I’m not an expert in herbal medicine but it works perfectly well. I agree that it needs to be run along with conventional medicine. Herbs have been an important source of medicine for thousands of years. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 80 percent of people still rely on herbal remedies for their health care. And there are reasons for this, namely, the high cost of drugs in clinics and pharmacies, drug resistance which often lead to treatment failure, prolong and expensive treatment of some chronic diseases which the general population cannot afford. Has anyone seen those lines at Mulago hospital? Not every one can afford to take their wife and kids for treatment at Kampala International hospital. If herbal medicine was not in Uganda, so many Ugandans will be dead by one. Trust me on this.
In S.Africa, traditional herbs have long been used to treat various pain or inflammation-related symptoms. South Africa has the richest plant biodiversity in the world, many of which are medicinally useful .They also use herbs to treat livestock diseases. I don’t know whether the ‘balalo’ in
Uganda also use it too. Some of the plants are employed to treat diabetes, tumours, stomach pain, rheumatism and many other indications.
Personally, I love herbs because of the wide variety of conditions that is said to be treatable with a single plant or group of plants. The reasons why some remedies from plants are used for so many diseases could be that they affect a common (denominator) factor responsible for the diseases and
disorders. That’s one of the reasons why I love herbs so much. You take them for cough but you end up treating 9 diseases hidden in your system as well. That is fantastic, man. Whenever I visit Kampala, I treat my malaria with that sour plant called alovera. I hear it treats so many stuff and it makes me feel good.
People also worry about bacteria infection that comes out of mixing herbs or saliva used by herbalists. Honestly, in the UK here I see people kissing every day on the cheeks or mouth-mouth. So why should anybody worry about a bacteria from a certain ‘jaja’ or ‘grandma’ throwing saliva while preparing herbs. Bacteria are everywhere and our bodies normally find a way of dealing with them. In any case, we all know that the immune system is modified by diet, pharmacological agents, and naturally occurring food chemicals, such as vitamins and flavonoids. Herbal Plants contain a wide
variety of natural compounds mainly plant secondary compounds. Among the secondary compounds are the flavonoids. Flavonoids are among the most common constituents in plants. They are present in high concentrations in flowers, seeds, leaves, herbs, fruits, stems, bulbs, tea, wine, vegetables and other food sources. So taking ‘traditional mixtures’ as some people call them actually treats the disease. That’s why we want the government to put herbalists into some form of training like the Chinese have done to improve in the grey areas which are worrying people.
The Department of Botany at Makerere University has done a lot of research around this area which may one may find very useful to read. They did a study between January 2000 and September 2003 to document medicinal plants used to treat fungal and bacterial infections in health care in and around Queen Elizabeth Biosphere Reserve in Bushenyi and Kasese districts in western Uganda. They also did another one in August 2007.
Abbey.Kibirige Semuwemba
