Challenges and Opportunities of the Ugandan Traditional Herbal Medicine Sector

Abstract

The use of herbal medicine products worldwide and in Uganda is on the rise and there is much-renewed interest in their use because of the belief that they are safe. However, this belief is not backed up by credible scientific research for many products in Uganda. Almost all herbal products produced locally in Uganda have no scientific proof for their claimed safety and efficacy for the treatment of the various conditions they are claimed to treat example; covid-19, HIV, hypertension, erectile dysfunction, and others. There is an urgent need to quickly improve and enforced research on the local products in order to realise the economic benefits which could be lying hidden in them and put a ban on adulterated products from being sold to the public. This review was conducted in order to determine the challenges and opportunities in the Traditional Herbal Medicine sector in Uganda. It was found out that enormous challenges face the Traditional Medicine sector in Uganda including; lack of research on products available for use, claims of one product treating multiple conditions, adulteration of products with established Pharmaceutical drugs and no stringent regulations on registration of products. However, a lot of opportunities were also noted available for exploitation to develop the sector further. Collaboration with local Universities to speed up research using the Reverse Pharmacology approach [1] on the available products, strictly enforcing regulation on product registration and exploiting the reverse Pharmacology approach to study the local products, aggressive and intentional investment in basic research infrastructures and speeding up Clinical Trials on products found to be safe and effective could allow the realisation of the benefits which could be hidden in the local Traditional Medicine products.