CHAPTER ONE
1.0INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the Study
Traditional medicine as it’s well known is a cultural gem of various community around the world and encompasses all kinds of folk medicine, unconventional medicine and indeed any kind of therapeutically method that have been handed down by the tradition of a community or ethnic group (Adesina, 2003).
By the World Health Organization (WHO, 1976) definition, Traditional medicine is the sum total of all knowledge and practices, whether explicable or not used in diagnosis prevention and elimination of physical, mental or social imbalance and relying exclusively on practical experience and observation handed down from generation to generation whether verbally or in writing. With these description, various forms of medicines and therapies such as herbal medicines, massage, homeopathy, mud bath, music therapy, wax bath, reflexology, dance therapy, self-exercise therapies, radiation and vibration, osteopathy, chiropractics aroma-therapy, preventive medicine, radiant heat therapy etc are a few elements of traditional medicine. It does show that a large country of the size of Nigeria with high population and diverse culture and traditions should be rich in traditional medicine and should have eminent, knowledgeable and respectful traditional healers to take care of the teeming population.
A farmer engages in agriculture and raises living organisms for food or raw material for medicinal purposes (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia) a herb farmers is usually a farm where herbs are grown for market sale. Herbs may be for culinary, medicinal or aromatic use (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia) some traditional Health practitioners’ herbs have been given recognition by the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The WHO has also recognize the central role traditional medicine plays in the 21st century, specially in the areas of prevention and management of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS among others. Hence in 2002, it lunched its first ever comprehensive traditional medicine strategy (Adesina, 2008). The strategies are: Development of national policies on the evaluation and regulation of traditional medicine; Creating a stronger evidence base and quality of Traditional medicine product and practice; Ensuring availability and affordability of traditional medicine including essential herbal medicine; Promoting therapeutically sound use of traditional medicine by providers and consumers and Documenting traditional medicine and remedies to ameliorate physical illness as well as psychological and spiritual comfort.
Traditional medicine embraces ways of protecting and restoring health that existed before the arrival of orthodox medicine (WHO, 2001) World Health Organization therefore defines Traditional medicine as diverse health practices, approaches, knowledge and belief incorporating animals, plants and other mineral-based medicine, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercise applied singularly or in combination to maintain well-being as well as to treat, diagnosis or prevent illness (WHO 2000; 2002). Buor (1993) in his study on the impact of traditional medicine in the health care delivery services in Ghana argues that traditional medicine involves the use of folk population primarily of unorthodox and unscientific methods for curative and prevention of diseases. It has been debated whether the word “Traditional” should be used at all as it implies some degree of stagnancy or backwardness (Hougen et al., 1998).
Tribes, culture and indigenous people of nations throughout the world have evolve systems of traditional medicine for generations and community have found most of these medical practices valuable and affordable and still depends on them for their health care needs. The WHO estimates that about 60% of the world’s population uses herbal medicines for treating their sickness and up to 80% of the population living in African region depends on traditional medicine for some aspect of primary health care (WHO 2002).
Indeed in rural communities in Edo and Delta states, like other developing countries and elsewhere, traditional medicine as it appears today will continue to remain a vital and permanent part of the people’s own health care.
Traditional practitioners use a wide range of treatments ranging from magic to bio-medical treatment methods such as fasting and dieting, bathing, massage, and surgical procedures. Migraines, coughs, abscesses and pleurisy are often cured using the method of “bleed-cupping” after which an herbal ointment is applied with a follow-up herbal drug. Some cultures also rub hot ointment across the patient’s eyelid to cure headache. Malaria is cured by drinking and using steam from an herbal mixture. In some locality, the natives have been known, for the use of the fat of Boa constrictor to cure gout and rheumatism, it is thought to relieve chest pain when rubbed into the skin.
Ailments have over the years been a scourge and a threat to mankind. People from different cultural background have used different herbal plant, plant extract, animal product and mineral substance (Addea-Mensah, 1992) as the means to care, cure and treat ill-health with disease prevention and with health promotion (Curtis and Taket, 1996) since pre-historic times.