Traditional Medicine Grows in the Ground and Cannot be

Legislated
African and Traditional Medicine and the LawOver 80% of South Africans prefer herbs to Big
PharmaTake a look at the ethnopharmacological potential of South Africa
A 1996 survey in South Africa indicated that over 80% of the indigenous African population use
traditional medicine for self medication. This includes an annual consumption of over 1000 tons of
plant material harvested from at least 3000 species. That translates as a financial annual turnover in
excess of US$ 6 billion! However, that is peanuts in comparison to the income generated by Big
Pharma from selling dodgy chemicals with nasty side effects. The difference is that the
"green"medicine is not yet fully under their control. To the orthodox governing bodies this means
that some of our popular local herbal remedies need to be removed from the shelves. Would this
mean that our local herbs are not as financially lucrative as scheduled drugs, despite their excellent
track record and evidence based efficacy?
America and Europe are already familiar with restraints on herbal medicines
Limitations have now been imposed on the sale of plant-based or "natural" remedies and food
supplements in South Africa. Our friends in America and Europe are not surprised because they
have also experienced the demise of their favourite herbal remedies as well as dedicated health
shops. Money talks and now traditional African herbal medicine is under the spotlight. It could offer
a big boost to the income of the Big Pharma shareholders. The selling potential of "patent" drugs
that can be derived from our indigenous plant material is too lucrative to be ignored. But our
indigenous population seem to be exempt from these laws providing they pick their own plants and
take them as they have done, for hundreds if not thousands of years.
What drives this impetus to usurp the role of natural medicine is the recent gap in the orthodox
materia medica that has been created by drug-resistant bacterial and viral infections. Their
expensive vaccinations have gone belly up because they have failed to decrease the incidence of
many common infections. In fact, they have exacerbated the untoward effects of similar strains that
develop as a reaction to so-called immunisation in many well documented cases. They also weaken
the recipient by introducing toxins such as mercury. Credibility wears thin when young girls are
vaccinated against the papilloma virus in the hopes of preventing cancer and end up with severe
mental disorders. Autism too, has a sinister causative link to vaccines. Big money, big business and
it's legal!
They still sell antibiotics to treat viral infections - why?
Even if the vaccines are known to be ineffective, Big Pharma sells them anyway. (We get the
harmful, if not fatal side effects as part of the deal.) This same medical discipline is now bullying
purveyors of natural alternatives that boost the immune system and thus help to prevent diseases
like cancer and even the common cold.They can bully all they like but fresh ginger makes a mockery
of the whole charade. A new microbial study was undertaken to detail the antimicrobial effects of
fresh versus dry ginger. It was only the fresh ginger that knocked out viruses and mycotoxins that
are responsible for upper respiratory tract infections - not the dry version.
However, both forms of ginger were effective for blood thinning, inflammation and nausea. Even in
small quantities ginger can be used as an alternative to modified rat poison and other legal

