Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

Just two years since PROTA published its first volume on medicinal plants, the handbook - PROTA 11: Medicinal plants 1 - is already transforming the practice of traditional or herbal medicine and changing livelihoods of many people.

“My name is Akua Mina from Kwakukrom, a suburb of Samreboi in the Asankragwa District. I was taken ill and suffered from an inflammation of my entire body but could not get any better after reporting at a hospital. I came to seek herbal treatment at Nana Esandoh’s herbal centre. I have been here for the past three months. Now I feel better than before I arrived. I am still undergoing treatment and I think I would have been dead if I had not come to Nana Esandoh”

Local communities in Asankragua District, western Ghana are a case in point. The Centre for Agroforestry Business and Development (CABuD) conducts informal training and education to groups of farmers and herbal practitioners in the region. For the last two years, CABuD, has been using information from the PROTA handbook on medicinal plants to train farmers and traditional medicine practitioners on use, conservation and cultivation of medicinal plants.

CABuD is a project of an on-going Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) – a reforestation program that seeks to build the capacity of local communities and then involve them in the management and conservation of natural resources.

An independent evaluation of the project shows that the use of PROTA information has improved livelihoods of the local community and the conservation of medicinal plants within the community. It is estimated that there are about 200 primary beneficiaries of the project, with the possibility of the number increasing to almost 3000 at the end of the project.

The evaluation showed that PROTA information was applied in three key areas:

1. Identifying tree species that had medicinal properties or uses for farmers to include in their agroforestry systems,

2. Informing herbal practitioners of additional uses of medicinal plants they have been using, thus giving them more options for the use of a particular medicinal plant species, and

3. Educating and encourage the communities to see the need to protect the exiting secondary forest patches because they contain many medicinal plants. Some farmers had also been encouraged to purposely cultivate medicinal plants farms.

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Farmers have now diversified their medicinal plants, many of them going ahead into their cultivation. Some of the medicinal plants farmers are now cultivating and conserving on their farms – courtesy of PROTA information received through CABuD - include, Cheesewood (Alstonia boonei), Poison devil’s pepper (Rauvolfia vomitoria), Tiama mahogany (Entandrophragma angolense) and the African nutmeg (Pycnanthus angolensis).

Left: Sample of tree bark collected for medicinal purposes. Right: Partially processed medicinal plant products.
The community has been educated on the importance of using medicinal plants.

The diversification, cultivation and conservation of the medicinal plants is proving to be a highly rewarding enterprise. Commercial plant medicine practitioners and farmers who cultivate medicinal plant species are earning an average annual income of US $ 1400 and US$ 1750 respectively. The US $ 1750 represents additional income for farmers who purposely cultivate medicinal plants on their farms. This is because prior to the project, they were not earning any income from medicinal plants.

These incomes contribute mainly to payment of children’s education and supporting families’ upkeep. Many of the farmers also indicated that the use of herbal medicines saves them the costs of routine hospital bills. The estimated amount of hospital bills savings ranges from US$ 70 to US $ 350 per year per household in the communities.

“On average, I am able to bring in about GH¢ 2000 every year. This money enables me to pay for my children’s education, household upkeep as well as purchase some implements for my farm and herbal practice”. Nana Esandoh, 61 years, Herbalist.

In terms of conservation, the evaluation also concluded that farmers and herbal medicine practitioners who used to travel long distances in search of medicinal plants have begun cultivating and protecting these plants on their cocoa and food crop farms. Secondary forest patches that hitherto had received no protection are now being controlled and used as sources of medicinal plants, thus ensuring the sustainability of the resource.

One of the recommendations from the evaluation is that training and information materials be prepared from the PROTA handbook and made available to the herbal medicine farmers and practitioners