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Subject: search.filters.subject.Traditional medicine--South Africa

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    The perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of traditional healers and traders about using cultivated plants in South Africa.
    (2018) Mbongwa, Nolwazi Sinqobile
    Afrocentric worldviews believe in the existence of ancestors, and traditional healers are consulted for communication with them. Traditional healers dispense various animal and plant parts to rid their clients of the problems that they might be facing. Animal and plant parts that are considered medicinal in the broad sense are therefore vital in African belief systems. Medicinal plants are rapidly declining in the wild due to over-harvesting, development and urbanisation, and various initiatives such as law enforcement have been used to combat the decline, but they have not been successful. Cultivation is one of the methods that has been used to mitigate the decline of medicinal plants. Cultivation is viable because healers and traders can easily practice it, if they have the necessary requirements for it such as land, water, propagation material and time. Importantly, however, there is limited scientific knowledge about the acceptability of cultivated medicinal plants by healers and traders. The aim of the study is to determine the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of traditional healers and traders about medicinal plant cultivation, and identify plants that are a priority to healers and traders, to contribute to a greater understanding of the cultural opportunities and challenges for cultivating medicinal plants as a conservation strategy. Five markets were surveyed: Marabastad, Mona, Faraday, Ezimbuzini and Warwick. Healers from Soweto, Nhlungwane and Umlazi were surveyed. Two residential areas and three markets are located in KwaZulu-Natal province. Two markets and one residential area were surveyed in Gauteng province. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to survey the places and overall 114 respondents (42 healers and 72 healers) were interviewed. The results of the study show that healers and traders accept using and selling cultivated medicinal plants. Nevertheless, certain aspects of the spiritual and cultural entities of medicinal plants need to be sustained and ensured even when cultivating. Plants that are used for rituals and those that are chosen by ancestors via dreams are specifically required to be collected in the wild. Healers and traders have different knowledge about spiritual limitation concerning medicinal plants. However, the perceptions are not significantly different to a point in which they would be approached separately in conservation plans. Furthermore, location and ethnicity also have a great influence in both healers and traders perception about cultivated medicinal plants.
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    Screening and phytochemical characterization of a South African herbal concoction for anti-HIV-1 activity
    (2017) Hlatshwayo, Vincent Nkosinathi
    In South Africa, the anti-HIV-1 activity of various indigenous plants has not been studied extensively. Most of the phytochemical screening work has focused on anti-cancer activity with less attention given to infectious diseases. A large proportion of South Africans (70-80%) still rely on traditional medicines for treatment of various ailments. And, therefore, there is a need to evaluate and validate the effectiveness of the traditional medicines. The aim of this study was to identify, screen, phytochemically characterize and isolate bioactive compounds from a South African herbal extract that exhibit the best anti-HIV-1 activity. Three extracts were prepared: an ethanol extract, a dereplicated ethanol extract and an aqueous extract from a herbal concoction comprised of a mixture of six plants. These herbal concoctions were investigated for anti-HIV-1 subtype C activity. Phytochemical profiling of the ethanol- and dereplicated ethanol- extracts from the herbal concoctions showed the presence of intermediate polar compounds (flavonoids, alkaloids, sugars and terpenes) for both extracts, while the aqueous extract contained predominantly highly polar compounds. Anti-HIV-1 screening of the three extracts showed that the ethanol and dereplicated ethanol herbal- extracts had the best anti-reverse transcriptase activity. The ethanol extract had mean IC50 values of 56.53, 53.96 and 55.39 μg/ml against MJ4, Du179 and CM9 HIV-1 subtypes C isolates, respectively. The dereplicated ethanol extract had mean IC50 values of 51.87, 47.56 and 52.81 μg/ml against MJ4, Du179 and CM9 HIV-1 isolates, respectively. The aqueous extract was inactive against HIV-1 activity. Moreover, both the ethanol- and dereplicated ethanol- extracts showed activity against HIV neutralization. The ethanol- and dereplicated ethanol- extracts had mean IC50 values of 36.33 and 32.06 μg/ml, respectively. Furthermore, they also potently neutralized Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) yielding mean IC50 values of 24.91 and 20.82 μg/ml for ethanol- and dereplicated ethanol- extracts, respectively. All extracts were inactive against Murine leukemia virus (MLV). The isolation and phytochemical characterization of the bioactive compound(s) was done by utilizing various chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. Four homoisoflavanoids were isolated and tested for anti-HIV-1 subtype C activity. Three compounds (1, 3a and 3b) were inactive while compound 2 was found to be bioactive against HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) and yielded mean IC50 values of 7.23 ± 1.88, 12.83 ± 0.41 & 12.81 ± 0.10 μg/ml for MJ4, CM9 and Du179 HIV-1 subtype C isolates, respectively. Compound 2 had a mean CC50 value of 23.08 ± 0.1981 μg/ml against HEK293T cells. Overall, the data suggested that ethanol- and dereplicated ethanol- herbal extracts possess direct and indirect anti-HIV-1 activity. They possess a cocktail of phytochemicals that can inhibit HIV-1 RT, HIV-1 entry. Furthermore, these extracts possess phytochemicals that can lower the activation of inflammatory responses during an infection and, hence, reduction in the number new cells infected during the course of HIV-1 infection. Moreover, they possess phytochemicals that have antioxidant activity which, in relation to HIV infection, results in a boosted immune system response in order to ward off the virus.
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    Institutional arrangements for integrating traditional health practitioners into the South African primary health care system
    (2017) Motloenya, Buyiswa
    The South African public health care system is and continues to experience shortage of professional health care workers like other developing countries. These professional health care workers leave the country for better salaries and working environment for private sector and developed countries. The aim of the study is to gather and analyse information on how to integrate traditional health practitioners into the South African primary health care system to address the shortage of the health care workers. This qualitative study used a cross-sectional design to explore the perception, knowledge and recommendation of the national and district Department of Health officials, the western practitioners, the traditional practitioners and the SA citizens in Pretoria, South Africa on how to address this problem. Thirteen individual in-depth interviews and one focus group with the four categories of the research participants were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide. The results indicated that the SA government in partnership with the Interim Traditional Health Practitioners Council have opted for a parallel system to integrate the traditional practitioners into the primary health care level. For the parallel system to be fully implemented there are still issues that need to be achieved by the key stakeholders, one is for the government to build the traditional health care facilities for traditional practitioners, whilst the ITHPC finalise the registration of the traditional practitioners and approval of the Traditional Health Practitioners Regulations of 2015. Lastly, the District Health System has to prepare themselves for a new entrant, which is the traditional health care, into the primary health care to complement the existing system.