"pharmaceutical" toxins. But ginger capsules may be removed from the pharmacy shelves if
manufacturers fail to do laboratory tests and register ginger capsules as medicines. Money talks,
they say. But why should South Africans have to buy their way in and merge with Big Pharma to sell
safer alternatives to what are sometimes dangerous drugs with adverse side effects. Would the
herbal competitors also be allowed to skewer the lab trials like the existing drug companies?
Two wrongs don't make a right but why ignore monographs?
Although some herbalists are downright unorthodox and seemingly dangerous this is not the case
with respectable, time-honoured manufacturers of reasonably priced herbs and supplements. All are
obliged to follow act 101 of 1965 which does not allow the use of misleading claims in the first place.
If antibiotics cannot treat the common cold and if vaccines can't prevent them, why are they being
used as if they do? Why can't alternative natural remedies or supplements do the job without being
accused of breaking the law? Why be forced to do trials that you can cheat your way through when
there is plenty of factual information available in the form of plant materia medica or monographs.
But no, the powers that be (parliament under the thumb of Big Pharma) refuse to accept
internationally validated monographs. (A monograph is like a package insert for a plant to show
effects, components, side effects, contra idications and overdosing precautions.)
It is futile to treat mould and viral infections with antibiotics. But most doctors have a cunning way
of prescribing antibiotics to desperate patients who have the flu - just in case. The scariest thing
they do is instruct the patient to finish the course, to use up all the antibiotics. Wow! Anybody who
knows about the importance of gut flora will know that causes a wipe out of beneficial bacteria in
the intestines that makes up 80% of the immune function. So, if you get the sniffles, go get a
prescription for antibiotics so you can nullify 80% of your immunity. The next thing you do is eat
food that causes inflammation and makes your joints ache and the prescribed cortisone will
deactivate the rest of the immune system. Now you can open the door to cancer and go back to the
nice little man in the white jacket.
Why don't we want to take responsibility or at least ask questions?
The most shocking aspect of this tyranny is that we, the public are so trusting. Anything that comes
from a person wearing a white jacket with a stethoscope slung over the shoulder is to be obeyed and
worst of all, believed without question. Thanks to the internet the veil of mystery has been lifted and
we can read the shocking truth about how a lot of "orthodox" mainstream medical research is
undertaken. How they skewer the outcome of trials and hide the adverse reactions and fabricate the
benefits of the drugs that are sold with a scheduling status. You can cheat and lie and buy the
evidence according to what sounds acceptable on a package insert. Do South African manufacturers
of complementary or integrated medicines have to stoop so low?
But time is the best judge of such dishonest practice. The safety trials in particular are questionable
and statistics show how many millions of patients die annually from these medications, especially
when administered incorrectly. The result? Many drugs have been withdrawn from the shelves
because of their untoward effects. Vioxx, a popular anti-inflammatory drug is a recent example.
Herein lies the bitter irony of what we call natural medicine being withdrawn from the shelves even
if proven to be a harmless spice.
Herbal medicine is a local South African tradition, part of a healing ritual
In our country the herbal resources provide a valuable income for the rural or financially
compromised population. Socioeconomic factors such as an increasing population, unemployment

and the high value of these plant species have justified the need for encouraging the herb trade that
affects:
Traditional medicinal practitioners, called "sangomas or inyengas" The informal and formal
entrepreneurial sectors of the South African economy The herbal gatherers and street traders
However, it is not the low cost or affordability of plants used for medicine that is as important as the
tradition. Tradition is what cuts across the income spectrum of the indigenous African population
and they prefer to use what pleases their ancestors the most. To them healing is multi-faceted and
involves emotional as well as abstract (ancestral) factors. The medicine that grows in the ground and
is harvested after ritualistic prayers and used for their recovery is a far cry from a bottle of free pills
from the hospital. Big Pharma has no respect for tradition and this is what is upsetting a lot of black
South Africans. They ask the plant for permission before they pick it and use it for medicine. This
pleases their ancestors.

This time honoured method has been

effective for treating common ailments
within a community and at Kirstenbosch
there is a herbal garden with exhibits of
plants that have been used for many
generations to treat colds and flu, fevers,
blood sugar disorders, toxicity, skin
problems, digestion upsets and parasites.
We also use these herbs, but within the
limits of "Good Manufacturing Practice".
Our workers wear white masks and gloves
and pack the remedies in sterile containers
so that the urbanised black population can
be catered for with what boils down to
traditional medicine. A favourite use of any
herbal tincture, for them is "to clean the
blood." If it tastes bitter and terrible - all the
better!
Select herbs from Kirstenbosch and other nearby botanical gardens have been used to compile an
African materia medica and a set of monographs based on laboratory testing, studies, trials and
clinical investigations. A task force at the University of the Western Cape has dedicated their
resources to South African ethnopharmacology. Their renewed interest in plant based medicines
seems to be part of the need for novel drug development because research and development
programmes of leading pharmaceutical companies failed make any headway, it seems.
African Monographs are available they are approved by WHO
80% of the black South Africans regularly use traditional medicines, most of which are derived from
plant species indigenous to their region. These may be obtained on prescription from a traditional
healer, purchased from herb sellers or gathered in the wild for self medicine. If this has been going
on for many generations without offensive of fatal side effects then why make waves? But it is not
fair to harvest plants to the point that a number of species have already become extinct. Here one
needs to encourage the propagation of medicinal plants, as in the case of the company that

