Traditional Medicine Sector Research Articles

Whose Knowledge? Examining the Relationship between the Traditional Medicine Sector and Environmental Conservation Using a Stakeholder Analysis: Perceptions on Warwick Herb Market Durban South Africa.

The South African traditional medicine sector is estimated to accommodate millions of citizens, despite it being informal. The existence of such a healthcare system embodies the dual system of both primary and traditional healthcare, with some preferring one and others utilising both systems. The gathering, harvesting, and selling of medicinal plant and animal species have inevitable environmental effects. The paradox between biodiversity conservation and livelihood sustenance is eminent in South Africa’s contemporary environmental legislation. The purpose of the study was to highlight and examine the dynamics between prominent stakeholders involved in biodiversity conservation and the traditional medicine sector. The stakeholder analysis and political ecology approach were adopted and applied respectively to guide the study. The study was conducted in 2020 and a questionnaire was used to capture the realities and experiences of prominent stakeholders in the biodiversity sector. Common legal mandates such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act No. 10 of 2004; Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) regulations; and the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Ordinance 15 of 1974 are used to control and enforce legislation by biodiversity stakeholders. The main findings of the study are as follows: (a) Traditional Health Practitioners (THPs) do not have adequate training and knowledge on the environmental and legal aspects of their system; (b) Biodiversity stakeholders are treated with violence and hostility when they attempt to enforce legal mandates at the Warwick Herb Market; (c) There is a significant gap in communication and co-operation between municipal officials and biodiversity stakeholders. There is evidently, a need for environmental educational initiatives and improved methods of enforcement and communication between biodiversity stakeholders, municipal officials and THPs.

Challenges and Opportunities of the Ugandan Traditional Herbal Medicine Sector

The use of herbal medicine products worldwide and in Uganda is on the rise and there is much-renewed interest in their use because of the belief that they are safe. However, this belief is not backed up by credible scientific research for many products in Uganda. Almost all herbal products produced locally in Uganda have no scientific proof for their claimed safety and efficacy for the treatment of the various conditions they are claimed to treat example; covid-19, HIV, hypertension, erectile dysfunction, and others. There is an urgent need to quickly improve and enforced research on the local products in order to realise the economic benefits which could be lying hidden in them and put a ban on adulterated products from being sold to the public. This review was conducted in order to determine the challenges and opportunities in the Traditional Herbal Medicine sector in Uganda. It was found out that enormous challenges face the Traditional Medicine sector in Uganda including; lack of research on products available for use, claims of one product treating multiple conditions, adulteration of products with established Pharmaceutical drugs and no stringent regulations on registration of products. However, a lot of opportunities were also noted available for exploitation to develop the sector further. Collaboration with local Universities to speed up research using the Reverse Pharmacology approach [1] on the available products, strictly enforcing regulation on product registration and exploiting the reverse Pharmacology approach to study the local products, aggressive and intentional investment in basic research infrastructures and speeding up Clinical Trials on products found to be safe and effective could allow the realisation of the benefits which could be hidden in the local Traditional Medicine products.

Configuring a Model Framework Statute on Traditional Medicine for Kenya: To Be Called “The Traditional Medicine Coordination Act”

Despite having an impressive policy framework on traditional medicine, Kenya lacks a specific legislation on the same. All it has currently is a plethora of pieces of legislation that are scattered over several sectors and line ministries and touching on one or other aspect of traditional medicine. Although the effective operation of these scattered and fragmented legislation can to some extent promote or impact positively on traditional medicine, they are bedeviled by lack of coordination and harmonization. This paper sets out and critically appraises this fragmented and disjointed character of the existing pieces of legislation on the subject, as well as the glaring lack of coordination and harmonization among them. To attenuate this undesirable state of affairs, this paper has configured for Kenya, a model framework statute (Act of Parliament) on traditional medicine, to be called “The Traditional Medicine Coordination Act”, whose object should be to coordinate and harmonize the several scattered pieces of legislation as well as the inter-agency efforts and agenda on traditional medicine. Apart from its Preamble and Interpretation parts, the said Act should as of necessity have: provisions establishing or designating an institution responsible for traditional medicine; provisions creating offences related to traditional medicine; provisions establishing a professional association of traditional medicine practitioners; provisions on protection of intellectual property; provisions on emergency health care and essential medicines; provisions expressly prohibiting the malevolent use of traditional medicine; a provision asserting the Act’s supremacy on matters relating to traditional medicine; and a saving clause making reference to other or related Acts that have provisions touching on traditional medicine. The resulting coordination and harmonization will streamline the existing legislation as well as enhance and effectuate Kenya’s traditional medicine sector. This form of legislation (i.e. a framework statute) is most desirable given the inter-disciplinarity and inter-sectoriality of traditional medicine. Admittedly, traditional medicine transcends several disciplines and sectors such as health, intellectual property, cultural anthropology, ecology, etc. There therefore arises need for managing cognate matters, actions, and agenda in these cognate disciplines and sectors. Being a commentary, the paper is based on documented research findings of other researchers and scholars, commentaries by commentators on the subject, archival literature, as well as the views and opinion of the author.

