{"id":7477,"date":"2015-04-20T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T07:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/?p=7477"},"modified":"2016-03-01T16:17:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T16:17:51","slug":"research-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/research-diary\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Diary: Herbal medicine in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Policy Voices are collaborations between ARI and leading practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa, which seek to inform policy through first-hand knowledge and experience. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Researcher <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/jamie-hitchen-policy-researcher\/\"><em>Jamie Hitchen<\/em><\/a><em> spent a fortnight in Nigeria during December 2014 working on a new Policy Voice entitled \u201cModern African Remedies\u201d<\/em>. <em>Here, he reflects on his experience in order to offer readers a glimpse of what is involved in a typical ARI research trip. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;\" src=\"\/\/www.slideshare.net\/slideshow\/embed_code\/key\/Kuu3I4ZAEQPwzS\" width=\"950\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"> <\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I undertook several weeks of preparatory desk-based research on herbal medicine before leaving for Nigeria. This provided me with a rudimentary understanding of the salient issues before conducting interviews with medical practitioners, government officials, elected representatives and patients. I travelled to Ewu, in Edo State, to spend time with the practitioner-experts who would be the key voices in the publication.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Policy Voice\u2019s <\/em>key contributor, with whom I spent the most time, was Father Anselm Adodo, a Benedictine monk who founded Paxherbals, the foremost herbal research institute and \u2018home-grown\u2019 producer of herbal remedies in the country. As research co-ordinator and editor of the publication, it was my role to conduct semi-structured interviews which teased out the key issues. I focused on what had driven the success of Paxherbals, the challenges it had encountered and its future trajectory.\u00a0 Rather than adopting a pre-determined direct line of questioning, I pursued interesting points that arose in discussion.<\/p>\n<p>Observation was another crucial part of the research visit. I needed to understand how \u2018Pax\u2019 works operationally in order to edit appropriately. Spending time with Pax scientists in the laboratory was a chance to see, very clearly, the coming together of modern and indigenous knowledge. The longer I spent in Ewu, the more it became apparent that the Pax \u2018story\u2019 was about much more than herbal medicine: the successful economic and social development of a rural community,<\/p>\n<p>In Lagos, I interviewed many individuals involved in different ways with the herbal medicine sector including Pax distributors, clinicians, patients and government representatives responsible for regulating the industry. This helped to provide context and to situate Pax within its industry.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the trip was a chance to increase awareness of ARI\u2019s work. We place great emphasis on ensuring that our publications are widely read in Africa and gain the attention of policymakers and others with influence. I plan to return to Nigeria in November with ARI\u2019s Director, Edward Paice, to present \u201cModern African Remedies: Herbal Medicine and Community Development in Nigeria\u201d to a Nigerian audience.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Further Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A. Elujoba et al, \u201cA Comparative Assessment of Herbal and Orthodox Medicines in Nigeria\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.medwelljournals.com\/fulltext\/?doi=rjmsci.2011.280.285\"><em>Research Journal of Medical Sciences<\/em><\/a><strong>,<\/strong>\u00a02011, Vol.5, No.5, pp. 280-285<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>C. Masango et al, \u201cMajor Challenge and Constraint of Documenting Indigenous Knowledge about Africa\u2019s Complementary and Alternative Medicine (e-ACAM)\u201d,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ictforafrica.org\/attachments\/section\/4\/ict4africa2013_submission_31.pdf\"> Paper<\/a> presented at International Conference on ICT for Africa 2013, February 20-23, Harare, Zimbabwe<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Father Anselm Adodo OSB, \u201cNature Power: Natural Medicine in Tropical