136 African Remedies

African traditional medicine is the oldest, and perhaps the most assorted, of all therapeutic systems.
Africa is considered to be the cradle of mankind with a rich biological and cultural diversity marked by regional differences in healing practices.
African traditional medicine in its varied forms is holistic involving both the body and the mind.
The traditional healer typically diagnoses and treats the psychological basis of an illness before prescribing medicines, particularly medicinal plants to treat the symptoms.
The majority of people in Africa cannot afford access to modern medical care either because it is too costly or because there are no medical service providers.
There is also a lack of effective modern medical treatment for some ailments such as malaria and/or HIV/AIDS, which, although global in distribution, disproportionately affect Africa more than other areas in the world.
The most common traditional medicine in common practice across the African continent is the use of medicinal plants.
In many parts of Africa, medicinal plants are the most easily accessible health resource available to the community.
They are most often the preferred option for the patients.
For most of these people, traditional healers offer information, counselling, and treatment to patients and their families in a personal manner as well as having an understanding of their patient's environment.
Africa is blessed with enormous biodiversity resources and it is estimated to contain between 40 and 45,000 species of plant with a potential for development and out of which 5,000 species are used medicinally.
We start off with the 13 most common that include 136 remedies.