up. I am saying this now because we are eager to collaborate, we need somebody who is a virologist, who is ready to work with herbal medicine to use herbal medicine to see whether we can control these emerging diseases. That is what I want the government to try and facilitate.

Since there is no known cure for COVID-19 and you believe that there are herbal products that can manage the cases, will you be willing to try the herbal drugs on infected monkeys to show their efficacy?

That question should be posed to knowledgeable virologists we have in the country and there are many of them. If we want to do that, we require the collaboration of virologists. There are many products apart from mine that have been listed by NAFDAC.

Are you saying if there are willing virologists, you are ready to test the products on monkeys?

That should be possible. We had tried our malaria products on animals here before we asked people to take them. If any virologist is ready to do that, we are ready. The plants are there and we can supply the extracts.

Is it true that bitter kola can be used to prevent coronavirus?

Although bitter kola is known to possess some antiviral activities and I know it is reported as a good anti-hepatitis, I am yet to find in the literature that it has been successfully used to treat COVID-19 or Ebola virus in an evidence-based clinical trial. When faced with the need, I used to include bitter kola in my treatment of respiratory health issues in the Village Chemist. In general, I do believe (within the limit of my literature up-date) that bitter kola also carries the same chances as all other known antiviral herbs in the books, to treat or prevent emerging diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola virus or others if subjected to the test.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has said that herbal cure would soon be found for coronavirus. Are you working together on this?

No. But fortunately, the Ooni is my father. Mine is to go to the laboratory and make known what I found out there.

Do you think you need legislation to push herbal medicine practice to a greater height in Nigeria?

The WHO/Afro Office has done a lot. The office has given a lot to every developing country in Africa to certify traditional medicine and to institutionalise traditional medicine practice. Traditional medicine should be approved the same way orthodox medicine is approved. Some countries had perfected this. The late Prof Dora Akunyili came and implemented the law which we commended in 1999. I was a member of the committee that proposed the law. When she came and said herbal medicine could then be approved by NAFDAC, I was very happy. That was when herbal medicine started gaining recognition in this country. The government also supported the formulation of herbal pharmacopeia. It contains medicine plants that have been approved not to be toxic, to be safe to use, and with little properties scientifically proven in the form of a crop under each of those medicinal plants. Any plant that appears in that pharmacopeia has become an official drug in that country. The edition of that book, Herbal Pharmacopeia, was inaugurated in 2008. Another committee has been inaugurated to review that book. That is one of the recommendations of the WHO Afro office towards ensuring total integration of traditional medicine. The most important one remaining now is the bill at the National Assembly.

What is the bill all about?

That is what we call Traditional Medicine Council Bill. It states that there must be a council regulating the practice of traditional medicine in Nigeria, just like we have Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria; Pharmacists Council of Nigeria; Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria. That is the one that will guide and regulate the practice of herbal medicine for people that want to open clinics and traditional medicine hospitals. Already, NAFDAC is the institution regulating the products, including herbal drugs, but NAFDAC does not have the mandate to regulate the practice. NAFDAC is just to regulate that the products are good, safe, and efficacious.

What stage is the bill now?

About 12 years ago, the bill reached the National Assembly and I think it passed either the first or the second reading and it died. The bill has now been reviewed by the Federal Ministry of Health and they have passed it through the Ministry of Justice and I was told that the bill is now going to be re-sent to the National Assembly. I am not sure if it had been sent or it is about to be returned to the National Assembly. So, those are the two journeys that the bill is making.

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Madagascar is claiming to have found an herbal cure for COVID-19. Will herbal medicine practitioners in Nigeria be willing to collaborate with your colleagues in that country?

