Ghana abounds in medicinal plants

Kumasi (Ashanti Region) - There are about 300,000 medicinal plants in the world, which could easily be exploited for development of herbal medicine, to enhance health care delivery.

Professor Kwabena Oppong-Boachie, Director of the Center for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRMM), who made this known said 12,000 of such medicinal plants were in Ghana.

He was presenting a paper on "Contemporary Application of Herbal Medicine for National Development the role of Students", at the Annual National Conference of the Ghana Students Chemical Society (GSCS), in Kumasi.

Prof Oppong-Boachie expressed regret that though Ghana had the potential for developing herbal medicine, it was still frowned upon as inferior and downplayed in favour of conventional medicine.

He said if the western countries and the USA were insistent on application of conventional or orthodox medicine, "it is just because they have very few medicinal plants in their countries."

Prof Oppong-Boachie stressed that the availability of numerous medicinal plants, coupled with the high patronage of herbal medicine were enough grounds for the government to fully commit itself to the development and utilisation of herbal medicine in the country.

"It is an undeniable fact that herbal medicine is perceived as more potent than orthodox medicine in the Ghana, and more accessible and patronised than conventional or orthodox medicine", Professor Oppong-Boachie stated.