A herbal medicine practitioner and chairman, YemKem International, Dr Akintunde Ayeni, has advised the federal and state governments to support alternative medicine in their quest to find a solution to COVID-19.
Ayeni, at a briefing, said herbal medicine in Nigeria had grown in research and standardisation and could compete favourably with China and the rest of the world.
He described a call by the Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan for partnership with YemKem International on the need to produce herbal products that could combat the COVID-19 as recognition of the role of herbal medicine in the ecosystem.
“The federal and state governments should focus on traditional medicine and not by word of mouth but in terms of research. The Chinese were able to combat coronavirus because they believe in traditional medicine. And part of the remedy they used is traditional Chinese medicine.
“In the city of China, before you see one pharmacy that sells Western drugs, you would have seen ten Chinese herbal shops. Eight out of ten Chinese believe in their traditional medicine. The outbreak started in Wuhan and in a short time, the country was able to curtail it because they believe in traditional medicine,” Ayeni said.

By Dapo Ojerinde