We do not have to collaborate with any country in Africa on anti-malaria plants, every country has its own. The inducement for people looking for anti-malarial plant stems from the fact that chloroquine has been mentioned even by the United States President, Donald Trump. What we, herbal scientists, thought immediately was using medicinal plants with anti-malarial properties because of various advantages of herbal medicine. It is available with us, we don’t need to import it. It is affordable and readily acceptable by our people. We are thinking that if chloroquine does it because chloroquine is being considered to do it, then we will use our medicinal plants to do it. We are sure that our people will accept it than chloroquine. The first symptom of COVID-19 is fever and I guess that is why Madagascar went straightaway to investigate their medicinal plants with anti-malarial properties and they got it. If Nigeria had allowed us to do it at the time we were agitating for it, we would have been the first.

What is now your recommendation again on this?

I will suggest that there should be parallel treatment centres across the country where herbal preparations will be used. Only COVID-19 patients that opt for herbal management should be admitted there. There should be informed consent and the patients would be told in the form what the management is all about, the medicinal plants that are inside and they should be told it may work and it may not work. So, the patient will think about it and decide whether they want it or they don’t want it. Those that want it will take responsibility for whatever happens, then experts will be stationed at such centres because they have to supervise it if they prepared the products.  But nobody can say they have herbal medicine that cures COVID-19 now because it is a new disease.

Is there any ailment that herbs cannot manage or cure?

I am aware that just a small proportion of known herbs had been investigated pharmacologically. Many known diseases have not been subjected to phytomedical investigation, for example, COVID-19. There are still many more plants yet un-investigated and it is impossible to know whether such plants will cure emerging diseases without any pharmacological experiments. Traditional medicine practitioners believe that there is no disease whose cure cannot be found in the forest. There is a spiritual faith-evidence that God has divinely provided a cure for every ailment in the same environment where He has allowed the corresponding ailment (Ez. 47:12; Rev. 22:2). Since there are thousands of medicinal plants yet un-investigated for human or animal ailments, I believe that it is surer and wiser to seek an herbal solution for a new disease like COVID-19 by research than by synthetic investigation for chemical drugs.

I strongly suspect that, among the Chinese-donated material consignments of COVID-19 supports, their government would have included a lot of traditional Chinese medicines whose compositions and safety we, or even NAFDAC, did know little about. The Chinese herbal preparations will most probably not “cure” but be immune-boosting and/or for COVID-19 symptoms. Can we not also use some of the NAFDAC-listed immune boosters? We can also be innovators in Nigeria of what the whole world will buy.

Apart from making herbal medicine to cure malaria and manage other ailments, is there anyone for cancer that is ravaging the world?

That is not my area, but I know a colleague within the field of pharmacognosy who is doing that. I have never worked on anti-cancer herbal medicine.

Do you have the one that can cure sickle cell?

That is where I started from and there is a product now that has been patented and all that we used is pawpaw.

Does the product cure sickle cell?

It doesn’t cure it but it manages it. It prevents crisis and it can reduce crisis if it comes.

Has that one also been listed by NAFDAC?

No. It has not been listed by NAFDAC because the university has not provided all that is required by NAFDAC. There must be a place where you prepare it in a hygienic form with a good manufacturing practice. It must look like a mini-industry. I guess the university is handicapped by the fund.

Can herbal products cure the mental problem and bone issues?

There are bone setters and for psychiatry, we call them traditional psychiatrists. The two areas of herbal practice have been recognised by the World Health Organisation a long time ago. The WHO recognises that they have enough skills to be exploited by primary healthcare. Some of the renowned psychiatrists we have like our former Vice-Chancellor, Prof Roger Makanjuola, have collaborated with traditional psychiatrists before.

WITHOUT DRUGS, SURGERY, ACUPUNCTURE CAN CURE MOST DISEASES

… Renowned acupuncturist lists benefits of alternative medicine

By ZIKA BOBBY

 “Should we become a workshop of invention and scientific discoveries only to be bought over by other countries and the by-products of our discoveries resold to us?” This was the question put to Nigerian leaders by Dr. Friday Thompson Udo Essien, a renowned Nigerian acupuncturist, as he delivered his speech at the launch of his book: Modern Clinical Acupuncture, in Lagos recently.

Visibly miffed at the attitude of our past leaders who, he noted, have over the years shown no interest in inventions and scientific discoveries, the octogenarian said if his tablet-moulding machine had received the necessary attention 26 years ago, Nigeria would have gained a step higher in the field of science.

