Kenya: Highs and Lows of Ex-Councilor’s Herbal Remedy

Fifty four-year old Priscilla Cherop is a hard-working woman.Her 20-acre farm of a crucial medicine-plant, whose extracts are used for treatment of malaria, is attracting many people's attention.

Apart from a senior World Bank official, who visited her last year to assess how the Artemisia annual plant is saving lives of many children and pregnant women, Ms Cherop is now the talk of the North Rift region as patients flock to her home for treatment, which they consider better than conventional medicines.

She generates sufficient income to sustain her extended family, as the residents now benefit from affordable treatment for the killer disease.

By leaps and bounds

When the former councilor quit her job six years ago to concentrate on the plant's cultivation, many who saw the farming as unprofitable expected her to give up soon. But she has proved the skeptics wrong.

The initial Sh300, 000-worth investment has grown by leaps and bounds.

"I was determined to invest the cash, all from my savings, in a bid to produce a natural remedy for malaria, among other ailments," confesses Ms Cherop in her Jua Kali farm in Uasin Gishu District.

Her initiative has seen the World Bank representative in charge of herbal medicine research, Mr. John Lambert, visit her farm. Mr. Lambert's visit was to assess the possibility of offering financial assistance to herbalists in Kenya.

During the visit, Mr. Lambert held a meeting in Eldoret Town with herbalists from the North Rift region and encouraged them on the need to expand research work on alternative medicine.

Mr. Lambert was accompanied by national officials of the herbal medicine, led by its chairman, Mr. Israel Odongo.

"The plant has been approved by the World Health Organization for the prevention and treatment of malaria and has won the hearts of many as an affordable remedy for the disease," discloses Ms Cherop, also the chairperson of the National Council of Herbalists and Research, Rift Valley chapter.

She explains that every part of the plant is of high economic value. Indeed, the plant, which does not only cure malaria, is now proving to be the area residents' hope for tackling various other ailments.

"The leaves are used to manufacture anti-malarial drugs, while the bark and the roots are used to cure various types of cancer, among other ailments," explains Ms Cherop, a mother of four boys.

She says a single dose of the anti-malarial herb goes for Sh50. In some cases, she is forced to give the drug on credit to clients who cannot afford immediate payment.

"I cannot claim to make a lot of profit from the trade. The mission to save lives comes first in my work.

"But whatever I generate sustains my family comfortably," says Ms Cherop, preferring to brush aside hints that she could be making a fortune.

The motivation by Ms Cherop has seen a few herbalists in the region venture into cultivation of the plant.

But there is no business without challenges and the production of affordable anti-malarial drugs from the plant by the North Rift herbalists is no exception.

Lack of technological know-how has frustrated the herbalists from maximizing on the potential of the plant, and to expand research on the use of traditional medicine.

Although Botanic Africa, a research institution in herbal medicine based in Nakuru, introduced the herbalists to cultivation of Artemisia plant, to date, they still lack the technology to process and market its medicinal products.

"The research body only sensitized us on how to cultivate the plant and take care of it. The Government was to construct a factory to manufacture anti-malaria drugs and assist us in marketing. All these have not been forthcoming," laments Ms Cherop.

The frustrations have seen the herbalists resort to traditional methods of drying the leaves using heat from the sun to produce anti-malarial herbs.

Ms Cherop claims that the Government had initially promised to enter into partnership with an Asian pharmaceutical company to construct a factory in the region to produce malaria drugs from the plant.

Source/Credit: Bii Barnabas Nairobi (http://www.allafrica.com:Kenya)