African traditional medicines, similar to other traditional medicines such as those from China and India, have been used by African people long before the advent of “modern” medicine, and still continue to be used for the treatment of a range of diseases.
As we celebrate African Traditional Medicine Day on 31 August to promote the important role of the continent’s rich biodiversity in improving well-being, one needs to acknowledge the role that Covid-19 played in shining a spotlight on African traditional medicines.
Responding to the pandemic, rapid vaccine research and development and the repurposing of drugs in the fight against Covid-19 happened on great scales. Traditional medicines also benefited from renewed interest as a possible solution for this deadly disease.
African traditional medicines, similar to other traditional medicines such as those from China and India, have been used by African people long before the advent of “modern” medicine, and still continue to be used for the treatment of a range of diseases. However, most people still do not believe in their value as medicines for serious and chronic illnesses.
This might be because of the lack of scientific research behind these remedies and the dominance of the Western knowledge system and its wide acceptance by younger generations who place more value on Western values and lifestyles while being oblivious to African traditional medicines.
But in Africa, where about 80% of the population is said to rely on traditional medicine for their basic healthcare needs according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), African traditional medicines should be given a more prominent role. They should be more visible on shelves in big pharmacies and prescribed by healthcare practitioners beyond just traditional health practitioners. They should be more mainstream than what is currently the case.
Great strides in African traditional medicines
Over the past few years, the University of the Free State (UFS), through its department of pharmacology, has made great strides in researching the possibilities and potential of African traditional medicines. My team and I, together with other role players in the institution, are in the process of establishing one of the most advanced research and development pharmacology laboratories in the country after receiving a R58-million grant from the government.
UFS is recognised as a national leader in pharmacology as well as research and development of indigenous knowledge systems and traditional medicines. The university has developed and built infrastructure in this field of scientific research and has the best modern equipment for the training, teaching, and development of prototypes and products for commercialisation based on indigenous knowledge systems. Interdisciplinary and interfaculty research is undertaken in this study area and we have an excellent track record of sound community engagement with relevant stakeholders.
The department has also been awarded an annual Technology Innovation Agency grant of R17-million for the next five years. Our African medicines innovations and technologies development research and teaching programme will help to recruit and employ the best skills throughout the research, development and herbal-medicine manufacturing value chains.
We received a department of science and innovation high-end infrastructure grant to build a laboratory, which will be a centre of excellence for the government, the WHO, and the African Union’s commission for social development. The grant will also be used to build a herbal medicine production facility and to pilot a health facility for traditional medicines.
I am pleased that a multinational private pharmaceutical company has come forward and will be collaborating with us to realise these plans. We are now, together with the WHO and the aforementioned company, entering into a collaboration agreement to work together on key projects in traditional medicine manufacturing and training.
Possible cures or remedies for Covid-19
As part of the Covid-19 response, traditional medicine therapies emerged as possible cures or remedies for the deadly disease. The pandemic certainly helped to improve the profile of African traditional medicines. In Cameroon, two complementary therapy products for Covid-19 have been approved by the government, while Madagascar’s herbal remedy, Covid-Organics Plus Curative, has been in phase II clinical trials.
Encouraging preliminary results have been reported around this clinical trial. Similar trials on traditional medicine products for Covid-19 – conducted according to WHO protocols – are also under way in other African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa, according to the WHO.
With regard to South Africa, the UFS pharmacology department and Farmovs received approval from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) to conduct the first multicentre controlled phase II clinical trial of a plant-based product, phela, on Covid-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms.
The main purpose of the clinical trial is to confirm that the product can treat Covid-19 and be registered by Sahpra. We confirmed that the medication works as an immune modulator to modulate the cytokine storm due to Covid-19, and also restores and normalises the patient’s immune system. This pivotal study is based on the modification of the WHO master protocol for clinical trials.
The study is ongoing at three sites, and we are considering the addition of two more sites. The development of phela has taken place under stringent scientific scrutiny in both preclinical and clinical research. The efficacy of phela as both an immune modulator and an anti-SARS-COV-2 treatment has been proven in both in vitro and in vivo studies with reproducible results, conducted by three independent research institutions and a science council.
Phela is a herbal product made of four medicinal plants. Traditionally phela has been used to treat a historical disease called muyaga, but recently it has been scientifically tested and found effective as an immune modulator that benefits persons with a compromised immune system.
The value and contribution of traditional medicines
The celebration of African Traditional Medicines Day reminds us of the value and contribution of traditional medicines. This year’s theme on the role of African traditional medicines in universal health coverage is most befitting, as we know that medicines from natural products are affordable, accessible and have almost no side effects. They have been advised for many generations and have been quite efficient in treating 90% of all currently known human diseases.
The annual celebration, therefore, aims to gain more support for the continent to fast-track the research and development of African traditional medicine products. It also promotes local manufacturing to make the traditional medicines available through our national health systems and encourages the training of younger generations in this field of science and research.
Support for local manufacturing of African traditional medicines will help bring traditional medicinal products into mainstream health systems and formal economies. This will also create jobs and wealth throughout all the African traditional medicines-manufacturing value chains – commercial cultivations, research and development, manufacturing, distribution, logistics and marketing.
This will help move the continent from dependency on aid from rich Western countries. Aid has not given Africans any independence, and has never been sustainable. It is, instead, enslaving the continent. Africa does not need aid if we want to be independent of big Western pharmaceutical companies and their expensive medicines, inequities and discrimination – as seen during the Covid-19 pandemic when African countries were left wanting when it came to access to personal protective equipment, diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
We need technical skills, technology development and skills transfer. Aid makes African dependent instead of independent. We need investment – financial, research and resources – into developing our own, locally and regionally sourced herbal-based medicine. Africa and her people need African solutions to its health problems – and who could be better suited to create them than the continent’s people through its indigenous knowledge systems?
Africa should be a leading force
In August, health ministers from Africa met at a special event, in Lomé, Togo – the WHO health ministers regional committee for Africa. The theme of the meeting was “Building Back Better: Rethinking and rebuilding resilient health systems in Africa to achieve universal healthcare and health security”.
The WHO Africa regional office hoped to develop a collective roadmap for building resilient health systems as it ramps up efforts to recover from the pandemic-induced disruption and build back better toward achieving universal health coverage and being prepared for future health emergencies.
As chairperson of the regional advisory committee on traditional medicine for Covid-19 response, I gave a presentation on fast-tracking research and development and local production of herbal medicines during the second session. The talk’s theme was “Lessons to guide strengthening of health product manufacturing in Africa”.
I am of the view that Covid-19 helped to prepare the continent for the next major event, and Africa will be better suited to deal with it. We cannot, again, be caught off guard and be left at the mercy of the West for donations. I presented ways to put in place systems for supporting local manufacturing of therapeutics, with participation through the African regional economic blocs.
Professor Motlalepula Matsabisa is the director of pharmacology in the faculty of health sciences at the University of the Free State
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.