Experience of Tanzanian traditional healers in the management of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

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dc.contributor.authorMoshi, Mainen J.
dc.date.accessioned2023-08-11T05:46:41Z
dc.date.available2023-08-11T05:46:41Z
dc.date.issued2002
dc.description.abstractTraditional healers from four wards of the Kilosa district, Morogoro region (Tanzania) were interviewed to assess their knowledge and competence in the management of non- insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Among 65 reputed healers who were interviewed, 21 (32.3%) recog- nised and were treating one or more symptoms related to NIDDM, but none could unambiguously relate the symptoms they were treating with NIDDM. Based on what the tradi- tional healers revealed, 54 plants representing 54 species, 48 genera and 33 families were collected. Two of the Kilosa plants, Cassia auriculata and Ricinus communis are reported to have a hypoglycaemic activity, while Securinega virosa has been shown to improve oral glucose tolerance in rabbits. Albizzia anthelmintica has hypocholesterolemic activity and some of the plants also have antibacterial and antifungal activity which may benefit NIDDM patients. Some of the ethnomedical reports of the Kilosa healers, related to man- agement of diabetes, have been reported from other areas. However, one of the reported plants, Albizzia versicolor, is toxic. We conclude that the traditional healers of Kilosa dis- trict can not unambiguously diagnose diabetes mellitus as a disease entity, but some of them recognise symptoms char- acteristic of the disease and they are well-known with plants that may be useful in alleviating its symptoms. Two of the plants they mentioned, Cassia auriculata and Ricinus com- munis, have a proven hypoglycaemic effect. Careful sieving of the knowledge in the custody of the Kilosa district healers is needed to sort out possibly toxic plants and to determine the other properties of these plants that may be useful in the management of diabetes mellitus.en_US
dc.identifier.citationMoshi, M.J. and Mbwambo, Z.H., 2002. Experience of Tanzanian traditional healers in the management of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Pharmaceutical Biology, 40(7), pp.552-560.en_US
dc.identifier.otherhttps://doi.org/10.1076/phbi.40.7.552.14691
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1092
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherPharmaceutical Biologyen_US
dc.subjectDiagnosisen_US
dc.subjectNon-insulin dependent diabetes mellitusen_US
dc.subjectTraditional healersen_US
dc.titleExperience of Tanzanian traditional healers in the management of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitusen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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