Assessment of Health Seeking Behavior Regarding Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Solukhumbu District, Nepal

The objective of the study was to assess the health seeking behavior of the people regarding complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in remote area Dhudhakaushika, Gaunpalika of Solukumbu District during April – August 2017. The sample size was 300 (129 male and 171 female). Semi-structured question was design and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted. The results indicated that about three fourths of the respondents visited a modern medical institution 224 (74.7%), a little under one-half 129 (43.0%) visited Dhami-Jhakri and 85 (28.3%) contacted the Jharphuke who chanted a Mantra over a sick adult or child. Around 33 (11.0%) contacted the female community health volunteer (FCHV), 20 (6.7%) used domestic medicine or ethno- medicine, 13 (4.3%) visited a pharmacy and 9(3.0%) visited a private allopathic clinic when they felt discomfort. Respondents ascribed the cause of the disease to supernatural causes or evil spirits (53.3%), to germs (48.7%), curse of God (83.0%) to sins committed in the past (10.3%), and other causes (5.7%). The respondents usually consulted at first Dhami-Jhakri (43.0%) and Jharphuke (28.3%) when they fell sick. People utilized CAM in order to relieve undesired pain, uneasiness in the body and restore the health condition. The types of alternative medicine utilized by the respondents were Ayurveda 162 (54.0%), jadi-booti 248 (82.7%), homeopathy 94 (31.3%), relaxation 33 (11.0%), and meditation 68 (22.7%) healing touch 55 (18.3%), therapeutic massage 109 (36.3%), acupuncture 126 (42.0%), acupressure 44 (14.7%) Yoga 28 (3.3%) and 10 (3.3%) did not know any practice other than Dhamijhakri. Through the FGD, it was observed that traditional medicine sector was an important source of health care in Solukhumbu. The main reasons for consulting a CAM healer were the proximity, affordable barter system, availability, family pressure and the strong opinion of the community. In conclusion, CAM use especially self-treatment with medicinal plants was found to be a common practice along with modern medicine in a rural setting in Nepal. The study findings emphasized the reality of multiple recourse adopted by health care seekers and their deeply entrenched belief in CAM. Nepal has a very rich tradition in the use of medicinal plants for the treatment of various ailments. This may indicate the need for the integration of the modern and CAM systems in terms of evidence-based information sharing. This calls for bringing CAM healers into the mainstream by providing them with proper training, facilities and referral services. The healers can motivate the persons to access modern health care services by placing a Tika of ash (Kharani) prior to referral. A positive interaction between the two systems has to be harnessed to work for the common goal of improving health of the people.

The governance of traditional medicine and herbal remedies in the selected local markets of Western Kenya

BackgroundA lot of emphasis is often placed on modern governance systems and little or no attention is given to traditional governance practices which remain largely undocumented. The study aimed at finding out important traditional and modern governance practices that regulate traditional medicine sector in Western Kenya.Materials and methodsThe study was carried out in selected market centres of Western Kenya where the identified traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) sell their traditional medicine. All consenting TMPs and professional experts were interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. Purposive sampling design with elements of snowball techniques was employed in tracing competent traditional medicine (TM) experts and relevant professional experts. The data collected was processed in Microsoft Excel and descriptive statistics performed. Pearson’s chi-square statistics was carried out to determine the significance of the traditional and modern governance data sets using the STATA software.ResultsModern governance practices were not significantly different in all the market centres surveyed (p = 0.080). Equally, the traditional governance practices were also not significantly different in all the selected market centres (p = 1.000).ConclusionsTraditional governance practices play an important role in the governance of traditional medicine and are shaped by the socio-cultural beliefs of the local communities. Modern governance practices, on the other hand, are widely perceived as top downregulation of the traditional medicine growing industry.

