IDENTIFYING ISSUES AFFECTING THE CONSERVATION, CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION OF POTENT MEDICINAL PLANTS SPECIES RELEVANT TO MALARIA TREATMENT

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IDENTIFYING ISSUES AFFECTING THE CONSERVATION,
CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION OF POTENT MEDICINAL
PLANTS SPECIES RELEVANT TO MALARIA TREATMENT

• PRESENTATION BY
• MARTHA NYAWERA NJAMA
• PROMETRA KENYA
• THE AFRICA HERBAL ANTI-MALARIAL
• MEETING- ICRAF- MARCH 20-22, 2006.

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CONTENTS

• Introduction
• TMPs Experience in Treating Malaria in Kenya
• List of Commonly Used Plants in Treating Malaria
• Sustainable Management and Use of Promising
  Medicinal Plants

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CONTENTS CONTD

• Important Factors Worth Considering for Improving
  the State of Art
• Administration of Plant Medicine A Case Study
• Recommendations

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INTRODUCTION

• 1.1 Problem
• Malaria infection has been one of the most
  prevalent and challenging problems in Kenya since
  time immemorial and although enormous strides
  have been made in trying to control it, malaria
  has remained the top killer disease surpassing
  even new-comers like the dreaded HIV/AIDS and
  ranging much higher than road accidents.
• Initially, malaria had only been rampant in the
  low lying and humid parts of the country, but now
  the disease has spread further into the highland
  areas more especially with the recent emergence
  of the highland strain in the upper and colder
  parts of the country.

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INTRODUCTION CONTD

• 1.2 STATUS
• Hospital records of a study carried out
  (1990-1997) in an endemic area of western Kenya
  showed malaria epidemics occurring almost
  annually, from May to July, with an annual attack
  rate of 50.
• It also showed that 32 of the deaths in
  hospitals were caused by malaria.
• A further survey showed that only 8 had
  travelled to an area with known malaria
  transmission 30 days before diagnosis..

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INTRODUCTION CONTD

• Altitude is thought to be a proxy for
  temperature, so the actual limiting factor for
  malaria at high altitude is the effect of the
  lower temperature on the parasite. Thus, despite
  the effect of altitude on the ambient
  temperature, microclimate factors (e.g heated
  houses ) can play an important role in
  facilitating malaria transmission and epidemics
  at higher elevations.
• The main facilitating factor in all this is the
  fact that approximately 80 of Kenyan land is
  arid and semi-arid (lowland) while on the other
  hand 20 is arable (uplands).

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INTRODUCTION CONTD

• 1.3 Challenges
• In its efforts to bring the disease under
  control, the government has basically relied on
  biomedical treatment as the main source.
• It has been found that while some of these
  anti-malarial drugs such as quinine and other
  synthetic drugs work, others have been found
  grossly wasting.
• While this is the case, the use of herbal drugs
  to combat malaria has been going on since the
  beginning of time, with more and more people
  reportedly turning to herbal medicine for quite
  some time now due to these three main factors
  first, the distance to the biomedical outlets
  (hospitals and health centers), is simply
  unmanageable in most rural Kenya.

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CONTD

• Secondly, anti malaria drugs have become too
  costly and therefore unaffordable to the common
  man.
• Lastly, malaria is becoming more increasingly
  resistant to the available biomedical drugs. This
  is not to mention the fact that in most cases
  there could be a facility like a health center
  but with no drugs.

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TRADITIONAL MEDICINE PRACTITIONERS EXPERIENCE IN
MANAGING MALARIA IN KENYA

• Traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs)
  have used a wide range of plant based treatments
  (in various forms) to combat malaria. Some have
  adopted Artimisia Annua which is prevalent in
  Chiulu Hills and Kajulu Hills. Others have also
  tried Artemisia afra (found in Kajiado district
  and some part of Western Kenya) but whose
  efficacy has not been tested. However, the main
  challege to the TMPs remains the mode of
  preparation and application whether in its raw
  form, boiled, powder, ash etc and in what
  quantity.

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List of Commonly Used Plants for Treating Malaria
Plant Name Treatment Part used Preparation Known Users
Achyranthesaspera Severe malaria Pound roots Shared by Maasai, Luos, Kamba
Xamenia americana Common malaria Make root/bark decoction Luos, Maasai, Kamba, miji kenda
Diospyros mespiliformis Common malaria Root/bark decoction Shared across the board
Acacia mellifera Common malaria Root/bark decoction Maasai, Kamba, Kalenjin
Warburgia ugandensis Severe malaria Root/bark decoction Across the board
Rhamnus prenoidis Common malaria Root/bark decoction Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Maasai
Aloe secundflora Severe malaria Leaf decoction Maasai, Kikuyu, Kamba
Croton dichogamus Common malaria Root/bark decoction Maasai, Kamba, coastal tribes
Toddalia asiatica Severe malaria Root/bark decoction Luo, Kalenjin, Maasai
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3. SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT AND USE OF PROMISING
MEDICINAL PLANTS

• 3.1. In-Situ
• Plant based medicine can be managed in the wild
  while
• taking care of issues like
• Developing methods of low impact harvesting/
  taking leaves and not interfering with plant.
• Developing regulatory mechanisms and their
  enforcement to ensure sustainability.

