Chika Abanobi
The recent public approval and recommendation by President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar, of COVID-Organics, a herbal medicine produced by his country’s Madagascar Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), which specialises in the study of medicinal plants, has prompted a renewed call on government, state and federal, by practitioners of alternative medicine in Nigeria, to accord similar recognition to Nigerian herbal solutions especially in the fight against COVID-19.
Leading the pack are: Dr. Benjamin Amodu, lead phytochemical researcher, African Alternative Medicine, Hospital, Abuja; Dr. Andrew Abue, Associate Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology, Department of Anatomical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Abuja, and Dr. Darlington Akukwu of College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Imo State University, Owerri. The three medical practitioners claimed to have jointly produced a range of herbal supplements (names withheld), which, when properly combined, are capable of curing COVID-19, in the absence of any officially recognized and approved vaccine.
Though IMRA’s COVID-Organics has not been tested internationally, it made quite a sight when President Rajoelina got on the state television, and after gulping some dose of it, in full glare of teeming viewers, lifted up the bottle and said: “This herbal tea gives results in seven days. We can change the history of the entire world. Two people have now been cured by this treatment.”
The letter of introduction
That is the kind of encouragement that Dr. Amodu, et al said they expected to receive from government and its agencies for coming up with those range of medical products but they were a bit disappointed when it was not forthcoming.
“I contacted Nigerian medical authorities in regards to my solution,” said Amodu who, apart from other medical qualifications, trained under Elizabeth Kafaru of blessed memory. “Ten days after the virus broke out and a call was made out to scientists in regards to a solution for this pandemic. I wrote the minister of science and technology on the solution I provide.”
The letter dated February 8, 2020, and, a copy which is in the possession of Saturday Sun, partly read: “We are a Nigerian research organization working in the specific areas of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Our research effort in these areas has produced very good result so far as our NAFDAC-listed products have been found effective on a number of viral diseases like HIV, Hepatitis ABCD and E, Ebola, Lassa and Dengue Fevers. When Ebola broke out, we tested our p+3 on HV medication to see their effect or CD8, which is a specific sign of an effectiveness on the Haemorrhagic fevers, with our three patients’ initial CD4 and CD5 taken, after three months of the product uses, the parameters were taken, with profound increases in CD4 count and CD8 count, in fact the increases in the CD8 which is specific for the haemorrhagic fever were greater than those of the CD4.
“In this specific case, our time-effective throat cancer food supplements will attack the throat effect of the coronavirus, prevent and disallow further degeneration into pneumonia and lung diseases. Our Texas University certified lung cancer cure…will prevent the pneumonia or lung diseases thereby stopping the virus. It can be used by everybody for prevention and the disease management. I wish to present the products as soon as the Minister gives me a date to do so.”
The Madagascar ‘miracle’ and view from Nigeria
But the alternative medicine advocate regrets that till today, he and his colleagues have not been invited to showcase their products. And, he wishes that things were the same here as in Madagascar where the government stood solidly behind their researchers. The pandemic is said to have affected 128 people in that country, but there is no record of death, allegedly thanks to the COVID-Organics, the herbal mixture prepared from Artemisia, known as “sweet wormwood.” A traditional plant with proven efficacy in treating malaria, it is also said to be good in boosting the immune systems. Ms Cornet-Vernet, founder and vice president of Madagascar’s La Maison de l’Artemisia claimed that China used extracts from like plant to combat COVID-19.
“We may ask Madagascar to send us planeload of the herbs to treat COVID-19”, Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Federal Government and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, said, while briefing the media on Tuesday, April 28, 2020. “I want to assure you that whatever is happening in the world, we are mindful of it and we are keeping tab.”
Acknowledging what he sees as a medical breakthrough in the fight against the pandemic, he said: “I was reading of the experiences in Madagascar – of why everybody is drinking some solutions that have been prepared. This morning, I was sharing with my wife, and I told her that probably I would request that Mr. President allow us import a planeload for a trial because we are all navigating an unchartered cause. Nobody has ever been on this road. So, every attempt to find solution that would bring succour to our people, be rest assured that this task force is very responsible and we would do everything to ensure that we get what will benefit our people, what will help them in the processes that we find ourselves today.”
