Quacks have field day in Kenya in the absence of a regulatory body

All medicines have chemicals in them which result in the therapeutic effect. These chemicals are called active ingredient of the medicine. Kenya does not have any law that governs herbal medicines on the basis of the active ingredients they contain. As a result, many herbalists make their own formulations and claim to treat diseases posing a serious health problem to the country as a whole.

Since there is no medical body to control or regulate the practice in herbal medicines, it is governed by the Ministry of Culture and Social Sciences which does not have the expertise or acumen to monitor the activities of these herbalists. This lacuna has led to mushrooming business of quackery in the country.

The World Agro Forestry Centre has recently taken the initiative to help genuine herbalists in the country by identifying the active ingredients in the medicines and create a database which can be used to regulate the herbal industry by the government.

This will definitely go a long way in solving the problem of fake medicines being given to patients without any active ingredient and are basically a concoction of different things. Sometimes in the name of herbal medicines regular medicines are given as there in the absence of a regulatory body to check such anomalies.

The ICRAF is focussing on the ingredients which come from herbs and trees and also where they are grown along with their varieties. They are also working on the development if a gene bank so that no variety of the trees or herbs become extinct because of over cultivation. All these steps will regulate the herbal medicine industry and make it more accountable and hence more useful.