Uganda: Is Mukago Research Centre Standardising Herbal Medicine?

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The Monitor (Kampala)

31 July 2008
Posted to the web 31 July 2008

Edwin Nuwagaba

Herbalists, for years, have been discerned as unprofessional, and often times associated with witchcraft- in fact speaking of herbs, a skeptic's mind runs directly into a shrine.

But doctors at Mukago Herbal Research Centre in Bugolobi have dedicated their time to researching about herbs and trying to standardise them in their practice.

As you enter the hospital, at the reception is a TV screen where slide presentations of, nature, nutrition, cancer programmes and HIV are being shown. Besides treating patients entirely with herbs, the doctors here, strongly recommend use of organic food.

For this reason, in the store are food items, like soya beans, wheat jam, wheat brand, organic soya, brown sugar, soya milk and others which are given to the patients supplementary to their treatment. It is such kind of food that every worker at the herbal centre eats- not only at the work place but even at their homes.

In effort to distance themselves from the other herbalists, who only judge upon their experience to dosage their patients; on arrival, one is taken straight to the laboratory.

"It is not about the patient narrating the disease they have, we go through all the screenings. Some people for example when they see a similar discharge that a friend who had candida had, claim they have the same disease," says Dr Grace Kyobe the lab technician who also works at Mulago Hospital.

Some of the tests carried out here include Urinary Tract Infection and Pelvis Inflammatory Disease tests, and many others as shown in the laboratory. Once the tests have been done, the patient is then taken through a process of detoxification and cleansing of the internal system, still with the use of herbs.

However, unlike other steam baths around town, at Mukago, the steam in which clients sit for about 20 minutes, comes from a boiler where local herbs like, eucalyptus grandees, eucalyptus camaldlensis, cypress, pine and others are being boiled.

Dr Moses. S. Ssenoga explains that the steam helps to reduce stress, sinuses (nasal blockages), obesity, persistent headaches, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, skin cancer, paralysis, facial and internal body cleansing.

"Whatever impurities in the body are forced out because both the large and smaller intestines are thoroughly cleansed," he says.

It is a whole day of thorough treating and body cleansing- so, when one is done with the steam bath, next is the therapeutic massage.

But this one, unlike those other massage parlours is not in any way pleasurable. "We have special pressure points that we localise on, and most of the time, the experience is painful," says Dr Ssenoga, who mentions some of the ingredients used in the massage oil as olive oil, eucalyptus oil, lavender and almonds.

However, whereas the steam bath can be used by anyone just to cleanse their body and to release stress, there is the sitz bath specifically for women who have just given birth. This one is in form of a basin and in it stinging metal is fused with herbal medicines and hot water. The patient stays in here for a duration of about 25 to 30 minutes while the nurse presses the painful body parts.

The benefits of the sitz bath Dr Ssenoga explains are; "It stimulates blood circulation around the pelvic area. You see, there is a tendency of blood clotting around the pelvic area especially when a woman has just given birth, so it helps to remove all these clots.

The sitz bath helps also to heal cervical cancer, lapsed ovaries, blocked fallopian tubes and some UTI." says Dr Ssenoga who also adds that most times, women use cosmetics which do not allow their body to sweat, so this type of perspiration helps their body to release all those substances. The water in here is heated to 42 degrees, with eucalyptus floral water and sometimes warborgia, depending on someone's condition.

The centre also helps men with sexual incapability, by giving them food rich in Zinc, and helping them to carry out exercise as a way to boost their flexibility, fitness and endurance. With the use of a local herb known as kajampuni, Ssenoga claims that they help also to narrow the female sexual parts to a cherished width. Another herb, warburgia ugandanensis helps to treat candida infections, by bathing it in the particular areas that are itching.

Dr Ssenoga also says that the herbal centre treats patients whose CD4 count has reduced tremendously. "We help to boost their immunity, so that the body can fight on its own. We don't recommend fast foods. We try to make their diet as simple as possible.

Most of all, we don't advise meat because it is acidic and causes acidosis." But to what extent can herbs be trusted? Dr Raymond Odokonyero of Mulago Hospital explains; "They could work, but in my opinion, they have not passed the test yet, because you don't know what amount of concentration to use, their side effects and how long they should remain in the blood."

The herbal centre which is run by Dr Ssenoga and Dr Godfrey Musisi works with and is under supervision by the National Chemotherapeutic Research Laboratory in Wandegeya currently headed by Dr Grace Nambatya with a doctorate in chemotherapy.

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