Herbal Medicine: Definition and Terminologies Flashcards
Prof. Ajayi
According to the WHO, what are Herbal Medicine?
Herbal medicines are finished labeled medicinal products containing, as active ingredients, aerial or underground parts of plants or other plant material,
or combination thereof, whether in the crude state, or as plant preparations.
What are herbs?
Herbs include crude plant material such as leaves, flowers, fruit, seed, stems, wood, bark, roots, rhizomes or other plant parts, which may be entire, fragmented or powdered.
What are herbal materials?
Herbal materials include, in addition to herbs, fresh juices, gums, fixed oils, essential oils, resins and dry powders of herbs.
What are herbal preparations?
Herbal preparations are the basis for finished herbal products and may include comminuted or powdered herbal materials, or extracts, tinctures and fatty oils of herbal materials.
They are produced by extraction, fractionation, purification, concentration, or other physical or biological processes.
They also include preparations made by steeping or heating herbal materials in alcoholic beverages and/or honey, or in other materials
What are active ingredients?
Active ingredients refer to ingredients of herbal medicines with therapeutic activity.
In herbal medicines where the active ingredients have been identified, the
preparation of these medicines should be standardized. In cases where it is not possible to identify the active ingredients, the whole herbal medicine may be considered as one active ingredient.
What is therapeutic activity?
Therapeutic activity of a herbal medicine refers to the successful prevention, diagnosis, treatment or improvement of the symptoms of physical and mental illnesses, as well as beneficial alteration or regulation of the physical and mental status of the body.
What are finished herbal products?
Finished herbal products consist of herbal preparations made from one or more herbs.
If more than one herb is used, the term mixture herbal product can also be used.
Finished herbal products may contain excipients. However, if chemically defined active substances have been added, including synthetic compounds or isolated constituents from
herbal materials, they can no longer be considered to be herbal.
Who is a traditional healer?
This is a person who is recognised by the community in which he lives as competent to provide health care by using vegetable, animal and mineral substances and certain other methods.
These methods are based on social, cultural and religious beliefs and backgrounds prevalent in the community.
Mention 10 names by which traditional healers are know across different communities.
- Healer
- Traditional Healers
- Traditional Medical Practitioners
- Traditional Doctors
- Witch Doctors
- Barefoot Doctors (China)
- Babuschka (Russia)
- Curannderos (Cuba)
- Diviners
- Seers
- Spiritualists
- Indigenous Doctors
- People’s Doctors
In Francophone countries, traditional healers were called:
- Guerisseurs
- Praticiens (3rd OAU/STRC International Symposium 1979)
- Tradipraticen de Sante (5th OAU/STRC International Symposium 1993)
OAU/STRC - Organisation of African Unity / Science, Technical and Research Commission
What are the 5 basic types of traditional healers in Africa?
- The Diviner / Fortune Teller
- The Herbalist
- The Midwife
- The Surgeon
- The Specialist Medicine Man
Discuss the herbalist.
The herbalist cures mainly with plants which he gathers fresh. He is like the general physician in TM and is expected to be knowledgeable in all aspects of healing, using herbs for treatment.
When the herbs are seasonal plants, they are collected at the appropriate time of the year and preserved in the doctors goat-skin bag.
After careful diagnosis, he prescribes drugs in regulated doses.
The herbalist cannot determine the origin of the illness; it is the diviner/seer that does that.
Sometimes, however, the medicine man serves as both herbalist and diviner. Failure of treatment after diagnosis can be linked to a stronger enemy counteracting the treatment in some parts of Africa.
Discuss midwives and birth attendants.
They know how to diagnose pregnancy and the position of the fetus.
To confirm pregnancy, they administer special plants, and if menstruation does not return, it is concluded that conception has taken place.
In some parts of Africa there is a distinction between** the midwife** who takes care of pregnant women and attends their delivery, and the birth attendants who simply attend to women in labour.
Sometimes, however, they are both referred to as Traditional birth attendantsTBA’s.
Discuss the surgeons
They have been known to perform different types of surgery using various types of instrument.
For example, abdominal surgery, removal of objects penetrating the lungs.
Masai surgeons are reputed to successfully treat pleurisy and pneumonitis by drilling holes into the chest of the patient.
They are also known to carryout amputation under the effect of anesthesia.
Cutting off epiglottis for the treatment of various forms of illness e.g. surgeons in Bufuleroland.
The orthopeadic surgeon or bonesetters are also specialist surgeons.
Other surgical procedures include: tribal marks, female circumcision, male circumcision, removal of whitlow, piercing of the ear lobe, tooth extraction, trepanation and c-section
Discuss the specialist.
These are traditional healers with highly specialized skills.
Some are priests. Others are gifted people with the secrets to cure some specific intractable diseases. In western medicine such healers would be referred to as “consultants”, but in traditional African medical practice, they are respected more like priests and are only consulted on the advice
of a fortune teller/diviner
