A RETURN TO TRADITION: HARNESSING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF NATURAL MEDICINES
While the world turned to new mRNA biotechnology to combat the coronavirus pandemic, various institutions in Ghana looked to discover natural therapeutic treatments. Traditional medicine is an important arm of the healthcare system in Ghana and about 70% of the population relies primarily on this approach. Ghana has successfully used medicinal plants to treat a plethora of illnesses from tropical infectious diseases to strokes, fevers and diabetes [1]. There is a rich heritage surrounding herbal medicine and many indigenous communities possess bountiful knowledge regarding local medicinal plant biodiversity.
Ghana has developed a strong network of institutions dedicated to expanding traditional medical practices including the Ministry of Health’s Traditional and Alternative Medicines Directorate as well as the Centre for Plant Medicine Research and the Federation of Traditional Medicine. These government and research organizations are working to reduce mistrust between allopathic and traditional practitioners, standardize quality assessments and register and track providers in order to harness the full potential of herbal remedies. Natural products play an influential role in drug development across the globe, especially in the management of chronic diseases as well as in the treatment of malaria, HIV, diabetes and hypertension, leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Ghana [2]. Properly documenting indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants and tracking their usage will expand our capacity to produce and diffuse a wider variety of therapies as well as ensure that we do not overexploit ecological habitats.
Many obstacles hinder the integration of traditional and allopathic medicine including a lack of research and standardization of traditional medicine. For example, the preparation of decoctions and infusions was found to vary greatly, indicating that herbal medicines made by the same or different healers could vary in potency, which has significant implications for the treatment of patients [1]. Additionally, scientific evaluation of medicinal plants supported by pharmacological, toxicological and clinical studies is necessary to ensure the safety of the medicines and prove their effectiveness for widespread distribution. If traditional medicine is systematically organized, then combining traditional and allopathic practices into a cohesive treatment schema has the potential to greatly improve access to and quality of healthcare across the country.
The successful integration of both practices will expand healthcare coverage across socioeconomic boundaries as traditional medicine practitioners are more likely to speak the same language as the patient, live close by, and charge more affordable fees [3]. Furthermore, while Ghana has a Universal Health Coverage policy, it only effectively provides essential services to about 50% of the population because modern medical practitioners are overly concentrated in urban centers at the expense of rural areas [4]. Native healers remain the primary health providers in rural areas, and equipped with the right tools within a proper legal framework, they can evolve into a point of reference for both domains of healing, thus providing adequate accessibility to both herbal medicines and modern drug therapies.
When both traditional and allopathic medical providers as well as government agencies collaborate in the production of new drugs and provision of health services, medical coverage can expand to more people, therapies can be combined to improve patient outcomes and biodiversity conservation can be enhanced.
Written by Jessica Barmine
References :
Augustine A. Boadu, Alex Asase, "Documentation of Herbal Medicines Used for the Treatment and Management of Human Diseases by Some Communities in Southern Ghana", Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2017, Article ID 3043061, 12 pages, 2017.
Abdullahi, Ali Arazeem. “Trends and challenges of traditional medicine in Africa.” African journal of traditional, complementary, and alternative medicines : AJTCAM vol. 8,5 Suppl (2011): 115-23. doi:10.4314/ajtcam.v8i5S.5
Edward L. Trimble, Preetha Rajaraman, Integrating Traditional and Allopathic Medicine: An Opportunity to Improve Global Health in Cancer, JNCI Monographs, Volume 2017, Issue 52, November 2017, lgx011, https://doi.org/10.1093/jncimonographs/lgx011
“Ghana.” Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 15 Sept. 2017, www.healthdata.org/ghana.