sponsored the TV series in 2007 called "Nature's Health." I took part in a number the shows and
shudder to think that the bottles of herbs they sell to Africans to both generate an income as well as
serve the population would now be regarded as illegal.
But any medicine of variable potency and/or poor batch to batch consistency are unacceptable under
any conditions, even our current GMP standards. The goal of the monograph project is to protect
those who use traditional medicines as patients, prescribers, pharmacists, manufacturers, health
authorities or regulatory bodies against products of poor quality. The selected 100 traditional
medicines need to comply with standards which define their identity, purity and potency.
Formalizing the use of traditional medicines in primary health care has been endorsed by the WHO
and a book is now available for practitioners and manufacturers and the retail trade. One wonders
why the existing minister of health is rejecting the use of these monograms?
These monographs will provide South Africa with its own much needed pharmacopoeia - a medical
hand book that has an official status. Why then, are individual health product manufacturers being
bullied into financing these studies all over again? We do not need dozens of studies on a single
plant - leave it to the experts: The laboratories at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) are
equipped to carry out the procedures involving the botany, chemistry, microbiology and
pharmacology. The Departments of Botany, Chemistry and Microbiology at UWC and the Peninsula
Technikon have also contributed to these critical studies,
The quantity of medicinally active principles present in these herbal remedies may vary genetically,
seasonally, geographically, or according to the mode of preparation (collection, drying and storage)."
This is why we, as manufacturers of herbal products need to comply with GMP standards. Our
herbal remedies are accompanied by certificates of origin that supply all these details. Batch
numbers are recorded and labels show what the products contain. Functionality is indicated as
suggested usage according to information provided by the standard monographs that are used as
part of the international and now recently - South African pharmacopeia. All this however, according
to our local government, is insufficient and downright unacceptable.They would rather leave their
people in the lurch than offer any help.
Why restrict Traditional African Herbal practice?
How can herbal medicine help to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria?
Drug-resistant infections cause serious health hazards: Streptococcus pneumonia, which causes
pneumonia, childhood ear infections and meningitis; Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB;
and Neisseria gonorrhoea, which causes gonorrhea. Some of these microbes survive a round of
antibiotics - adapt to them and pass this ability on to their offspring.
Meanwhile residues of these patent drugs contaminate our food supply and drinking water so we
and even our pets ingest trace amounts of antibiotics and other prescription drugs on a daily basis.
The quantities may be small, but researchers say this is what causes the ever increasing drug
resistance to common bacteria. In his latest books on herbal alternatives to antibiotics and
antivirals, author Stephen Harrod Buhner provides in-depth profiles valuable herbs that have
antibiotic properties and offers guidance as to their dosage, potential side effects and contra
indications. Here then, is soe valuable self-empowerment. You may not be able to buy the herbs in a
health shop, but at least you can read about them. These herbal formulations can strengthen the
immune system and treat viral infections such as SARS, influenza, and encephalitis. They are based
on European monographs.