What government is doing about alternative medicine
Please, look not as far as Madagascar, “to find solution that would bring succour to our people,” the researching trio beg Mustapha. Their polyherbal formulations contain anti-inflammatory properties that hinder the alveolar inflammatory reactions in the lungs, Dr. Abue said. “They also have anti-oxidative properties. They have the ability of stimulating antibodies to contain the virus as well as retard and stop the duplication of the virus. This combination has abundant zinc and ascorbic acid that will aid the epithelial cells in the lungs thus enhancing the oxygen carrying capacity of the red blood cells to all vital organs including the lungs. This way, the multiple organ failure that leads to death through the disease is avoided.”
“These herbal supplements combination with their very desirable qualities should be given a chance in the treatment of COVID-19,” Akukwu appealed.
At a press briefing on April 7, 2020, the Nigerian Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said that government is prepared to consider herbal medicine in the fight against coronavirus. According to him, the Federal government will investigate and give all interested herbalists the opportunity to produce and clinically test medicine targeted at the disease.
He explained that the federal government, through the Ministry of Health, is studying the claims by the alternative medicine practitioners in the country, of finding cure for COVID-19. He added that he has received several letters from them and noted that inasmuch as he is not disputing their claims he had referred their letters to the relevant department in his ministry.
His words: “We have a department for alternative medicine in the ministry and we have series of letters from traditional medical practitioners who have written to me that they have the cure for coronavirus. Well, I have not disputed it so I have referred such letters to the department of traditional medicine and I am waiting for them to give me a feedback on what they have discovered from the people. We will look at every assertion and claim. Some people say they have herbs and some others say they have concoctions. It is only those who are serious that the department will look into their claims and we will not throw away any suggestion. The efficacy and efficiency of these medicines have to be proven first before it can be recommended for people to take.”
Spurious claims from across the world
Across the world, there had been claims as to what works and what does not, since the onset of the pandemic. In Sri Lanka, some people claimed that a particular herbal drink was capable of remedying all infectious diseases that can affect humans, including COVID-19 but a certain Dr. Karunathilake, a senior researcher at the country’s Colombo University Institute of Indigenous Medicine debunked the claim and warned of its long-term harmful effect that is capable of triggering other diseases.
In Venezuela, a recipe consisting of ingredients like lemon grass, ginger, black pepper, lemon and honey, and purported to prevent and cure colds was enthusiastically promoted by a member of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly as a cure for COVID-19 but this was quickly debunked by medical experts.
Sometime ago, a claim circulated on Facebook in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, that drinking lemon in warm water can increase Vitamin C levels and help to prevent both COVID-19 and cancer. But Henry Chenal, Director of the Integrated Bioclinical Research Centre (CIRBA), Abidjan, Ivory Coast and World Health Organisation (WHO) said that inasmuch as taking lemons and consuming fresh fruit and vegetables are good, there is no evidence that drinking lemon in warm water protects against COVID-19.
The same thing applies to consuming garlic, tumeric or large amount of boiled ginger. At some point in Philippines, they were rumoured on Facebook to cure or protect against COVID-19. But Dr. Mark Kristoffer Pasayan, a fellow at the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and WHO said there is no iota of evidence in those claims.
“Don’t consume any mixtures claiming to be COVID-19 vaccine,” the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recently warned in a bulk text message it sent to Nigerians. “There is no approved drug or vaccine for COVID-19. These substances can cause harm.”
Amodu, et al alternative medicine
Dr. Amodu does not see their products as belonging to the same category with the aforementioned cases. He believes that, like the much-touted Madagascar’s COVID-Organics, their antimalarial supplements “can handle the prevention and cure for COVID-19, and we are proposing the four combinations which are all NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control)-listed.”
COVID 19 patients are expected to take them all, he explains “because it is a combo and there are various body systems involved and these four combinations work hand-in-hand. For instance, from the herbal combination, it starts working from the throat to treating pneumonia to fibrosis, and the issue of the immune system which the combination will take care of. These herbal combinations have been on the shelf for over 10 years.”
One of them, he boasts “beat chloroquine and pyrimethamine in a presentation at United Nations (UN). It was tested as a vaccine when compared with pyrimethamine and it is curative. [It] was tested against chloroquine and had 97% success against p.falciparum the causative agent of malaria and has since been peer-reviewed by the Indian journal.”
Talking about journal, the three researchers have just taken their case beyond Nigeria to a wider scientific community by sending a joint paper to the world-acclaimed IOSR Journal for Dental and Medical Sciences (published by the International Organisation of Scientific Research, IOSR). The journal publishes papers of the highest scientific merit and widest possible scope work in all areas related to medical and dental science. Citing their products as a case study, the three wrote on why African alternative medicine should be used to curb COVID-19