Both World Health Organization (WHO) and Kenya government have recognized the role of herbal\r\ntraditional medicinal practice in primary health management due to the observation that 80% of the\r\nrural communities consult traditional healers before they go for the orthodox medical services. The\r\ntraditional herbal practice remains familiar and artitional, thus least developed and hence the patients\r\ndo not get the best values for their input in the services. The research strategies executed by\r\nresearchers have never focussed on the plight of the patients but covered phytochemical,\r\npharmacological and no clinical evaluations. Effectively, the data so far available remain less useful\r\nthan should have been to the development of herbal traditional practices. The current project thus\r\naimed at focussing on the establishment of a research strategy that used observational studies to\r\nestablish the possibility for designing a rigorous clinical trials of herbal medical practice involving\r\nparticipation of three herbalists, patients, one orthodox medical doctor, a plant taxonomist and a\r\nphytochemist with the objectives of proofing and validating the practice, using principles of biomedical\r\nand bioscience in Gem and Seme sublocations in Siaya and Kisumu Districts, respectively in Nyanza\r\nprovince, Kenya. Through the ethnobotanical field survey, the taxonomist identified 95 plant species\r\nused by the herbalists. Through literature review it was found that 100% of the plants are used by other\r\nherbalists in East Africa to treat human and animal ailments while 30% of the species had received\r\nphytochemical and pharmacological evaluations, thus validating their therapeutic values. About 10% of\r\nthese species had been used in clinical studies. The observation indicate that the herbalists have\r\nreasonable potentials for management of the diseases despite their ignorance on the literature data on\r\nthese plants as well as modern medical practical procedures. The inclusion of modern diagnosis of\r\ndiseases by a medical doctor and medical laboratory tests improved the rate of the healing outcome by\r\n20% when the healing rate was compared with that observed for the treatment of patients before the\r\nintervention through this project. The results so far indicate that it is practicable to implement a\r\nrigorous clinical trial in which both herbalists, patients and researchers collaborate. Such strategies\r\nshall not only give critical data for validation of herbal traditional medicinal practice but be useful for\r\nprospection for phytochemicines based on indigenous knowledge and also be used for the\r\nimprovement and management of the practice.
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