African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines African Ethnomedicines Network ISSN: 0189-6016 Vol. 7, Num. 1, 2010, pp. 79-84

Afr. J. Trad. CAM, Vol. 7, No. 1, January-March, 2010, pp. 79-84

Research Paper

Traditional management of tuberculosis in Ogun State of Nigeria: The practice and ethnobotanical survey

Omonike O Ogbole¹, Edith O Ajaiyeoba²

¹ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sagamu, Nigeria
² Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Correspondence Address:
Edith O Ajaiyeoba
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan
Nigeria
edajaiye@yahoo.com

Code Number: tc10011

Abstract

Keywords: Ethnobotany, Tuberculosis, Traditional Management, Ogun State, Medicinal Plants

Introduction

Tuberculosis (TB) is the world′s leading cause of death from a single infectious disease, caused by the micro organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB most commonly affects the lungs but also can involve any organ of the body. In the past it was referred to as "consumption" because without effective treatment, these patients often would waste away (Kumar and Clark, 2002). Epidemiological evidence indicates that one third of the world population is infected with the causative agent, eight million cases emerge annually and about 2 million people die from this disease (Gautam et al 2007). Recent data from WHO support these estimates with 8.8 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths (WHO, 2007).

The upsurge of TB cases has been noticed in developing countries and frequency of M. tuberculosis in Africa is very high (two million new cases per year) (WHO, 2003) and it is an off shoot of a variety of factors including; poor nutrition, overcrowding, lack of control measures, inadequately supervised treatment and the high cost of therapy. In Nigeria, like in most other developing countries, the tuberculosis situation has worsened over the past few years. The country was rated fifth in prevalence by WHO in its 2008 global report (WHO, 2008).

Individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are very susceptible to tuberculosis and often develop this disease before other manifestations of AIDS become apparent (Girling, 1989). Control of the tuberculosis epidemic linked with HIV infection will depend largely on the adequate treatment of tuberculosis, and possibly on effective chemoprophylaxis, not just for HIV-infected persons but for the community as well (WHO/IUATLD, 1989). Tuberculosis therapy has been revolutionized and the present treatment regimes are based on multi-drug therapy usually with three or four drugs. However, the emergence and spread of drug resistance M. tuberculosis, especially multi drug resistant strain to standard TB drugs such as isoniazid and rifampicin reduces the efficacy of current treatment regimes and threatens programs aimed at controlling TB (Sacchettini et al. 2008).

Ethnobotanical survey is an important step in the identification, selection and development of therapeutic agents for medicinal plants. The approach of retrieval of information on the folk use of plants often yields more potentially useful compounds than empirical approach (Carvalho et al, 1991; Berlin et al, 1994). Unfortunately, plant drug discovery has not been very successful, despite the historical importance (Craigg et al, 1997). This has been due to the fact that in ethnobotany and natural products chemistry, the modes of preparation and administration of herbal preparations are often crucial variables in determining efficacy in pharmacological evaluations (Levine, 1981; Lewis et al, 1998; Albers-Schonerg et al, 1997). In rural African communities with limited access to western health care facilities, ethnobotanical and ethnomedical alternatives are used in the management of health problems including tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Such alternative remedies have provided leads for the development of chemotherapeutic agents as practiced in western medicine (Phillipson, 1994).

In continuation of our studies of ethnobotany of Nigeria for documentation of useful plants and drug discovery efforts (Ajaiyeoba et al, 2003; Ajaiyeoba et al, 2004; Ajaiyeoba et al., 2006), the ethnobatanical survey and the ethnomedicine of 5 LGAs in Ogun State of Nigeria is presented.

Materials and Method

Research methodology
Study area

The study area comprised five Local Government Areas (LGAs): Sagamu, Ikenne, Ijebu -Ode, Ijebu East and Ijebu North located in Ogun State in south western Nigeria; it covers an area of approximately 16,762 square km with an estimated population of about 4,054,272. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo and Osun states to the North, Ondo State to the east and the republic of Benin to the west.

Informed consent

Traditional Medical Practitioners and Herbalists involved in the treatment of tuberculosis were located by looking out for their signposts and obtaining directions from their patrons in the villages. Of all those contacted, only 50 volunteered to give information. Informed consent was obtained orally from all participants made up of the TMPs, herbalists or herb sellers before commencement of the interview.

Administration of questionnaire

The use of semi-structured questionnaire and oral interview were adopted to obtain the relevant ethnomedicinal data. The questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers and in some cases, money for transportation was given to unwilling respondents. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. The first section sought to find out demographic information of the respondent, with question on religious affiliation, nationality (Nigerian or Non Nigerian), tribe, gender, professional affiliation, (TMP, herb seller or herbalist) duration of practice (years) to ascertain how long he/she has being practicing. The second part consist of open ended question about treatment of the disease such as previous treatment of tuberculosis by the respondent, frequency of contact with tuberculosis patient, mode of treatment employed, availability of plants for the various herbal remedies duration of treatment and presence or absence of side effect. The last part dealt only with the specific plant used for these treatments and the various parts used. Majority of the respondents were not literate, the questionnaire was translated and interpreted to them orally in the local language, and the investigators filled questionnaires after each interview. Samples of all the plants mentioned were collected directly from the TMP, herbalist and herb sellers; the voucher specimens for each sample were prepared and deposited at the herbarium department of Forest Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan (FRIN) for identification.

