FG Charged To Establish Herbal Medicine Units In Major Hospitals

A Professor of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Chemistry at the University of Ilorin, Isaac Aremu, has “enjoined the federal government to establish a herbal pharmacy section in all health facilities in the country.

Delivering the 252nd inaugural lecture of the university titled, “Drug Formulation as Essential Construct for Safe Delivery”, Aremu said the herbal pharmacy section should run alongside orthodox pharmacy to enable patients to make a choice between the two.

He explained that the policy, which is in practice in all the hospitals operating in China and many other countries of the world, should be enacted in Nigeria.

He further called for the establishment of pharmaceutical raw materials manufacturing industries where synthetic and herbal raw materials can be processed for sale after being transformed into finished products.

He said the government should grant such companies tax waiver of at least five years to encourage interested investors.

The don also advised pharmaceutical companies across Nigeria to embrace locally available raw materials to encourage researchers through the provision of grants as is done in developed countries.

He urged the federal government to place a ban on the importation of raw materials and finished products, particularly products for the treatment of common ailments like malaria, cough, haemorrhoids and infectious diseases.

In order to generate more competent hands in the field of pharmaceutical sciences, Professor Aremu called for the introduction of the collegiate system in all faculties of pharmacy in the country to reflect contemporary realities.

He added that such a system would enable the proposed colleges to run programmes such as B.Sc. Herbal Medicine, B. Pharm, PharmD, among other degree programmes as obtainable in many other countries.