“General Babangida was aware of my invention. Nineteen state governors at that time knew about this machine. I paid countless visits to my state governor. My retirement money got exhausted in my many attempts to get someone interested in this machine. But at the end of the day, it all resulted into zero. What I needed at that time to kick-start the project was N800, 000. Because of the type of system we operate in Nigeria, it did not see the light of day,” he said.

Dr. Essien, a one-time engineering lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology, said his love for acupuncture got boosted when One Dr. Obaze, using acupuncture, cured him of a lingering ailment.

“During the period I was ill, I went to all the best hospitals in Lagos at that time but orthodox medicine couldn’t cure me. It was when I met the late Dr. Godfrey Obaze who used acupuncture on me for about a year that I was completely cured. There and then, I told myself I was going to dedicate my life to the study of acupuncture. Due to lack of understanding, some believe that acupuncture is connected to spiritism. They ask, how could a mere insertion of needle into the skin result in such spectacular cure of sickness? This thinking permeates even the minds of educated medical men in Nigeria.

“Acupuncture, naturopathy and reflexology have been my profession for the past 30 years. Coupled with these, I prepare potent homeopathic remedy for my patients when the need arises. I have been tested and selected by a reputable Chinese company, and retained as of one of their international lecturers on acupuncture. I am also a member of the National Complementary and Alternative Medical Association in Nigeria and a consultant for Federal College of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (FEDCAM).

“Our health centre has successfully brought relief to people having stroke, diabetes, impotence, kidney, liver problem, sleeplessness, asthma lumbago, hypertension, stresses and hormonal imbalance, which causes infertility in women. Today, if you mention five acupuncturists in Nigeria, there is no way my name will be left out.”

He said many prominent Nigerians have benefited from the use of acupuncture. “We are trying to create more awareness on the benefits of acupuncture so that people will kill the idea that it is for the rich. That is the purpose of writing this book, so that people will know more about acupuncture. We have embarked on free treatments for the indigent. We cannot do it alone. We want governments at all levels and well meaning bodies to assist us in getting a befitting centre where Nigerians can go and check themselves and also get treated. This will go a long way in saving us a lot of foreign exchange that we spend on treatments abroad. What modern medicine cannot treat, we can treat. We treat nearly every disease. Do you know that acupuncture can stop that headache in less than five minutes? Our problem as Nigerians is that we are never proud of what we have,” he said.

He said as a professional, he was taught not to put money first in matters of health.

“In Sri Lanka, people get free acupuncture treatments. The only thing paid for are needles. Who says we too can’t treat free? If only our government can help in putting money in the treatment of acupuncture, Nigeria will be a better place to live in health-wise,” he said.

To those who may not like to take alternative and complementary medicine, he said: “To such ones, I lovingly wish to extend to them a wealth of knowledge and experience in complementary medicine.”

Dr. Essien said acupuncture was invented in Egypt, Africa but was developed by the Chinese over the years, saying the latter have become masters at it. “They discovered certain points of the body which, if massaged, punctured, heated or burned, relieved pain or had a beneficial effect on certain disorders. They kept this secret to themselves until 1972 when American President Richard Nixon visited China and saw how acupuncture was used to carry out anaesthesia for open heart surgery. Then the knowledge of it spread to America. Today, about 50 per cent of Americans uses acupuncture,” he said.

He added: “There are organizations, government agencies, companies and entire industries that spend billions of dollars trying to hide these natural cures from you. Acupuncture and naturopathy work better and safer without side effects than drugs and surgery, which only suppresses the symptoms and add more toxins into your body system, causing more secondary sicknesses to develop over the weeks, months or years.”

Following his father’s footsteps, Dr. Essien Jr. is the only ozone therapy doctor in West Africa.

According to him, ozone is oxygen with an extra molecule, a triatomic form of oxygen that is highly unstable and highly reactive with higher energy. It is the most powerful oxidizer known to man, next to fluorine.

