An Assessment of the Materials Used for the Preparation of Traditional Medicine by Traditional Medical Practitioners in Nigeria

Abstract

This research was conducted to assess the materials used for the preparation of traditional medicine by traditional medical practitioners in preparing traditional medicine in Nigeria and a case study design was employed to investigate the phenomena. The study also used a purposive sampling technique, specifically convenience sampling to select participants and unstructured interview was used to collect data from the participants. A manual thematic analytical approach was done, which yielded a total of 309 codes and grouped together to form 11 sub-categories, the 11number of sub-categories were narrowed down to into 5oversearching themes(wider categories) the 5 emergent  themes were narrowed down into 3 theoretical constructs. The findings from the study indicated that the Traditional medical practitioners use Biological- herbs, and Special Quranic prayers to cure diseases even though there is no formal documented information on traditional medical practice. The traditional medical practitioners visiting bushes, plucking of leaves, uprooting relevant plants for their stems and roots, cutting trees, and peeling of tree skins as primary aspect of the procedure while the secondary Procedure covers washing, cleaning, drying, chopping, pounding, packaging and preserving. In conclusion, documenting traditional medical knowledge was considered the most important factor that would encourage and patronizes these of the medicine and the ascendants’ of the traditional medical practitioners to continue with the practice. It was therefore recommended that in order to improve the use of traditional medicine and its heritage there is the need for proper documentation.