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TRADITIONAL MEDICINES |
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Traditional medicines
The evidence for effectiveness of traditional medicinal plants in the treatment of infections is quite different from that, for example, of modern antibiotics. Traditional healers have for decades used plants throughout southern Africa and Latin America, accumulating evidence that is not easily accessed by western medicine.
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In the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in Colombia, CIET supports efforts to revive traditional knowledge and medicines. |
In Southern Africa, we are compiling a user-friendly catalogue of medicinal plants readily available throughout the region. Our database documents around 130 plants used in treating AIDS sufferers, photographs of their active components (leaves, roots, bark) and a brief description of how to cultivate them. We have also documented their application, reported benefit and the evidence on which this is based. Many of these plants are now being grown in a small garden in Johannesburg, where we are testing the practicalities of home-gardens.
In parallel, we are conducting systematic reviews of the published literature on each of the plants or their active ingredients. The next step is to validate the catalogue by consultation with several collaborating traditional healers and, for a selected handful where this is a gap in the literature but there is reason to formalize the knowledge base, to begin controlled trials in collaboration with medical practitioners.
The objective is to select a handful of 10-12 plants with a proven role in management of skin, chest and other common problems affecting people living with AIDS. An illustrated handbook will describe the cultivation and use of these plants, targeted to people with AIDS who do not have easy or regular access to health facilities. This will be the focus of a randomized controlled trial, testing the role of the handbook and a startup supply of plants in the reduction of suffering, costs and time spent accessing health care, and implications for the local health services.
In Colombia, CIET supports the joint efforts of Western-trained medical practitioners, academics, and traditional healers to recover and promote traditional knowledge and practices, including the promotion of homegrown medicinal plants for self-care.
See: Andersson N. Western and African traditional medicine -- working together on AIDS. British Medical Journal. 2005; 331:785
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