“Ozone in water will kill viruses 3,125 times faster than chlorine. Ozone is the most potent anti-viral substance known to man that is safe to use in controlled doses and is effective against viruses even in low concentrations. Ozone therapy is a simple naturopathic medical procedure that improves both circulation and utilization of oxygen by the tissues. Ozone is a super-powerful form of oxygen, with strong anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-parasitic and detoxifying effects,” he informed

 

My Foray into Herbal Medicine, by practitioner

My foray into medicine
Dr. Idowu Olawale is a herbal practitioner based in Lagos. He speaks on the efficacy of herbs in treating ailments and his foray into the profession.

How did you get into herbal medicine?

I came into herbal medicine out of personal experience. I was privileged to have been born into the family of herbalists, but because of the superstition and mystery created into the practice, it became repulsive to my father. He stopped practicing. And as a result of western education, we didn’t consider it something to do, a no go area I should say.
I took ill in 1989 and that changed my perception because no orthodox medicine helped in any way, and I had recourse to herbal medicine.
They took me to all the notable hospitals in Europe and America all but to no avail. The sickness persisted. So, I told those taking care of me to take me to my country that I do not want to die in a
foreign land. Today, I say thank God for bringing me to Nigeria because I would have died. There was no way I could have made it. While trying to board the plane that brought me back to the country, the doctor gave me injections to sedate me because the pain was too much for me to bear.
I got to know about herbs in the United States when I met Mark Hughes of Herbalife in 1997 and I came back to Nigeria I 1999. Then I went to Lagos State Board, but to my utmost surprise, what I thought to be new was in the country.

Are you a member of any herbal medicine association?

We have an association, at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Health established the National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP). So, it’s existing at the instance of the former Health Minister, Mrs. Adenike Grange in all 36 states of the federation.

What do you want the government to do for the association?

The government has been responsive, but I still want them to integrate traditional health practice into the national health care delivery by writing another memo to all the organizations that are involved like the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), so that they can accept us. We want to become primary health provider in the scheme. Each state and local government should identify their practitioners, train and give them accreditation so that they can be used to support primary healthcare delivery. Qualified ones can even become civil servants who will not charge exorbitant rates. The registered traditional practitioners on herbal
medicine should be integrated as civil servants. The government should put them on its payroll. We should be integrated in the area of work force and medicine.
The former commissioner for Health, Lagos, Dr. Leke Pitan and Dr. Bunmi Omoseyindemi, Chairman Lagos Traditional MedicineBoard, made the move for that to be done. The proposed regulation by National Food Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) would be very difficult because of the money involved. It is too prohibitive. It should be free registration by NAFDAC like that of the bakers and in accordance to Herbal Doctor Magazine volume 2 No.3 Edition.

What are the major contrasts between orthodox and traditional medicine?

The orthodox is trained for emergency cases and surgery while herbal is not into such. Herbal medicine is good for chronic diseases management.
This is for those who have used various therapies with no result.these are the people who are vulnerable to charlatans and quacks. The healthcare delivery system is not well defined in the country, because if the structure of the delivery system is strictly adhered to, the deathrate will greatly reduce. They carry the primary health problem straight to Lagos University Hospital (LUTH) and we live in a country where everybody knowls what to use. Orthodox medical practitioners are learned while 95 per cent of herbal practitioners are unlettered.

Have you made any feat in the profession since you started?

Yes, I have researched into various drugs and at the moment, I have a product that heals diabetes. What to do is drink the herb judiciously and the healing process is on.

What advice would you give those patronizing herbal medicine?

Medicine is medicine, either orthodox or traditional. You are free to make your choice. None is greater than the other. They are both good medicines. However, if you want to combine the two, meet the
doctors in the professions to work as a team, not independently. For example, a herbal practitioner should explain the medical composition of his drug, otherwise, there may be complications whereby an ulcer patient also has hypertension and diabetes and there are drugs which a diabetic patient can use, but ulcer patient can’t.

