The National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and
Control has warned Nigerians to avoid taking herbal liquids after 14 days of
preparation as this could be risky to their health. Prof. Mojisola
Adeyeye, its Director General, gave the advice in a statement issued to
commemorate the World Herbal Medicine Day which holds annually on Aug. 31.
Adeyeye advised Nigerians to use herbal
medicines with caution to prevent avoidable deaths and complications.
According to her, for safety reasons, no
liquid herbal formulation should be ingested after days of preparation and such
medicines should always be kept refrigerated.
“After 14 days, if it is
liquid, it may start to develop bacteria that can make people sick.
“The general public
should use herbal medicines with care because you don’t know the quantity that
you are supposed to take.
“The fact that it is
natural doesn’t mean it is not toxic,’’ she stressed.
She explained that toxicity was not about the
volume consumed, but that something could be in micro quantity and could kill.
“Just because you
prepared the concoction in your house doesn’t mean you can drink it like water.
It may be dangerous,’’ she cautioned.
Adeyeye noted that the problem associated with
herbal medicines was that many people did not understand that it should be
scientifically driven.
“If you prepare herbal
medicine in liquid form you don’t know how stable the medicine will be in
water. If it is not stable and it is degrading to another thing, it may hurt.
“Those who engage in
hawking herbal preparations on the streets under the scorching sun, the heat
generated by the sun may have a way of causing decomposition of the active
ingredients in the medicines being sold.
“This may pose
significant health risks to those buying and consuming these preparations.
“That’s why herbal
medicines in Nigeria have to be handled with care. Some people take herbal
medicines like vaccines.
“Herbal medicines are
derived from plants mostly, sometimes from animals in few cases while vaccines
are from human or animal cells that have been programmed to elicit immunologic
effects in the body.’’ She added
Adeyeye also advised against simultaneous use
of both herbal and conventional medicines by members of the public.
“If someone is using
herbal medicine and a conventional medicine simultaneously, there may be a
problem.
“Let’s say that a medicine
is supposed to lower blood pressure or lower sugar level for diabetes and a
person takes conventional medicine and the sugar level is lowered and he then
takes herbal remedy, that person may go into a shock.
“This means that the
level of sugar in the blood is too low because the two are now working
synergistically.
“Sometimes herbal
medicines may actually reduce the effectiveness of the conventional medicine.
That’s why studies need to be done because there is drug-herbal medicine
interaction that may cause a lot of harm.
“Whoever is taking herbal
medicine should talk to his or her pharmacist and medical doctor for
professional advice,’’ she stated.
Adeyeye, however, called for collaboration
between herbal medicine practitioners and medical researchers to achieve rapid
development of the herbal medicine industry in the country.
The D-G noted that NAFDAC in March 2019 set up
herbal medicine product committee before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out to
advance research in herbal medicines.
According to her, the goal of setting up the
committee is to make sure that the herbalist and the researcher are
collaborating.
“So, whatever the
herbalist knows from ancestral history that does not have research to back it
up, collaboration with researchers will enable that herbal medicine to be
advanced to be listed by NAFDAC if it’s deemed safe.
“Right now, there is no
single herbal medicine that has gone through full clinical trial the way
clinical trial is supposed to be done.
“There could be herbal
medicines that have been used to treat a symptom of COVID-19 or whatever, but
it has not been published in which case, it is not an official clinical
trial,’’ she said.
