By
Oguntoyinbo Ibrahim Ayotunde
When I was a toddler, I usually spend the holiday with my grandmother and I remember, very vividly, that she had a thing for Tangeri. She always put Tangeri around the house, the nook and cranny of every room.
One day, I was curious, I asked why did she always keep those balls around, she replied “they were meant to protect the house and ward off sickness”.
As I grew older, I became familiar with salesmen who flood everywhere, speaking passionately about the potency of herbal medicine. A trip around Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan city -Lagos, left me amazed at the exploits of these salesmen.
Then, the locally welded, long, yellow, ‘Molue’ taxis, gave a sterling platform to salesmen of herbal products who were skilled in the glib of an all-potent The place of herbal medicine in Nigeria modern society herbal solutions that could cure all sicknesses even when they fearing from the same diseases too.
I recall sitting in the ‘Molue’ which would have about 44 of us sitting while double the figure were stacked, sweating and hanging to a loosely framed rod on a pale aisle.
The longer the taxis traveled, the longer the spurious sermon. Fast forward to my adult years, I found that herbal stores are located in virtually every market across the country and it was not surprising that a lot of people, mostly unlettered, will rather opt for herbal solutions at the sting of a sickness.
Many of them won’t seek orthodox medical treatment until their health plunged into an uncanny sea of debilitation. No thanks to poor finances. According to Wikipedia, “up to 80% of the population of African and Asian countries relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs”.
The fear among the elites and orthodox medical practitioners is that herbs had no known scientific procedures. Many feared that the liver was endangered at the consumption of herbal concoctions that appeared voodoo-like to scare jinn in the old folklore – Aladdin. There were doubts that herbal medicine could cure diseases such as cancers, psychiatric disorder, high blood pressure, cholera, fever, epilepsy, asthma, eczema, among others. Some practitioners claimed they had discovered herbs that could cure HIV/AIDS, and many documented boastful adventures.
Herbal products were everywhere. In Lagos, there were sections in different markets dedicated to herbs merchants some of whom were midwives. This feature is in many markets in the southwestern parts of Nigeria.
Today, the practice has refused to die. Instead, it is exploring different frontiers by catering for those who could not afford to go to the hospital.
Recent developments all over the world have seen traditional medicine frog-leaped from the backstage to the centre. Countries like India, China among others are setting examples of how herbs are good alternative therapies for different aliments.
The fears that used to greet traditional medicine in terms of dosage is now a thing of the past. Many herbal centres in Nigeria have also become scientific in their procedures. Their herbs are better packaged with dosage boldly written on them. The transformation in the industry is quite phenomenal. The fixed patterns are fast melting away in the face of the searing heat of medical research and technology.
Some of them are even getting approvals from the National Agency For Food and Drugs Administration Control (NAFDAC), the body that oversees and regulates food and drugs in Nigeria. Herbal products are now in top shelves at pharmaceutical shops across the country. The industry has become a moneyspinner.
In December 2017, the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye said the agency, under her administration, will promote the development of herbal medicine and support local pharmaceutical manufacturers through the provision of regular guidelines and training as well as tackling headlong challenges faced by micro, small and medium enterprises in their dealing with NAFDAC.
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