Lagos and the craze for herbal options

herbal medicine on display

During the strike period by Lagos doctors, in which government-owned hospitals shut their doors against patients, many patients
resorted to use of herbs to treat ailments.
Even though the over 700 sacked doctors have since been replaced by the state
government, many Lagosian still patronise herbal clinics.
In many parts of the city, herbal medicine men boldly come out en masse into the streets promoting many products, which seem to have gained new heights in
patronage by people of different ages, gender, education and income levels.
At Mushin, Agege, Ojo, Badagry and Mile 12, areas which Daily Independent
visited, scores of herbal drug marketers were seen displaying processed and
semi-processed medicines which they claimed could cure pile, hypertension,
diabetes, malaria, hernia, diarrhoea, gonorrheoea, infertility and many other
ailments.
Sule Wonaka, indigene of Kano State, who has been marketing herbal drugs in
Lagos since 2002, boasted the power of herbs to cure all ailments. According to
the 30-year-old man, who said he inherited knowledge about traditional medicine
from his grandfather, “herbal remedies are a good option for irregular
menstruation, ovarian cysts, tooth ache, deafness, skin diseases, fibroids and
barrenness.” Confidently, he added: “I can use the root of plantain, extracts
from cabbage leaves and bitter leaf to treat obesity and diabetes.”
All the herbal medicine traders have bottles loaded with pieces of wood and
medicinal powder which they stated if blended with water, lime, lemon juice,
citrus or strong spirit become therapeutic wonder.
A co-trader, who plies his trade at the popular Mile 12 Market, is Ibrahim
Borno. He explained that the bark, wood and latex of Iroko, a popular tree in
the rain forest of Nigeria, can be used for the treatment of hernia while its
powdered bark is used as antiseptic or for wound or dressing. Bark of oak, tea,
acacia, bramble, nim, shea butter and rubber trees are said to be raw materials
for health-giving drugs.
Middle-aged Fatimo Salawu was holding a jar of herbal drug bought at Iyana
Oba, Ojo, Lagos, when Daily Independent accosted her a fortnight ago. The mother
of four disclosed that her ailment was painful monthly periods which western
medicine could not alleviate satisfactorily. “But since I started taking this
herb about six months ago, I enjoy comfort and peace whenever my ‘visitor’
arrives,” she said.
But the medical challenge of 38-year-old Queen Okafor, who lives at Idi-Oro,
Mushin, Lagos, is not related with body pain, but infertility, an emotional
trauma, especially in an African society that cherishes children and considers
infertile women almost as social misfits.
“I have been married for eight years now, but I have never been able to
conceive despite visiting many hospitals and doing many tests which have proved
that my general condition was satisfactory, my pelvic examination normal; even
my husband’s semen analysis showed no abnormality,” she sadly told Daily
Independent.Some herbalists have also claimed that the seed of cherry can be
useful in curing impotence.
Though doctors believe in the curative potential of herbs, nephrologists
however implored Nigerians to be wary of abuse of herbal medicine because it
could result in kidney damage.
According to them, management of kidney disease usually attracts huge
financial burden. For example, dialysis costs about N80, 000 per week while
kidney transplant costs about N7 million.
They also warned that many herbal medicines abused or blended with strong
alcohol are toxic and could result into heart failure or seizure, lower
breathing rate and ultimately cause death.
Two out of the six men, who said they patronize herbal medicine traders, said
they suffer from relapsing typhoid fever and acute dysentery.
They complained that the cost of hospital treatment of their cases was
exorbitant. The other four stated that their challenge was piles, which are
expanded blood vessels in the anus. They noted that they have lost hope in
western medicine as solution to their ailments, and would rather prefer
anti-piles herbs which cost almost N2,000 per bottle.
Doctors explained that piles are caused by excessive pressure in the
rectum.
One of them, Ayodele Eshinola, a carpenter, said the drug also functions as
aphrodisiac because it corrects erectile dysfunction or failed manhood erection,
a widely believed consequence of chronic piles.
Eshinola, who confirmed that herbal medicine is more effective for piles’
treatment than western medicine, confessed spending a fortune in hospitals
without improvement or cure to his health.
Another piles sufferer, Ayobami Omoyajowo, corroborated Eshinola, saying “the
disease makes manhood turgid during sexual relations.”
These men’s reasons could have informed why those who trade in piles-treating
herbal drugs in the metropolis – at roadsides, on train and public buses, local
markets and bus stops – lace their advertisement messages with lewd phrases and
sensuous images that evoke erotic feelings.
Although no woman was seen demanding piles herbs, but Mustapha Ilyasu, a
street herbal products seller at Ipaja Road, Agege, said some women also buy it
mostly for their “husbands and “to facilitate mutual sexual pleasure.”


