Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
have been found active even in controlled clinical evaluation. The results of these investigations
provide insights only into a part of the picture, not the whole activity of healing. Healing is not to
be viewed simply as a lifeless product of molecules reacting with cells and tissues, but as a produc-
tion, not as an act that ends with the administration of remedies, but as an activity that includes all
aspects of living. It presents itself to us as the recurring work of the spirit, not as a finished and final
product; if it were not so, but was sterile and inert, then the humanistic aspect of healing would be
lost. For symbols to hold any meaning, the validation has to be recognized within the practitioner's
primary experience, beliefs, and perception of the world around the practitioner. The validity of the
traditional medical system, therefore, does not depend on the results of secondary evaluation but on
the utility of the experience to the subscribers of that system of healing.
It is not my intention to repeat all the facts and arguments that have been raised in the past
to support the general thesis that certain objects, artifacts, rituals, and things used in traditional
African medicine are symbols whose meaning is the only path to understanding the complex pro-
cess of healing in Africa. In a topic devoted to medicinal plants, one can only offer very condensed
and concise “statements” on the subject and refer the reader to earlier publications and the refer-
ences listed at the end of each section.
The basic point is that African traditional medicine has a systematic methodology of its own.
The fact that it may not conform to the present level of knowledge in de facto
science should not
be held against it. The cures dispensed by the medicine man are not all products of chance, but
results of years of careful experimentation and painstaking observations. The pharmacopoeia of the
African medicine man is rich with cures for many diseases that afflicted him, including herbs for
snakebite, whooping cough, dysentery, infectious diseases, diabetes, and the expulsion of intestinal
worms. Modern practitioners of the profession have given indications that they can cure intractable
human diseases, such as cancer and various immune deficiency disorders.
The herbs discussed in this topic were selected after a careful study of the available literature
and from the results of field studies conducted by the Phytotherapy Research Laboratory of the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the 1990s and now undertaken by the International Centre for
Ethnomedicine and Drug Development (InterCEDD). There are three different plant lists. The first
is a catalog of the plants used as ingredients of polyprescriptions for one or more diseases. Only
plants cited in authenticated sources are listed. The selection has been limited to those species that
are used widely and occur in fairly large areas of the continent. The second list contains major
plants used specifically for a given disease state; in most cases, the active constituents are included.
The original list published in the earlier edition of this topic was from a selection made from an
informal survey in which 12 acknowledged experts in African medicinal plants were asked to indi-
cate the species they considered to be among the 100 most important therapeutic agents from their
geographic zones. Only about 30 plants were finally included in all the subsets compiled by my
sources, and I selected the final list of 162 plants to be profiled as representing the major medicinal
plants of Africa. In this edition, the list has been expanded to over 170 plants. As in the previous
case, the selection was based on many factors, including frequency of use, known biological activ-
ity, chemical constituents, and relative importance based on the main therapeutic indications of the
species. Some arbitrariness in the selection was inevitable, and some better-known species were not
included solely because such species were of very limited distribution or were considered not native
to the continent. Minor species that are used in a manner similar to that of better-known species
are also excluded. It is my sincere hope that this topic will help in a better understanding of African
medicine and medicinal herbs. The treatment modalities and the therapeutic agents discussed here
should be evaluated within the social context in which they are employed.
In presenting this volume, I am under no illusion that it will spontaneously remove the skepti-
cism and suspicion people have about traditional African medicine. It is my hope, however, that it
will stimulate some awareness and perhaps an appreciation of a system of medicine that has sus-
tained a people for so many generations. I have not attempted to offer justifications for some of the
