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The inaugural Nature heals conference finally happened at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute in Nakawa, Kampala where emphasis on value addition and professionalism in treatment with herbal medicines took centre stage on 1st August 2024.
The Conference championed by Causes Effect Initiative Ltd led Dr Linda Lilian drew nature lovers from different parts of the country with an interest in treating several illnesses using Herbal medicines and natural supplements.
The event was graced by the Member of Parliament for Fort Portal North Division also the Minister of State for Health in Charge of Primary Health Care Hon Margret Muhanga who emphasized professionalizing the herbal medicine sector and fast tracking their efficiency through proved and clinical tests not guess work.
“We have been talking about how nature heals, some of this is common information to everybody that a lot of plants have medicinal values that people don’t know. They’re traditional healers in Uganda who make drugs which have no dosage, not tested in laboratories but coming here to partner with UIRI to use their laboratories to check the efficacy of these drugs which they’re making is better but Nature heals also looks at what you eat as individual”- Minister Muhanga said.
The minister lashed out at traditional healers who claim to use herbal medicines to play with people’s minds with false narratives like healing several illnesses and changing sex of babies which is scientifically impossible with herbal medicines. Muhanga also advised people especially pregnant women to always visit hospitals but not to entirely base on traditional medicines.
“Traditional birth attendants who lie to the women that when you drink this medicine, you’re going to give birth to a baby boy, they have no control over that and then they give you jerrycans and jerrycans of their medicines to drink, no doze. So when you get a boy by coincidence then they say it worked and another person is taken but scientifically they don’t have what it takes to change the sex of a baby”-Muhanga noted
Dr Grace Nambatya Kyeyune the Director of Research at the National Chemotherapeutic Research Institute (NCRI) a state-owned research and development institute in natural products and traditional and complementary health systems was also present at the event and thanked the organizers for pulling off such an event destined for knowledge sharing and development of herbal medicines.
According to Nambatya, government is now more than ready to support traditional medicines and has put in place several mechanisms to have this fast tracked. NCRI, Uganda Virus Institute, Uganda Industrial Research Institute and the Ministry of Science and Technology and some of the avenues in place for value addition on traditional medicines and several are under clinical tests.
She however revealed that some prominent Doctors producing and treating with herbal medicine have always blamed government for not helping them but when they are asked to submit their solutions and contents in their components to the relevant authorities for clinical tests and also to prove their efficiency in laboratories, they go silent and never submit the same.
In her remarks, the organizer of the event Dr Linda Lilian revealed what inspired her to start nature heals and subsequently staged the inaugural nature heals conference. According to Linda nature heals focuses on health and nutrition. She says Nature heals will soon publish an e-magazine where herbals medicines they’ve so far documented will be put and the magazine will be free and accessible to everyone.
“What we have resolved to do starting this year, we are going to have an e-magazine where we shall share most of this information. This is something people deserve to get for free because not everyone can afford buying the book. We have a lot of life style diseases many people are getting cancer, diabetes etc, we are here to try to address those issues because the plants are with us and we can be able to utilize them to make the best out of this situation and try to transform the lives of Ugandans”- Dr Linda said.
The event was also attended by Experienced and professional traditional medicine experts Prof Kibilango Kato and Dr Bio Mark who both highlighted that Herbal medicine is misunderstood for witchcraft and spiritualism and more efforts really need to undertaken to change the mindset of Ugandans.
According to Prof Bio Mark, the mindset of Ugandans was misappropriated during colonial times as experts in traditional medicine are bringing on board not only the elderly but also the young generation on board, pass on the knowledge and information to create employment.
“We have seen young hands who leave school, they go to stage graduation parties to showcase evidence but later on they go to the streets and find themselves jobless but here is a country that was given to us. The African continent has the best herbal medicine in the world and Uganda has the most magnificent pieces which have been jeopardized by the thinking. We want young people to learn the production of the things we have been importing”-noted Prof Bio Mark.
In his remarks at the event, Prof Kibilango Kato just like Minister Muhanga underscored the need to professionalize the sector. He revealed that several institutions have been put in place to train local herbalists regardless of their level of education to understand the medicines better from a health point of view.
“The traditionists always have little knowledge about herbal medicine though they use it but now the herbalists have gone to school to study the real medicine, how to apply it, it’s efficacy, and it’s applications. That’s we emphasize the traditionists to go back to school to study what they know and what they don’t know in order to formalize their operations”-said Prof Kibirango.
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