Results

Demography and practice

All 50 respondents are of Yoruba ethnicity and understand the language perfectly, the modal age group was 41- 60 years (72%), the male to female ratio of respondents was 1:1 (50%:50%), 40% of the participant interviewed were herbalists, and 52% were herb-sellers; while 8% were TMPs. Majority of the herb-sellers were female while most of the herbalists were male. The survey shows that only 20% of respondents claim to treat tuberculosis on regular basis. In addition to herbs, 25% of the respondents use adjuncts such as divination/ incantation, animal part and even prayer to aids the cure of their patients, these are believed to boost the effect of the medicinal plant, this is especially common among the herbalists and the TMPs. The investigators learnt that a great percentage of respondent (60%), inherited their knowledge of herbal treatment from their ancestors, while 35% got their knowledge by undergoing formal training, the remaining 5% indicated that their knowledge is both from ancestral source and training. Most of the respondents affirmed that complete cure is achievable between 2- 12 weeks, as a matter of fact, about 32.5% claim to achieve cure in about 2 weeks, although some respondents refused to reveal how long it took to treat the disease.

Sources and use of plants

The entire survey of 50 respondents yielded 36 species of plants from about 20 Families [Table - 1]. All the plant mentioned were confirmed to be available while just 10% are not always available due to seasonal variations and other reasons, but most of the plants can be found in the forest, around the home and can also be bought from the market places. Plant and plant parts mentioned by the respondents are outlined in [Table - 1]. Cola acumminata (fruit), Garcinia kola (leaf), Vitellaria parodoxa (oil), Costus afer (stem), Pycnanthus angolensis (stem bark) and Aframomum melegueta (fruit) were the most frequently mentioned herbs. The study revealed that leaves were the most popular parts used in preparing the herbal remedies. Different methods were employed in preparing and dispensing herbal remedies as shown in [Table - 1]. The most common method of drug administration was by oral application of decoctions or infusions,

Discussions

The knowledge of the uses of plants, which is sometimes jealously guarded by their owners, is a tradition passed on from one generation to the other by word of mouth, the changes imposed by modern life on social structures and attitudes now seem too often the cause of the loss or rejection of such indigenous practices (Berlin et al, 1994). This may occur quite rapidly and result in the loss of relevant information and skills often patiently and painfully acquired by processes of trial and error carried out over the centuries. The need to document this knowledge and verify the claims before they go into extinction is one of the reasons for undertaking this research.

Findings of this survey revealed that a good number of the herbalists/TMPs/herb sellers in the research area do not treat or claim to treat tuberculosis; information concerning the treatment of tuberculosis could only be obtained from 50 respondents out of over 100 practitioner that reside in the area of study, out of this number only 20% (10) claim to treat tuberculosis on a regular basis. This is unusual and note worthy, since traditional practitioners usually claim to be able to treat any illness or disease.

In the course of the interview, it was observed that most of the Respondents, could not distinguish between the symptoms of tuberculosis and that of other diseases of the respiratory system such as bronchitis, common cough and asthma. Sometimes the same mode of treatment was prescribed. However, some of the respondents, alleged that the presence of blood in the sputum and gradual loss of weight as confirmatory for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, which is quite true.

The result showed that majority (>80%) of the herbalists/TMP/herb sellers claimed no occurrence of side effects following their use of the herbal remedies. The implies that the herbs are devoid of any undesirable effects when used or that the herbalists/TMP/herb sellers never took notice of such effects.

Another issue worthy of note is the average duration of treatment of tuberculosis using herbal remedy, which may be novel when compared to duration of treatment with chemotherapeutic agent. Treatment of tuberculosis by using anti TB requires 6-12 months while from the results obtained, no single duration of treatment of different respondents exceeds 12 weeks. Some of the challenges encountered in the course of carrying out this survey include: respondents were unwilling to give relevant information due to the fear of losing their major source of income, some could not distinguish between normal cough, asthma and tuberculosis.

Non experimental validation of anti-tuberculosis activity of these medicinal plants was done by the way of literature survey and it was found out that a number of this plant were been used for the treatment of tuberculosis in West Africa region and other part of the African continent generally (Burkill, 1985; Storey and Salem, 1997). Some of the plants revealed in this survey have also been cited in the ethnobotanical survey of other African countries for example Costus afer (Betti, 2004), Aframomum melegueta, Garcinia cola and Vitellaria paradoxa (Sanogo et al., 2006). Garcinia cola has also been found to particularly inhibit the growth of M. tuberculosis, (Tsukamura, 1985).

Conclusions

Herbal medicine has been used for centuries in rural areas by local healers, a number of substances used in modern medicine for the treatment of several diseases have originated from research on medicinal plants. This survey is a step towards evaluating Nigerian medicinal plants for anti-tuberculosis properties, we hope to scientifically justify the ethnomedical claim by the respondents and also provide possible drug leads for tuberculosis chemotherapy.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks to the traditional healers who participated in this study.^[23]

References

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