culled from dailyindependentonline, may 22, 2012

Wonder yam cures infertility in women

This is good news for women who have not been able to conceive! There is a specie of yam, known as ‘wild yam,’ which, if combined with certain herbs, enhances and fertilizes women reproductive system.
According to a herbal practitioner, Dr Adetunji Lams, though, neglected because of its small size, “wild yam” combined with some local vegetables, like, winter cherry or koropo in Yoruba language, has the potentialities of making women fertile.

Dr Lams said: “It has to be prepared in a herbal form before it can give the desired result. For it to be effective, few things have to be taken care of.”
According to Dr Lams, some of the things which need to be done include, ensuring that the woman (patient) is treated of infections, fibroid if any.

In the case of men, he said tests are usually carried out to ascertain whether low sperm count, staphylococcus, pelvic inflammatory disease were responsible for the infertility.
After carrying out tests and treating the identified infections, Dr Lams said the stage is now set to administer the herbal medicine prepared with “wild yam.”

“It is even possible that the woman will later deliver twins,” he said.
Lams explained that yams, especially wild ones, are associated with fertility. No wonder, therefore, the Yoruba are said to have the highest number of twins in the world.

The herbal practitioner said most of the foods eaten by the Yoruba are prepared from yam tuber. He gave the names of the food as amala, iyan, akara, moimoi, roasted and yam porridge. He said because of yam consumption, Yoruba women are fertile while the men are usually sexually active.
The herbal practitioner told Daily Sun that “wild yam” is useful that its head region is used to cure lumps in the breasts of women, especially when mixed with honey, Aloe Vera or sheer butter.
“Most of the health disorders we operate on in this part of the world can be cured perfectly using herbs.
Women, who like to enlarge their breasts through operation need not to do that any longer as a combination of a herb, called “horse tail” and wild yam will do the magic.

More about the wild yam
It is everywhere, very common, but useful to those who know its importance. Since the yam is not big, like other species, people tend to ignore it. But the wild yam is medicinal. It is not planted by anybody, it grows on its own.

How it works
When mixed with the necessary herbs, wild yam acts like compose manure in women’s reproductive system. It boosts the fertility level in women. It is faster to conceive if a woman continues to eat wild yam. A woman that experiences miscarriage is also advised to eat wild yam.
It is a remedy for miscarriages. If pregnant woman, especially, the one that has been having problem of miscarriages, eats wild yam mixed with other herbs it will stop automatically. It helps to support the uterus. It is an excellent preventive medicine for miscarriages and useful for cramps in the region of the uterus during the later stage of the pregnancy.

Wild yam helps to relax the muscular fibres and soothe the nerves. It boosts the sperm, in terms of its quantity and quality. A wild yam enhances sexual performance in men because it contains steroids that store peroxidation of blood lipids (the principal cause of thickening or hardening of arteries or veins). The wonder yam also lowers the level of fat in the blood and very rich in potassium, which makes it very appropriate for heart diseases. Wild yam can also be used to manage or cure stroke.

Importance of information
People die a lot because of ignorance. Nature has provided many herbs for man’s use but many people are ignorant of their uses, just like in the case of wild yam. It is the amount of information that one gets that matters. Most of those curative herbs, fruits, tubers among others have been provided by nature but we are ignorant of them because of lack of information.

By CHRIS ANUCHA
Tuesday, February 19, 2008