Scientific collaboration in indigenous knowledge in context: Insights from publication and co-publication network analysis

Scientific collaboration has been cited as a major stimulant in innovation and a major component for the development of indigenous technologies particularly in countries invested in rapid technological catch-up in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In this study, we assess the comparative advantage of the selected economies and employ a network perspective to drill down to the case study of indigenous knowledge, using the traditional medicine sector – a focus indigenous industry of several Asian economies – to understand how the State, Industry and Universities link to drive innovation in this growing field. From our selected economies in East Asia, we identified three network models that describe the outcomes of the innovation strategies in place, a network-based extension of previous studies. We examine publication output and co-publication network structures to investigate the comparative advantage and composition of the research networks in the various economies. Our results suggest that the university-centric model remains the most popular, with Hong Kong appearing to attain the most functional innovation system with a competitive selection environment and high comparative advantage in this field. We propose this methodology as a means to explore the scientific infrastructure of a specific sector, thereby acting as a precursor to forecasting potential technological spill-over and growth in specific sectors.

H7N9 not only endanger human health but also hit stock marketing.

ObjectiveThis study aims to discuss the correlation between daily reported H7N9 cases and stock price indices in China.MethodsInformation on daily reported H7N9 cases and stock market sectors indices between February 19, 2013 and March 31, 2014 were collected. A distributed lag non-linear model was used to describe the variation trend for the stock indicesResultsThe daily reported number of H7N9 cases was associated with the closing price of the Avian Influenza Sector Index (P < 0.05) and the opening price of the Shanghai Composite Index (P = 0.029). The Avian Influenza Sector Index decreased with increasing of daily reported case number when daily reported cases ≤ 4. Case number was associated with the opening/closing price of the Chinese Traditional Medicine Sector Index, the Biological Product Sector Index, and the Biomedicine Sector Index (P < 0.05).ConclusionNew or reemerging infectious diseases epidemic cause economic loss which is reflected in movements in stock prices.

Evaluation of the immunomodulatory effects of a South African commercial traditional immune booster in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

BackgroundWith the burden of HIV and AIDS still very high, South Africa has seen an increase in commercial traditional medicines claiming to have immune-enhancing effects. Because of lack of regulation of the traditional medicine sector, these products have proliferated. This study aimed to evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of uMakhonya®, a commercial traditional immune booster, using various models of normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).MethodsImmunosuppressed, mitogen-, and peptidoglycan (PG)-stimulated PBMCs were treated with various doses of uMakhonya® and incubated for 24 h. The treated and control samples were analyzed for cytotoxicity, secretion of 12 different inflammatory cytokines, soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) levels, and nitric oxide (NO) secretion.ResultsIn cytotoxicity assays, uMakhonya® induced dose-dependent cytotoxic effects in all three models, with IC50 values of 512.08, 500, and 487.91 μg/mL for immunosuppressed, phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)-, and PG from Staphylococcus. aureus (PG-S. aureus)-stimulated PBMCs, respectively. UMakhonya® at 100 and 10 μg/mL induced a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the secretion of IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF)-α, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in cyclosporine-, immunosuppressed, and PHA-stimulated PBMCs. In the same samples, there was a significant increase (p < 0.05) in sIL-2R concentration, which correlated with an increase in the secretion of inflammatory cytokines. In PBMCs stimulated with PG-S. aureus, uMakhonya® at doses of 100 and 10 μg/mL significantly (p < 0.05) suppressed the secretion of inflammatory cytokines, especially IL-1β and TNF-α. PG-S. aureus-stimulated PBMCs also showed a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in sIL-2R concentration when compared to control samples. UMakhonya® insignificantly (p > 0.05) decreased NO levels in PBMCs after PG-S. aureus stimulation.ConclusionsThese results showed that uMakhonya® can induce both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects depending on the initial stimuli applied to immune cells.

Isolation of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate from a commercial South African cognate herbal mixture

Traditional medicinal trade in South Africa is a lucrative enterprise, estimated to be worth in excess of R3 billion, representing roughly 6% of the National Health budget. With approximately 27 million consumers, a rich local floral biodiversity platform and a substantial base of traditional medicinal knowledge, its impact and growth potential has not gone unnoticed by the South African government. In this regard, several draft policy bills have passed through parliament to facilitate the integration of traditional medicine into the mainstream South African healthcare system. Despite these measures, trade in traditional medicine remains fragmented and largely unregulated. The present findings highlight this aspect of the industry via identification of the common plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in a local cognate herbal remedy. Given the highly toxic nature of this substance and the strict international controls in place for regulation of its consumption, the amount of DEHP isolated (43.3mg/L) from the mixture was seen to be unacceptably high. These observations raise further questions pertaining to quality, safety and efficacy structures within the traditional medicine sector.

