By Ishaya Ibrahim
Acting News Editor
Herbal medicine, also called botanical medicine, refers to using a plant’s seeds, berries, roots, leaves or flowers for medicinal purposes.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 80 per cent of people globally rely on it for part of their primary health care.
A survey by the University of Maryland Medical Centre found that in Germany, about 600 to 700 plant-based medicines are available and prescribed by 70 per cent of German physicians.
Japan, with the world’s longest life expectancy of 84 years, has institutionalised herbal medication for diagnosis and treatment of illnesses.
Public dissatisfaction with the cost of prescription, combined with an interest in returning to natural or organic remedies, has led to an increase in herbal medicine use in the United States.
The herbal industry in Nigeria was not regulated until recently. This made the well organised Chinese herbal products to flood the Nigerian market.
Adeyinka Adebayo, a leading herbal practitioner accredited by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Administration and Control (NAFDAC), hopes to reverse it.
He disclosed that in the past 17 years, he has been treating hypertension, diabetes, female infertility, fibroid, epilepsy, hypatitis B, liver problem, HIV, cancer, pile, arthritis, stomach ulcer, asthma, stroke, and many other ailments with remarkable success.
“I always do research on how to make sure that it is not only the medical drugs that are going to be the alternative to the problem we are facing.
“I have always strived to see that the plants and leaves around us are going to be the most effective alternative,” he said.
Adebayo uses natural extracts from plants for treatment.
“Agriculturalists say weed is an unwanted plant. But in my observation, weed is a plant whose function has not been discovered. It is only weed because we have not yet discovered what it can be used for.”
Those Adebayo has treated speak highly of him.
A politician and businessman based in Lagos, Shegun Omolewu, said his herbal therapy has proven to be effective.
“Somebody was having running stool for three months and was admitted to hospital. Once I introduced him to Adebayo, and he used his medicine, the stooling stopped.
“Another man suffered stroke. Later, it affected his eyes. The report I am getting now is that he is getting better after Adebayo started treating him,” Omolewu disclosed.
He said he prefers herbal medicine because it goes straight into the blood stream, unlike synthesised medicine.
He plans to support Adebayo with funding to enable his products compete favourably with Chinese herbal medicine.
Iliya Bulus, a military officer in Lagos, said he has been suffering from high blood sugar in the past five years, managing it with orthodox medicine, but that Adebayo’s mixture helped normalise his sugar level which has remained stable for sometime now.
Augustine Ibrahim, another resident of Lagos, said his two-year-old child was always having stubborn cough, especially in the night, which stopped when Adebayo gave him herbal treatment.