Africa\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Nature-Power-Natural-Medicine-Tropical\/dp\/1491878347\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1429195998&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Nature+Power%3A+Natural+Medicine+in+Tropical+Africa\" target=\"_blank\">AuthorHouse<\/a>, 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>O. Awodele et al, \u201cTowards integrating traditional medicine (TM) into National Health Care Scheme (NHCS): Assessment of TM practitioners\u2019 disposition in Lagos, Nigeria\u201d, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scopus.com\/record\/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-84858075857&amp;origin=inward&amp;txGid=355DA3B2D0233E8415A4F0714B24B930.N5T5nM1aaTEF8rE6yKCR3A%3a2\">Journal of Herbal Medicine<\/a><\/em>, 2011, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 90-94<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>O. I. Isola, \u201cThe \u201cRelevance\u201d of the African Traditional Medicine (Alternative Medicine) to Health Care Delivery System in Nigeria\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/journals\/jda\/summary\/v047\/47.1.isola.html\"><em>The Journal of Developing Areas<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>2013, Vol.47, No.1, pp. 319-338<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>P. Shetty, \u201cIntegrating modern and traditional medicine: Facts and figures\u201d, <a href=\"\u00a7%09http:\/www.scidev.net\/global\/disease\/feature\/integrating-modern-and-traditional-medicine-facts-and-figures.html\">SciDev.net<\/a>, 20 June 2010<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>R. Gyasi et al, \u201cPublic Perceptions of the Role of Traditional Medicine in the Health Care Delivery System in Ghana\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ccsenet.org\/journal\/index.php\/gjhs\/article\/view\/12439\"><em>Global Journal of Health Science<\/em><\/a>, 2011, Vol.3, No.2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>T. Adefolaju, \u201cTraditional and orthodox medical systems in Nigeria: The imperative of a synthesis\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencepublishinggroup.com\/journal\/paperinfo.aspx?journalid=656&amp;doi=10.11648\/j.ajhr.20140204.13\"><em>American Journal of Health Research<\/em><\/a>, 2014, Vol.2, No.4, pp.118-124<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>W. Birhan et al, \u201cThe contribution of traditional healers\u2019 clinics to public health care system in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ethnobiomed.com\/content\/7\/1\/39\"><em>Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine<\/em><\/a>, 2011, Vol.7, No.1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cTraditional Knowledge\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aripo.org\/index.php\/services\/traditional-knowledge\">African Regional Intellectual Property Organization<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/medicines\/publications\/traditional\/trm_strategy14_23\/en\/\">World Health Organization<\/a>, 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamie Hitchen spent a fortnight in Nigeria in December 2014 working on a new publication about traditional medicine. Here he gives readers a glimpse into what an ARI research trip entails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1474,1473,64,221,1465,1557,1484,1455,1444,578,1479,1506,1560,1554,77,1561,30,1562,1449,1447,1559,1464,1456,1448,898,1463,1564,1565,661,1477,1507,1446,1483,1476,170,1482,1481,1558,1445,1553,1555,1475,1566,1563,1462,1556,1470,1469],"class_list":["post-7477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-affordable-medication","tag-affordable-medicine","tag-africa","tag-africa-research-institute","tag-african-business","tag-african-medicine","tag-african-plants","tag-alternative-medicine","tag-anselm-adodo","tag-ari","tag-benedictine","tag-benedictine-monk","tag-edo-edo-state","tag-field-trip","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-in-publications","tag-healthcare","tag-herbal","tag-herbal-medicine","tag-herbs","tag-home-grown","tag-illness","tag-indigenous-medicine","tag-innovation","tag-innovative","tag-interview","tag-interview-technique","tag-medicine","tag-modern","tag-monk","tag-natural-remedies","tag-natural-resource","tag-nature","tag-nigeria","tag-nigerian-business","tag-paxherbals","tag-plants","tag-remedies","tag-research","tag-research-trip","tag-science","tag-semi-structured-interviews","tag-tradition","tag-traditional","tag-travel","tag-wellbeing","tag-wellness"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Research Diary: Herbal medicine in Nigeria - Africa Research Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jamie Hitchen worked on a new publication, \u201cModern African Remedies,\u201d in Nigeria. 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