Herbal Medicine in Nigeria: A Practice at the Clinical Crossroad
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Abstract:
Nigeria has one of the
most varied ecosystems and expanse bio-resources and biodiversity. Its
biodiversity is an important source of food, medicines and natural products.
The natural products form the basis for varied traditional medicine systems
that have been in existence and sustained the people for thousands of years. The
traditional medicine practices of Nigeria are as diverse as the people of
Nigeria which is made up of more than 300 ethnic communities.
The traditional
medicine practice systems of Nigeria is bedevilled with the double throng
challenges of inadequate documentation and lack of clinical evidence bases for
use since their uses by many cultures have not been properly and extensively
documented, and various practice centres fall short of meeting the basic
standard requirement for clinical practice. It is right therefore to point out
that the wealth of Nigeria’s traditional medicine knowledge and its associated
rich practices lack structured evidence based systems to support clinical claim
for integration into the mainstream health system. In this regard, only a few
if any such as the PAX herbal clinic is a model for emulation.
This shortcoming is
quite critical if we consider that Nigerian Traditional Medicine systems and
medicines play vital roles in the healthcare delivery of the people especially
at the level of primary healthcare. Also, that it is a vital source of natural
product leads for the development of the most effective drugs for the
treatment/management of a variety of human ailments. The import of this
shortcoming becomes glaring if we reflect on the report pointing out that the global trend for
incorporation of traditional medicine into health systems was on the increase
globally. And also that such use is in the light of chronic ailments which
conventional medicine is incapable of treating.
This paper will
attempt to discuss the critical challenge of integrative medicine –herbal medicine at the crossroad of
clinical practice in Nigeria- in a quest
for a mainstream strategy for acquiring evidence bases and translation of
Nigerian Traditional medicines to clinical care.
Key words: Herbal Medicine,
Traditional Nigerian Medicine, Translational Medicine, Clinical Research
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