By Ibrahim Mohammed Saani
Tema, June 28, GNA – Some Transactional Medicinal Vendors in Tema have defended the ability of a single medicinal plant to treat a variety of illnesses.
They attributed the efficacy of a medicinal plant to its distinct uses by various communities and the type of knowledge that was transmitted to them by their forebears.
People from different geographical places do not have the same information about the usage of a particular plant to heal an illness, Madam Agyawaa Antwi, herbal medicine vendor at Tema Ccommunity One has stated.
Madam Antwi was speaking as part of the weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! An initiative of the Tema Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency aimed at encouraging health-related communication.
She said one plant could be used to treat more than 10 diseases.
Madam Antwi emphasised that preparation for curative and preventive medicinal therapy was based on teachings passed down through cultures and genealogy and that some people used medicinal plants to produce food while others used them to treat wounds.
“In addition to being utilised as food, cassava leaves are used to treat erectile dysfunction and snakebite. Kola nuts are utilised in traditional treatments as well as being chewed to clean teeth and treat four different ailments, she noted.
“Several different ailment cures are created when the cocktail is being created, according to Madam Antwi. The mixture is combined to treat various illnesses because some illnesses exhibit the same symptoms because they have other underlying conditions,”
She explained that, just as it was not detrimental practice at hospitals to administer various types of medication to treat a single illness, the same was done in traditional practice with the aim of combining various plants to treat various ailments.
According to traditional healers, the industry, which was primarily supported by illiterate and unexposed people, was as a result of modern education and lifestyle, which caused people to favour Western medical care over traditional medicine and, as a result, to despise medicinal plant treatment.
The collection of Phlegms, rather than the intestine in the stomach, was what was causing the hernia, which is a punctured abdominal cavity at the groin that gives the area the appearance of an unnatural bulge. The early phases of medicinal plants can rectify this.
Another vendor, Kwabena Gyan, claimed that while some herbal remedies for hernias, for instance, could melt away the Phlegms in the early stages, once the groin starts to protrude, only surgery in a hospital could repair the condition.
The difficulty the conventional herb sector had, according to Mr. Gyan, was their inability to make accurate diagnosis because they relied on the information provided by their consumers.
“Before coming to them, I suggest that patients go to the hospital for a proper diagnosis so that the appropriate medication may be given,” he said.
The programme also aims at creating a forum for the transmission of health information to impact individuals’ personal health decisions through better health literacy.
The public health advocacy platform “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility” looks at the elements of four different health communication strategies: informing, instructing, convincing, and promoting.
GNA