Potentials of ethnobotanicals and nutraceuticals in the management of sickle cell disease

Abstract

Plants are the richest resource of drugs of traditional systems of medicine, nutraceuticals, food supplements, pharmaceutical intermediates, and chemical entities for synthetic drugs due to their therapeutic alkaloidal, flavonoid and terpenoid content. The entire world is very rich in all levels of biodiversity namely, species diversity, genetic diversity and habitat diversity. A vast array of plant species is known to have medicinal value and the use of different parts of several medicinal plants to cure specific ailments has been in trend even before ancient civilization. Herbal medicine is still the mainstay of about 75% of the whole population in rural Africa, and a major part of traditional therapy involves the use of plant extract and their active constituents. The reliance could be attributed to our socio-cultural, socio-economic heritage, lack of basic health care and personnel in every nook and cranny of rural communities. Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of the most prevalent hereditary disorders with prominent morbidity and mortality. Most of the 2.4 million Nigerians with sickle cell trait belong to lowest cadre of the society; consequently, they cannot afford the high cost of orthodox management of sickle cell disease. As a result, they rely on natural products such as herbs to alleviate the numerous symptoms presented in SCD. The main objective of this chapter is to highlight the potentials of Phyto materials and nutraceuticals in the management of SCD.