Patent drugs screw up on mold infections but we have "illegal" alternatives

As we know, mainstream drugs like cortisone, anti inflammatories and antibiotics all lower - if not
seriously inactivate our immune functions. So then after taking these medications (all legal
scheduled, prescribed drugs - with package inserts) patients with a weak or compromised immune
system have a greater risk of becoming very ill or possibly dying from an opportunistic mold
infection (aflatoxins), let alone from cancer or HIV. A variety of antifungal medications including:
voriconazole, liposomal amphotericin B, posaconazole, itraconazole, caspofungin, or micafungin can
be used. Unfortunately, these antifungal medications can produce undesirable side effects like fever,
rigors, chills, myalgia, arthralgia, bronchospasm, nausea, vomiting, headaches, hallucinations,
kidney toxicity, and liver toxicity. Well done, Big Pharma! Why not take a look at what grows on
trees? Olive leaves, for instance, are fantastic green bullets!
Here too, we see the shortcomings of modern mainstream medications, however legal they have
become. They are not the magical silver bullets they claim to be. They are not even accompanied
with healthy eating guidelines in order to substantite their claims. It is strange that the prescriptions
are sold in retail outlets where the tills are crowded out with racks of sweets, fizzy drinks and potato
crisps drenched in trans-fattly acids. All legal, of course. If vitamin C is to be restricted to minimal
doses and kitchen spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves are to become registered as medicines if
we use their oil to kill moulds, what then? We unleash a host of mycotoxins into an already
overcrowded environment. They are then left to compete against mercury, parasites and synthetic
hormones and fluoride for a new home in a future human or animal host. The show must go on!Olive
leaves - throughout Africa for free medicine?
The little book on Olive Leaf Extract by Morton Walker (New York: Kensington Books, 1997) is what
first drew my attention theuse of antimicrobial herbs. His research indicates that olive leaf extract
(or the leaves) is effective against over a hundred diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, moulds
mycotoxins and other parasites, including tapeworms. There are no nasty side effects - only extra
advantages. Olive leaf remedies improve circulatory health and may help prevent heart attacks by
improving heart function, lowering high blood pressure and preventing LDL cholesterol from
oxidizing. The extract has been used to heal peptic ulcers, hiatus hernia, psoriasis, fibromyalgia,
rheumatoid arthritis and a host of other illnesses.
Olive leaf remedies are now popular and freely available to South Africans. But if they were suddenly
removed from the shelves there would still be olive leaves available - providing we are allowed to
keep our olive trees. In South Africa we have a sub-species of the Olea Europa tree, Called Olea
Afra. We have been producing remedies from this species as well as a number of other species of
wild African olive leaves. But it is always thrilling to see these natural sources of medicine growing
in Africa - from Cape to Cairo. On our travels we teach people how to use the leaves in places like
Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Egypt. Each country provides plant medicines that are particularly valuable
for the people who live in the same habitat. My husband was cured of malaria and all we used were
olive leaf tablets. Malaria is the primary killer of small children in Africa.
Sesuvium Portulacastrum knocks out drug resistant bacteria!
This succulent plant with tiny pink flowers thrives in salty marshes and wastelands - there for the
picking. Yet another drug cabinet under our feet. It grows like a carpet next to some beaches and is
a potent antimicrobial herb, due to its need to survive in a soggy damp, salty habitat. Essential oils
from special glands in the leaves are the key weapons that attack moulds, fungi and bacteria.
Laboratory tests showed activity against Candida albicans, Aspergillusniger, Aspergillus favus and
Penicillium notatum, Acetobacter calcoacetica, Bacillus subtillis, Clostridiumsporogenes, Clostridium

perfringens, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhii, Staphylococcus aureus and Yersinia enterocolitica.
Take another look at that list and you will note that most of our modern pharmaceutical drugs are no
longer effective against a number of these infections. The ability of stapylococcus aureus to baffle
our most advanced drug researchers shows that microbes are a lot smarter than we are - they can
adapt and come back to fight another day. But evidently they are no match for herbal medicine.
We can fight against pathogenic microbes - with plant wisdom or with pharmaceuticals
With the debate about CAMS (Complimentary and Alternative Medicines) raging in South Africa I
realise that we do have a common enemy - microbes against man. Let us use the best of what is in
the medicine cabinet at the time and not be too biased when a person's health is at risk. Give them
the best medicine we can find to do the best job and help the patient to right the wrongs that caused
the illness in the first place. Then teach them how to get well and stay well.
As Hippocrates once said:"First do no harm." (Today we need to read the package insert to see what
harm the medicine does.)
Do we take our
medicine with

a spoonful of sugar
or a pinch of salt?
South Africa has its own monographsThe herbs have already been tested - why more tests?

African Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AfrHP): First

Edition
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Plants have antiviral activity Take the plants like medicine - seriously in the right dosesDrug
resistant bacteria? Not from plants!Use this guide to fight bacteria Use plants for medicine - even
the ones we call weedsPlants know how to survive against microbes