FG should work with herbalists to deliver healthcare service – Prof. Ajaguna

Professor Olatunde Peter Ajaguna has urged the federal government to partner with herbal scientists for efficient healthcare delivery to Nigerians.

He gave the advice yesterday while delivering the 24th inaugural lecture of the University of Abuja (Uniabuja) with the theme: “Ethno-Pharmacology in the triangle of man, animal and disease.”

Ajaguna, who highlighted the necessary steps to combat high-blood pressure and diarrhea with natural herbal medicine, said the accumulative knowledge of herbal medicinal system and the large bio-diversity of Nigeria offered great advantages to the drug industry.

According to him, the potential medicinal values of herbal plant products have not been properly harnessed in Nigeria thereby robbing the country of necessary foreign exchange, research and development.

The Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology said: “Synthetic drugs are failing, toxicity is on the rise, the cost is unbearable, and we have plants – very hot bio-diversity which we can leverage and plan for almost all the disease of man and animals.

“Men and women are dying at the age of 30 and 40. So, it is time for us to actually get back and develop these things (herbs) and be in the same state as we see in China and India. These countries have improved research and development in herbal medicine and then capacity of their herbal scientists.

“We have not been able to take some of our works to their level of drug development because, we lack infrastructure within the country.

“What do we have in the country in the country today? Government is spending paltry sum of money on research.”

He added that “government should also legislate and regulate the practice of herbal medicine because without regulation and standardization, there is no way you can enter into the global market of herbal drugs.

“There is also no way the health and the well-being of the can be improved without governments involvement with the practitioners of ethno-pharmacology,”

The 24th inaugural lecture of the institution attracted members of the academia, students, and members of the public from all over the country.

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