By Dr Tony Michel Monda
Herbal biomedicine is a unique medical area of expertise.
Traditionally many Zimbabwean indigenous people believed the forest to be their Pharmacy for both veterinary and human needs- a trend which is slowly being recognised by Modern Western medical science today.
In an article penned by Dr. Michelina Andreucci – A renowned Zimbabwean Italian researcher-she wrote about how’ traditional practices of soil-preservation, disease control, cures and management were based on ethno- botanical medical knowledge and other indigenous practices of phytotherapy.’
Phytotherapy is basically summed up as a medical or veterinary treatment or cure based on plants.
It is an ancient African system of medicine based on the belief that plant extracts and products provide natural remedies for healing many medical disorders.
She elaborated how processes known as Phytoremediation in African bio-agricultural terms relate to the decontamination of soils using plants. This process was an old indigenous practice used by Ancient Zimbabwean agro-experts.
It was a procedure of decontaminating soil by using plants to absorb heavy metals or other pollutants, prior to planting the required crop.
Additionally, in the bio-agro sphere, traditional Shona Korekore people of Zimbabwe practiced organic bioremediation to sanitise and restore contaminated soils by introducing bacteria and other organisms to neutralise and consume harmful contaminants in the soil.
Other phyto-based processes, such as bio separation involves an organic method of separating components of volatile or toxic substances.
Here, biological agents such as flora and enzymes are used to purify water or proteins and are even used in the manufacture of food and pharmaceuticals.
On the medical front some Zimbabwean traditional healers and ethno-veterinarians identified and grew phytoprotectant plants.
From these plants healers extracted compounds that prevented the progression of diseases such as cancer in both animal and man.
Dr. Michelina Andreucci’s hypothesis is evidently reinforced in a book entitled “Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan, who states;
“From plants come chemical compounds that nourish, heal ,poison and delight the senses, others that rouse and put to sleep and intoxicate, and a few with the astounding power to alter consciousness—even to plant dreams in the brains of awake humans.”
Plants are nature’s alchemists, expert at transforming water, soil, and sunlight into an array of precious substances, many of them beyond the ability of human beings to conceive, much less manufacture. Many plants were regarded as a universal cure for disease and some as a preventative cures.
Herbs offer a different approach to chronic disease and one or more herbs that provide multiple mechanisms by which the major sign or complaint can be resolved.
The diseases that dominate human medicine today are different from the ones described a century ago or 1000 years ago. Similarly modern approaches to Animal health and disease control have also transformed – often in similar ways.
Currently in the world of animal health there are high-quality treatment options for patients with bacterial and parasitic diseases, but many veterinary practitioners face challenges with complex cancer, allergic and degenerative diseases.
For this, if for no other reason, the traditions of herbal medicine deserve further enquiry, scrutiny and recognition.
According to researcher Dr. Michelina Rudo Andreucci-
“In Zimbabwe notably indigenous herbal medicine for both Man and animal is channelled, guided, justified and proven by the past, -whereas most of Western medicine is experimental, inspired by new and sometimes untested remedies many of which may have detrimental health side effects overtime.”
In fact, the last hundred years of medical trajectory have realised the importance of herbal medicine, particularly the re-emergence of the art of veterinary herbal medicine.
The use of herbs and other medicinal plants is an integral part of ethnoveterinary practices. It is interesting to note that a number of medicinal plants found in different countries are used to cure the same ailments in livestock.
The modes of application included giving fresh pieces of plant material, fermenting, drying, grinding, dissolving in drinking water and sprinkling birds. Most of the plants were dissolved in drinking water, including soot.
Aloe Vera could be given as freshly chopped pieces, soaked in fresh drinking water for the animals. Similarly Allium cepa, Allium sativam, Ficus exasperate and Erythrina Abyssinia could be utilized in more than one mode of application.
Acknowledging the ancient and evolving relationship between plants and mammals-consumers of ethno-botanical medicine and veterinary medicine have shown that they desire a variety of medical approaches-when Western medicine fails.
Herbal treatments have persisted in the veterinary domain thanks to veterinarians realising that animals are very close to nature and respond and adapt well to natural cures. Additionally there are many beneficial polyvalent actions of plant medicines.
For many of the reasons cited here veterinarians are using herbal medicine again. A recent survey of 2675 veterinarians in Europe mainly in Austria, Germany and Switzerland suggested that approximately three quarters of veterinarians in those countries are using herbal medicine, especially for chronic diseases and as adjunct therapy since the early 2000’s.
In herbal medicine, polypharmacy is de rigueur. It is basically an essential and unique component of Herbalists who try to anticipate prognoses and treat associated problems and possible adverse effects of treatment in a proactive way. Herbal medicine is used in ways that differ from the ways conventional pharmacologic drugs are used.
Evidentially herbs also have nutritional elements, and because pharmaceutical elements interact with one another polyvalently, the clinical effects may have greater depth and breadth than those seen in conventional Western drug therapy.
Animal patient prescriptions these days are based on both the pharmacology and the traditional indications for the herbs. Most veterinarians view their animal patients as kin, and ethno-botanical veterinary herbalists as often referred to in Zimbabwe and most parts of Africa may expand the family even further.
This writer noted in a study carried out in the amongst indigenous horsemen in First nation pueblos Western plains of the USA, who depended on their domesticated animals (such as the Plains tribes and their indigenous horses) had superior knowledge of plant medication than did other tribes.
They were natural Equine herbalists.
Similarly in Zimbabwe most poor resourced communities depend on ethno veterinary medicine for treating livestock diseases.
It is well known that most rural households in Africa and other continents keep poultry native to their areas, especially chickens. About 72% of indigenous animal husbandry farmers and households kept indigenous chickens’, turkeys, guinea fowls and ducks.
In poultry health management-diseases are a constraint in poultry production. Close to Ninety eight percent of rural households relied on ethno veterinary interventions only, in treating poultry diseases. Several well-known herbal medicinal plants were noted in rural and peri-urban Zimbabwe.
For example it is well known that Soot was used as a remedy for many chicken diseases. Interestingly, most of the ethno-botanical remedies were used to treat more than one ailment. Coccidiosis, respiratory problems and lice were among the health challenges recorded.
Various modes of remedy application were employed by the households.
This ethnoveterinary knowledge was mostly passed on orally from older to younger generations.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), at least 80% of people in developing countries depend largely on indigenous practices for the control and treatment of various diseases affecting both human beings and animals.
The use of herbs and other medicinal plants have for ages been an integral part of ethno veterinary practices. It is interesting to note that a number of medicinal plants found in Zimbabwe and different countries are used to cure the same ailments in livestock-clearly illustrating the uniformity and universality of ethno botanical medicine.
Increased attention on ethno veterinary medicine (EVM) is now wholly justified but needs to be instituted professionally in Zimbabwe and introduced in Universities.
About Author