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CONTD

• 3.2 Planting
• Prometra Kenya is of the view that medicinal
  plants can be sustainably managed by planting
  them in different areas such as Shambas, fences,
  boundaries, and backyards. The regulatory
  mechanisms should be developed and enforced to
  ensure sustainability.

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4. IMPORTANT FACTORS WORTH CONSIDERING FOR
IMPROVING THE STATE OF ART

• 4.1 HARVESTING/STORAGE
• Raw materials should be cut and dried in the
  shade to retain potency then stored in a clean
  environment away from the elements.

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CONTD

• 4.2. PROCESSING AND VALUE ADDING
• Experience has shown that processing and
  value addition of medicinal plant products from
  their raw form has a direct impact on
  distribution and marketing as the product
  becomes easier to carry and more attractive to
  the customers/clients at least after the first
  stage of processing. The different modes to
  consider in this regard include powder, ash,
  infusions, decoctions, steam, distillation,
  cream, syrup, gels and solidifying by
  evaporation, among others.

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CONTD

• 4.3 Marketing
• Traditional medicine practitioners believe that
  medicinal plants from certain areas are more
  potent than others, thus making movement of plant
  materials quite dynamic in Kenya today. In
  addition, a class of business people (vendors) is
  emerging whose main business is to distribute
  medicinal plants from the point of growth to the
  consumer. However, in both cases, there is need
  to sound a caution as
• (i) Little has been done or is now being done to
  validate the chemical ingredients associated with
  the medicinal potency of the plants thus
  distributed.

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CONTD

• (ii) When vendors are relied upon, those who are
  not knowledgeable in plant identification
  (vernacular plant names are generic based on the
  colour, taste, leaves or sap, will be confused
  and can even cause harm to the patient. Hence
  people involved in the use of plants from
  different areas need training in plant
  identification (plant taxonomy). There is also
  need for regulatory mechanism to ensure ethics
  and accountability

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CONTD

• 4.4 ADMINISTRATION OF PLANT MEDICINE
• THEVESTIA PERUVIANA - (CASE STUDY)
• It happened four years ago in a prominent
  community in Kenya. A young family of four, a
  son, a daughter, a mother and a father had
  retired to their kitchen for an evening meal
  after a hard days work. After a simple dinner
  of Ugali, sukuma wiki and dried fish, the
  parents reached for a pot of a plant root
  decoction that had been prepared as the meal was
  cooking. The parents had collected roots of this
  plant from an itinerant plant medicinal vendor
  from a nearby market a day earlier

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CASE STUDY CONTD

• The decoction was meant to clear cases of Typhoid
  and amoebial infection, that had afflicted this
  family for some time. The father who had taken a
  mental record of the dosages for this treatment,
  pulled a mug from a carton stored in an old soot
  coated pottery suspended by a rope from the roof,
  and passed it to his wife to rinse. The father
  carefully poured out the decoction into the mug,
  about one eighth from the bottom for each child.
  The couple left for their living house beaming
  with confidence, convinced that they had fixed
  the trouble of some bugs that had plagued their
  children for many days.

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CASE STUDY CONTD

• Settled in their living house, the couple
  proceeded to self administer the drug to
  themselves. The wife filled about three quarters
  of the mug with the decoction and drowned this
  before dispensing about the same amount of the
  decoction to her husband who drunk the same.
  Looking pleased with themselves once again, the
  couple retired for the night.
• While the two children seemed to have enjoyed a
  peaceful night, the parents were less fortunate.
  They started having tummy cramps soon after
  midnight that appeared to increase in severity
  every minute. With both down and nursing ravening
  pain, it took them time even to alert the
  children. It was about 3.30 am to 4.00 am that
  the man pulled himself wreathing with pain and

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CASE STUDY CONTD

• and reached the kitchen where the kids were
  sleeping. On hearing the news the kids dashed to
  their uncles village about a stone throw away.
  The uncle and his wife arrived at the fateful
  house at about 5.00 am, only to find the wife in
  a coma. They tried to administer some simple
  first aid, but it was too late. The poor lady
  passed away about half an hour later. The
  husband collapsed an hour later as they were
  struggling to reach a nearby dispensary.
• The fateful plant was later identified as
  Thevestia peruviana (Cha mama in Luo)

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ADMINISTRATION contd

• There is need for standardization and training
  of TMPs in indigenous technology to muster
  scientific rationalization for example
  information on phytochemistry to provide a basis
  for decision making. It is also important to note
  that all plants are toxic, all that matters is
  the amount used.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• With adequate research on the traditional
  medicinal plants which our people have used for
  ages to treat diverse types of diseases, malaria
  included, there is hope for this making an
  enomous contribution into the authorized drugs on
  the market.
• Artemisia Annua is a good drug but it is from
  China. There is therefore need to diversify
  medicinal plant sources for the treatment and
  control of malaria with a particular focus on
  those that grow here, are accessible and easy to
  cultivate.

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RECOM CONTD

• 3. There is need for African governments to
  develop and enforce mechanisms to regulate
  harvesting, ethics and accountability in
  sustainable managing the plant based medicines
• 4.There is need for standardization and training
  of traditional medicine practitioners especially
  in phytochemistry

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THANK YOU FOR READING
Mrs. Martha Nyawera Njama PROMETRA KENYA P.O.
Box 50797 Nairobi, Kenya Tel [phone]Tel
254-20-788553 Email nyambugu_at_yahoo.comprometra
ke_at_yahoo.com