Medicinal Resources of the Miombo woodlands of Urumwa, Tanzania: Plants and its uses

A study was done to document different plants and their use for primary health care by communities around the Miombo woodland of Urumwa, Tanzania. Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews and discussion with key stakeholders. G-tests were carried out to seek differences in ethnobotanical knowledge between women and men. 110 plant species were documented to have 74 medicinal uses. Men were found to be ethnobotanically knowledgeable than women. The ethnobotanical knowledge of medicinal plant resources at Urumwa need to be recognized and preserved to ensure future effectiveness of the primary health care system. Due to the global interest in medicinal plants, there is a need to carry out phytochemical and pharmacological studies for most unstudied but potential documented species to validate usage, find new pharmaceuticals, increase confidence among users and contribute to the developlent of the traditional medicine sector in Tanzania and other areas in Africa within the Miombo ecoregion. Key words: Medicinal plants, ethnobotany, gender, Urumwa, Tanzania.

AIDS Control in India: A Perspective from the Traditional Medicine Sector

AIDS Control in India: A Perspective from the Traditional Medicine Sector

Use of traditional medicine in Lao PDR

Exploring the attitudes and knowledge of household members and health staff in Lao PDR regarding the use of traditional medicine. Along with modern medicine, traditional medicine utilisation is officially supported in Laos, being part of the cultural heritage and considered useful for this low-income country in relation to the problems with access to modern pharmaceuticals. The study population comprised 600 households from one lowland (Pakse) and one mountainous (Paksong) district. In a stratified two-stage sampling procedure, household surveys were conducted and focus group discussions (FGD) were performed among health staff and villagers in the same districts. Seventy-seven per cent of the households stated the ever use of traditional medicine including herbal medicines, sauna, massage and acupuncture. The main reason given was perceived efficacy. Traditional medicine was used for both chronic and acute diseases. The FGD revealed the perceived need to have training courses for traditional medicine providers and to have a medicinal garden in the villages. Utilisation was similar in lowland and mountainous districts as well as in urban and rural areas. The study indicates that traditional medicine is widely used and perceived as effective by a fairly large proportion of Lao people. The findings may form a basis for health sector reforms that are congruent with perceived local needs, e.g. in establishing a strategic plan for the development of the traditional medicine sector in Lao PDR.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Pakistan: Prospects and Limitations

Despite all the marvelous advancements in modern medicine, traditional medicine has always been practiced. More than 70% of the developing world's population still depends on the complementary and alternative systems of medicine (CAM). Cultural beliefs and practices often lead to self-care or home remedies in rural areas and consultation with traditional healers. Evidence-based CAM therapies have shown remarkable success in healing acute as well as chronic diseases. Alternative therapies have been utilized by people in Pakistan who have faith in spiritual healers, clergymen, hakeems, homeopaths or even many quacks. These are the first choice for problems such as infertility, epilepsy, psychosomatic troubles, depression and many other ailments. The traditional medicine sector has become an important source of health care, especially in rural and tribal areas of the country. The main reasons for consulting a CAM healer is the proximity, affordable fee, availability, family pressure and the strong opinion of the community. Pakistan has a very rich tradition in the use of medicinal plants for the treatment of various ailments. It necessitates the integration of the modern and CAM systems in terms of evidence-based information sharing. The health-seeking behavior of the people especially in developing countries calls for bringing all CAM healers into the mainstream by providing them with proper training, facilities and back-up for referral. A positive interaction between the two systems has to be harnessed to work for the common goal of improving health of the people.

Herbology

Medicinal herbs have been used for thousands of years. Through lore, documentation, and experimentation herbal medicine has withstood the scientific trends of the 20th century. There has been a re-emergence of interest in herbal alternatives for medical treatment. There are, however, challenges to effective treatment using herbs. We lack standardization criteria, knowledge, and understanding of herbal applications and trust and knowledge from the traditional medicine sector. These challenges can be overcome with realization of respect, understanding, and acceptance from the traditional medical sector and the alternative herbal medicine sector.

Health care for some: a Nigerian study of who gets what, where and why?

The persistent underdevelopment of health in the Third World belies the optimism of the "Health care for all by the year 2000" campaign. In order to understand the underdevelopment of health, it is essential to examine the historical evolution of specific health systems. These ideas are developed in a case study of health care in Kano State, Nigeria. The nature and contemporary development of the health care system, which includes state voluntary agency and private sector outlets for Western scientific medicine and a large and varied traditional medicine sector, are examined. Although the deepening health care crisis may potentially spur a reconsideration of priorities and strategies, past experience suggests that a stubborn retention of a pared-down and increasingly unjust version of the present system is more likely.