Recent Advances towards Validating Efficacy and Safety of African Traditional Medicines

Abstract
Traditional medicine (TM) has a significant role to play in the African health care system for two main reasons. The first one is the inadequate access to allopathic medicines and western forms of treatments. The majority of people in Africa cannot afford access to modern medical care either because it is too costly or because there are nomedical service providers. Second, there is a lack of effectivemodernmedical treatment for some ailments such as malaria or HIV/AIDS, which, although global in distribution, disproportionately affect Africamore than other areas in the world. It is generally believedthatAfricanTMs if revisited andmeshedwithrecent developments in science could provide substantial benefits that could help give a boost to the African health care system and by doing so alleviate sufferings and livelihood of people. It is also believed that by rediscovering and adding value to the ancientwisdoms it will also empower people at the grassroot level and help patients as well as scientists find solutions to mitigate, inter alia, the global impact of diseases.
Description
Keywords
Advances, Efficacy, Safety, African Traditional Medicines
Citation
Tabuti, J. R., Hassen, I. E., Pateh, U. U., & Mahomoodally, M. F. (2014). Recent advances towards validating efficacy and safety of African traditional medicines. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/260567