Abstract:
The most accessible points of call for most African populations with respect to
primary health care are traditional health systems that include spiritual, religious, and herbal
medicine. This review focusses only on the use of herbal medicines. Most African people
accept herbal medicines as generally safe with no serious adverse effects. However, the
overlap between conventional medicine and herbal medicine is a reality among countries in
health systems transition. Patients often simultaneously seek treatment from both
conventional and traditional health systems for the same condition. Commonly encountered
conditions/diseases include malaria, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, tuberculosis, and bleeding disorders. It is therefore imperative to understand the modes of interaction between different
drugs from conventional and traditional health care systems when used in treatment
combinations. Both conventional and traditional drug entities are metabolized by the same
enzyme systems in the human body, resulting in both pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics interactions, whose properties remain unknown/unquantified. Thus, it is
important that profiles of interaction between different herbal and conventional medicines
be evaluated. This review evaluates herbal and conventional drugs in a few African countries
and their potential interaction at the pharmacogenomics level.
