Those herbs are more than mere leaves

TANZANIA: HERBS are plants valued as medicine which can be used. It is possible to use any part of the plant, including seeds, root pods, roots, leaves, flowers, glue, inner pods, grains and sometimes fruits or other parts of the plant.

In the early days, our forefathers relied heavily on herbs to cure ailments, but as the years progress, people start questioning the effectiveness of herbs, considering that they are used without specific measurements.

A long time ago, it was common to witness elders head to the forest and emerge a few hours later carrying a variety of herbs and use them on sick villagers.

Some were suspicious of the medicine because it was only the old men and medicine men who knew the variety which contained a cure.

In the world of technology there are several biotechnological techniques that may be used to increase the synthesis of secondary metabolites from medicinal plants, including embryogenesis, organogenesis, cell line screening, media modification and elicitation.

Our researchers are striving to research to be able to find technologies that will help in the treatment of various diseases to bring convenience by using technology For now, people have all the reason to be optimistic because some of those herbs have been scientifically tested and proven to treat or cure.

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This research for these vital herbs was conducted by researchers from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), where they conducted research under the financing of the Science and Technology Commission (COSTECH) to find out if one particular tree popularly known as ‘Mti maziwa’ treats various diseases, including skin disease.

With the intensive research conducted by these experts, they came up with the conclusion that there are so many plants, trees and herbs which are medicinal, but first let us highlight on one particular tree called ‘Mti maziwa’ which was researched by SUA after COSTECH dished out 100m/- for the research.

The project conducted by SUA was meant to add value to herbs which will in turn benefit the community economically and health wise. The researchers, after carefully studying ‘Mti maziwa’, came to the conclusion that the tree can cure various skin diseases.

The SUA Head of Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, Prof Robinson Mdegela says they conducted the research because they wanted to know its safety on the consumer. Apart from this, he said it will also enable people living in villages to increase their income as well as motivate them to protect the tree.

“We started researching medicines derived from natural trees and how they can be treated, including their limitations so that we can see where to improve so that we can commercialise them by value addition.

“In Tanzania, bush tree treatment did not start today, because food, spices, medicine and herbs are derived from medicinal trees, but farmers get little income out of it, so we have decided to add value to enable farmers to increase their income,” said Prof Mdegela.

He says they started researching medicines derived from natural trees and how they can be used for treatment, including their limitations to see where to improve so that they can commercialize the product by using science and add value.

Not only that, once they add value, they should see how to change the product to enter the market and improve the business. Prof Mdegela said the medicine derived from ‘mti maziwa’ is called Synodal, where the product has a market within and outside Tanzania and it seems to help many people who suffer from skin disease.

“Herbal medicines are natural compounds from plants, leaves, bark, roots, seeds, or flowers that people can use for medicinal purposes,” said Prof Mdegela.

Prof Mdegela called on the community to value natural products as long as they focus on quality. “Scientists should unite to develop medicine and make our science and its products able to improve and commercialize,” he said.

Prof Mdegela says SUA researched more than 300 trees, where they discovered that the tree has the ability to treat fungus, non-communicable disease and viruses.

“Our research started by looking for a medicinal tree with active ingredients in collaboration with researchers from South Africa. The first process involved getting 12 extracts which indicated that they can treat diseases, that is why from these extracts we got 18 compounds, of which five to six were very good,” Prof Mdegela said, adding that after all this process they were able to make soap from the leaves and lotion from using roots and leaves.

Over 60 per cent of Tanzanians, at one time or another, are treated using traditional medicine on various diseases before or after going to health centres or hospitals which provide modern health-care services.

According to the then Ag Director of Health Care Services at the Ministry of Health, Caroline Damian, in 2022 the ministry through traditional and alternative health practice council managed to study 73 types of traditional medicine, out of which 20 had positive results, especially during the Covid 19 era.

The government through COSTECH has been funding various innovation and research projects to be able to solve challenges facing Tanzanian society.