India to adopt herbal malaria drug from Ghana

India is to benefit from a herbal drug for malaria developed by the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM), Mampong Akuapem under a project to be funded by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Professor F.K. Oppong-Boachie director of the Centre, who disclosed this to the “Times” at the weekend, said the drugs’ efficacy had been proved to be very potent. He said that it was effective in combating the malaria parasite, which had developed resistance to other conventional drugs thereby rendering them ineffective.

Professor Oppong-Boachie told the “Times” that research was underway to produce the drug in tablet form. He said India is a country where mosquitoes abound resulting in a high prevalence of malaria and other related diseases.

“Our high potency drug will go a long way to solve the problem in that country,” he said adding that a team from the Centre toured the country last March under a Commonwealth programme to familiarise itself with developments there.

Professor Oppong-Boachie said during the two-week visit, the team which he led had the opportunity to see how India’s herbal institutions functioned: “They toured the whole of South India and visited places like the Tropical Botanical Garden Institute at Polade; the Aguerda Pharmaceuticals Limited; the India Traditional Practitioners Co-operative as well as manufacturers of machines used to process herbs,” he disclosed.

Other areas the team visited were the Community of the Medicinal Plants and Aromatic Association and a biotech company, which specialises in herbal medicine.