Western trained practitioners in the Third World, especially Africa, should be very grateful to Dr Buenz and colleagues [1] for having “recovered lost knowledge of traditional medicine” (Dec 23 2006, p 1314). Our training tends to make us equate all traditional medical practitioners with “witch doctors”, and so we are reluctant to investigate therapeutic successes that take place without our intervention.

The “historical texts on herbal medicine” [1] have all been compiled from oral tradition, hence in my plea for the urgent need to probe “anecdotes in traditional African therapeutics” [2] I once described how the WHO Global AIDS Office in Geneva had told me on Monday 2 February 1987 about an African country where a British Surgeon “had discharged a young man to die from AIDS but who came back to show himself to the surgeon about a year later, apparently well”. During my tour for investigating AIDS at the grass roots in African countries, I traced that British surgeon, and he confirmed what the WHO had told me. [2]

The greatest “historical text on herbal medicine” [1] and by far the most detailed that had been produced from Africa was by Dr John Watt and Dr Maria Breyer-Brandwijk [3] who not only compiled meticulously some tribal names of the plants and their uses, but also indicated with pictures what the plants were, their botanical names, and the diseases they were used for by the natives of which countries and tribes. Talking about “mining” [1], this 1457-page book of Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk is a veritable gold mine of therapeutic information. But do we Africans go digging as Buenz and colleagues have done? No! Even when Kenya Medical Research Institute [KEMRI] has demonstrated the remarkable effect of the Neem, Azadirachta indica, against the malaria parasite [4], and the benefits of Artemisia Annua have been demonstrated, African Ministries of Health prefer to continue importing Mefloquine with its 50 side effects clearly documented in the British National Formulary [5].

Perhaps when we come to realize that the great Mayo Clinic does not despise traditional herbal therapeutics, sub-Saharan African universities will begin to advise their Ministries of Health to stop importing harmful drugs. The British experts, Fenwick and Hanley, who catalogued the beneficial therapeutic benefits of the Allium family of vegetables, benefits of which included serum cholesterol lowering and antibiotic effects, came near to a vital truth when they hinted that some of the drug firms already have herbal answers to many problems but “lack of patent protection is but one of the factors militating against the examination and exploitation of the beneficial effects” of many natural products [6]. The Mayo Clinic has gone ahead to put in place their patenting procedures without relying on drug companies [1]. Why don’t African Health institutions learn from the Mayo Clinic?

“Unless Africans can find alternative sources of therapeutic measures in traditional medicine” I once lamented, “the future is bleak indeed, because even with improvement in public health measures, people will still require drug treatment. We therefore need to collect and record all anecdotes, including the embarrassing and most primitive ones. By sifting through them carefully we can use our scientific knowledge not only to discard harmful practices, but also discover hidden treasures”. [2]

Competing interests: None declared.

1 Buenz EJ, Bauer BA, Johnson HE, Tavan G, Beckman EM, Frank KL, Howe CL. Searching historical texts for potential new drugs. BMJ 2006; 333:1314-5.

2 Konotey-Ahulu FID. Probing anecdotes in traditional African therapeutics. African Journal of Health Sciences. 1994; 1:53-56.

3 Watt JM, Breyer-Brandwijk MG. The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa. (Being an Account of their Medicinal and Other Uses, Chemical Composition, Pharmacological Effects, and Toxicology in Man and Animal) – 2nd Edition. Edinburgh and London: E & S Livingstone Ltd. 1962(1457 pages).

4 Kofi-Tsekpo WM, Rukunga GM, Aluoch JA, Kahn B, Waiyaki PG, Tolo F, Muthotho N. A preliminary investigation of a traditional medicine (KRM 913) as a potential antimalarial and antiparasitic agent. In Kinot SN, Omuse JK and Kofi-Tsekpo WM (Eds) Proceedings of The Annual Medical Scientific Conference, Nairobi, Kenya 1989.

5 Konotey-Ahulu FID. Doctors must not be lapdogs to drug firms: even more relevant to the Third World. BMJ Rapid response http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/333/7576/1027 Nov 12 2006

6 Fenwick G. Hanley AB. The genus Allium – Part 3 Section X Medicinal Effects. CRC Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 1985; 23: 1-73.

Competing interests: None declared