Hope in herbs on the rise

Despite end of the doctor's seven-week strike in which government-owned hospitals shut their doors against patients, Lagosians still patronize herbal clinics.

During the period, many patients resorted to use of herbs to treat ailments.

In Lagos State, , herbal medicine men boldly came out en masse from the cocoons of their simple 'clinics' to gain street limelight promoting many products, which gained new heights in patronage by people of different ages, gender, education and income levels.

At Mushin, Agege, Ojo, Badagry and Mile 12, areas which Daily Independent visited, scores of herbal drug marketers were seen displaying processed and semi-processed medicines which they claimed could cure pile, hypertension, diabetes, malaria, hernia, diarrhoea, gonorrheoea, infertility and many other ailments.

Sule Wonaka, indigene of Zamfara State, who has been marketing herbal drugs in Lagos since 2000, boasted the power of herbs to cure all ailments. According to the 30-year-old, who said he inherited knowledge about traditional medicine from his grandfather, who taught him, "herbal remedies for irregular menstruation, ovarian cysts, tooth ache, deafness, skin diseases, fibroids and barreness." Confidently, he added: "I can use the root of plantain, extracts from cabbage leaves and bitter leaf to treat obesity and diabetes."

All the herbal medicine traders have bottles loaded with pieces of wood and medicinal powder which they stated if blended with water, lime, lemon juice, citrus or strong spirit become therapeutic wonder.

A co-trader, who plies his trade at the popular Mile 12 Market, is Ibrahim Borno. He explained that the bark, wood and latex of Iroko, a popular tree in the rain forest of Nigeria, can be used for the treatment of hernia while its powdered bark is used as antiseptic or for wound or dressing. Bark of oak, teak, acacia, bramble, nim, shea butter and rubber trees are said to be raw materials for health-giving drugs.

Middle-aged Fatimo Salawu was holding a jar of herbal drug bought at Iyana Oba, Ojo, Lagos, when Daily Independent accosted her a fortnight ago. The mother of four disclosed that her ailment was painful monthly periods which western medicine could not alleviate satisfactorily. "But since I started taking this herb about six months ago, I enjoy comfort and peace whenever my 'visitor' arrives," she said.

But the medical challenge of 38-year-old Queen Okafor, who lives at Idi-Oro, Mushin, Lagos, is not related with body pain, but infertility, an emotional trauma, especially in a society such as ours that cherishes children and considers infertile women almost as social misfits. Even though she bought herbal drug, she confided in the reporter that she just wanted to experiment or test its efficacy because doctors had tried their best possible on her health in the past eight years, but no cheery result yet. "I have been married for eight years now, but I have never been able to conceive despite visiting many hospitals and doing many tests which have proved that my general condition was satisfactory, my pelvic examination normal; even my husband's semen analysis showed no abnormality," she sadly told Daily Independent.

Not only trado-medical practitioners believe that herbs can make an infertile woman fecund, but men of God quote Ezekiel 47:12, Genesis 1:29 and Revelation 22:2, verses of the holy book that attest that plant are created for sustenance and improving health. In his book on the efficacy of herbs in healing entitled Nature Power, Reverend Father Anselm Adodo stated that kola pods, raw eggs, juice of lime, water and honey can be used to produce herbal remedy for infertility. Some herbalists have also claimed that the seed of cherry can be useful in curing impotence.