Part One: Indigenous Medicine Among the Hausa of Northern Nigeria: Laboratory Evaluation for Potential Therapeutic Efficacy of Antimalarial Plant Medicinais

Abstract

A West African (Hausa) herbal pharmacopoeia is evaluated in the context of potential chemotherapeutic efficacy in the indigenous treatment of malaria. Results are presented from laboratory analyses designed to assess the capacity of medicinal plants to increase intraerythrocytic oxidation, a phenomenon previously demonstrated to be of therapeutic value in malaria infection. Methodology and data are also discussed in broader contexts which address questions of: effective integration of indigenous and Western treatment modalities; adaptive significance, with respect to health status, for medically related and other (e.g., nutritional) behaviors involving the indigenous use of plants. © 1979, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.