Notes on a preliminary drug hunting trip on The Jos Plateau, Nigeria

Abstract

During the summer of 1962, the senior author had the privilege of spending 25 days in parts of the months of July and August, in and around the city of Jos in Northern Nigeria. The major purpose of this trip was to collect additional crude drugs and voucher specimens needed to further the investigation of Nigerian medicines which began at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in the fall of 1959. At that time, Dr. Stanley Diamond, then a member of the faculty at Brandeis University, brought 47 different crude drug samples from the Jos area. These were specimens of native medicines used by members of the Anaguta tribe. Examples of some of their uses are as follows: The root of Securidaca longipedunculata is boiled with water and the decoction is drunk for "stomach trouble." In other parts of Nigeria, this root is used as a drastic purge, or it is mixed with Guinea corn, boiled and used as a diuretic. In Senegal and French Guinea, the root is used as a taenifuge and vermifuge. An infusion of the leaves is taken for treating venereal diseases in some parts of East Africa, while in Sierra Leone and on the Zambezi river the leaves are used for snake-bite. The bark of Cassia goratensis is mixed with water to make a paste which is placed on the chest for pain. The root of the same plant, mixed in the same manner, is employed for "protection" against witchcraft, and it is also valued as an aphrodisiac. The leaves and