Despite the importance of the traditional medicine, its application in Nigeria has been a source of concern to many. The production of the traditional medicine and its prescription is seen by modern herbalists as contravening accepted standards. Another problem bedevilling the traditional medicine is how to conserve the plants. With time, some plants have become extinct.
It is in view of these challenges that the first annual workshop of the Kano Botanical Garden, brought together stakeholders in traditional medicine to find a common point that traditional medical practitioners would benefit from the existing methods of researches to understand the techniques of using plants for medicinal purposes.
In her opening address, the President of the Kano Botanical Garden, Dr Fatimah B. Mukhtar, said the workshop was organised to sensitize the public on the importance of plants to human health and the need for it to be conserved. She explained that the Botanical Garden established two years ago, would be commissioned in May this year.
Speaking on the importance and efficacy of traditional medicine, the Chairman of the Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association of Nigeria who doubled as the Director of the National Universities Commission, Professor Lawal Alhassan Bichi, said herbal medicine has been the medicine used by our parents and grandparents and it had cured their illnesses. He added that the herbs could still provide the needed cure for today’s ailments.
The chairman said the problem associated with the practice of herbal medicine was the myths and superstitions associated with it and the fraudulent nature of some of the practitioners. He said if the practitioners would work religiously, the medicine would offer succour to the people suffering from various ailments.
He further charged the practitioners to stop exhibiting wicked practices in their operations, saying medicine should be used to cure diseases but not to inflict it.
One issue discussed during the workshop was the conservation of plants. In a paper presented on the topic entitled, ‘The Significance of Plants Conservation to Medicinal Practices’, Dr Ibrahim S. said conservation of plants must be recognised as a significant tool deriving benefits from plant based-drugs. “Conservation of plants should be recognised as a significant tool to consider if we really want to continue to derive benefits from plant-based drugs in particular as source of remedy for various human and other ailments in our societies,” he said.
Speaking on approaches to the conservation of medicinal plants, Dr Ibrahim S. said conservation of medicinal plants could be approached in two ways. These ways includes in situ (where the species are conserved in the habit as it was found naturally) and ex situ (conservation of the species away from its natural habitat. He noted that the methods to be adopted in conserving a particular specie would depend on certain factors, “the method would depend on certain historical, biological and ecological information gathered about the species before its population becomes extremely low,” he explained.
He further explained that plants could be conserved through the establishment of botanic gardens, home gardening and similar approaches to conservation of plants. He enumerated various ways of conserving plants which includes; cultivation of ornamental flowering plants for aesthetic purpose, restoration and rehabilitation of degraded habitats, living collection of plants and establishment of seed banks.
Others according to him, includes: afforestation, research and development efforts, appropriate harvesting practices, cultural forests, other protected areas and education.
He also noted that medicinal plants should not be conserved because of their medicinal properties alone, saying man was deriving several other benefits from the plants like oxygen supply and removal of carbon dioxide from the environment, food supply, shades and firewood and economic values.
The speaker also enumerated challenges faced by traditional medicine practitioners in Nigeria which includes disrespect for and denial of the role of traditional medicine and traditional medicine practitioners by policy makers and conventional health practitioners, insufficient data on safety, efficacy and quality of traditional medicine, complications arising from the activities of traditional medicine practitioners and bogus deceptive claims and depletion of medicinal plants at an alarming rate due to environmental degradation and human activities.
He therefore called on stakeholders to ensure the conservation of the medicinal plants because, “it can strengthen further the capacity of the nation’s healthcare delivery system that improves the health of Nigerians and create jobs,” he said.
Speaking on the efforts by the Kano State government in ensuring good practices among the traditional medicine practitioners, the state Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who is represented by the state Commissioner for Health, Malama Aisha Kiru, said his administration has done much to sanitise the practice of traditional medicine practitioners. He said a ban has been put to advertise the efficacy of a medicine in the state media, as well as fishing out illegal practitioners who were cheating the people with sub standard medicines and pledged continued support for the conservation of plants in the state.
