The Professor and Director of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof. Matsabisa, says the idea around the use of traditionally-based, herbal medicines came from work done towards treating HIV/Aids, where it was discovered that herbal medicine reverses the suppression of the immune system to normalcy.

“We have found that herbal medicine also disrupts the formation of bacterial colonies, and the idea then came to us, if this is the case - because many people now presented with post–Covid tuberculosis - this could be an idea that we can develop, where we can use traditional medicine to treat patients with TB,” he said.

He added that plants play a critical role in the development of pharmaceuticals, as they may provide new drug leads, but could also be developed as vaccines. Plant genes can also be used as diagnostics. 

"When we talk about drugs from medicinal plants, we are talking about those medicines that contribute to the treatment of about 90% of all known human diseases, as well as recognising that these medicines make up close to a third of all prescription medicines.

“We are talking about drugs from plants that have stood the test of time. When we are sick, we sometimes do not think about where these medicines come from. When you have a headache, you don’t think that the aspirin comes from the wild willow,” he said.

“We are going to develop a clinical trial, recruit patients that have had Covid before, treat them and see what immune parameters are being stimulated and restored to normal,” he added.

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