Abstract
Background: The foremost requirements in quality control of a herbal drug are its identity and purity. In addition, information is necessary on whether continual exploitation of medicinal herbs for traditional oral powdered herbal formulations (TOPHFs) in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, is sustainable. Aim: To botanically characterise and ethno-medicinally document the health indications of TOPHFs manufactured in Ogbomoso, as well as to examine the sustainability status of the drugs. Setting: Ogbomoso, Nigeria. Methods: Fifteen manufacturers of TOPHFs provided information on the botanical constituents and recipes of their products, the sources of raw material herbs, and types of health conditions treated with the drugs. Sustainability status of the drugs was quantified as relative percentage of the three choices of sources of raw material herbs available to the manufacturers and in terms of conservation status of the plant species as recorded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Results: Fifty-five medicinal plant species from 33 angiosperm families were used by traditional herbal medical practitioners to produce 68 TOPHFs that are indicated for treating 17 different health conditions. The sources of raw material herbs, in relative terms, were purchased from herbal markets (43.8%), collected from the wild (28.1%) and cultivated (28.1%). Most of the herbs can be sustainably harvested and only 3 (i.e. 5.5%) of the 55 plant species (i.e. Lophira alata Banks ex Gaertn., Khaya senegalensis A. Juss. and Garcinia kola Heckel) are under threatened (vulnerable) species. Conclusion: Production of TOPHFs in Ogbomoso is sustainable with minimal injury on the natural flora.
Highlights
The Medical and Dental Practitioners’ (Amendment) Decree number 78 promulgated by the Government of Nigeria on 30 September 1992 placed traditional and alternative medicine side by side with orthodox medicine (ABFR & CO 1996)
Out of the 17 traditional herbal medical practitioners (THMPs) initially recruited in the study, 13 (i.e. 76.5%) were men and 4 (i.e. 23.5%) were women; 10 of them were over 50 years of age
The THMPs updated their knowledge of medical practice through a wide range of choices, such as by intuition (35.3%), attendance at health talks or meetings (11.0%) and electronic media (5.9%), while 47.8% of them adopted various forms of a combination of these and other choices
Summary
The Medical and Dental Practitioners’ (Amendment) Decree number 78 promulgated by the Government of Nigeria on 30 September 1992 placed traditional and alternative medicine side by side with orthodox medicine (ABFR & CO 1996). African herbal products have been called to question on account of adulteration, substitution, contamination, misidentification of ingredients, lack of standardisation, incorrect preparation and/or dosage, inappropriate labelling and/or advertisement (Lau, Woo & Koh 2003; World Health Organization 2003). For these reasons, herbal products from Africa have not enjoyed worldwide acceptability compared to those from other countries such as India and China (Patwardhan et al 2005). Standardisation and quality control of herbal formulations seem to hinge mainly on their identity and purity. Information is necessary on whether continual exploitation of medicinal herbs for traditional oral powdered herbal formulations (TOPHFs) in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, is sustainable
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