1. The therapeutic value and healing powers of plants were demonstrated to me when I was a boy of about ten. I had developed an acute persistent abdominal pain that did not respond readily to hospital medications. My mother had taken me to the city’s central hospital on several occasions where different drugs were tried on me. In total desperation, she took me to Egya Mensa, a well-known herbalist in my hometown in the Western province of Ghana. He had earned the reputation of offering excellenthelp when they were confronted with difficult cases where western medicine had failed to affect a cure.

2. After a brief interview, he left us waiting in his consulting room while he went out to the field. He returned with several leaves and the bark of a tree and one of his attendants immediately prepared a decoction. I was given a glass of this preparation, it tasted extremely bitter, but within an hour or so. I began to feel relieved. The rest of the decoction was put in two large bottles so that I could take doses periodically. Within about three days, the frequent abdominal pains stopped and I recall gaining a good appetite. I have appreciated the healing powers of medicinal plants ever since.

3. My experience may sound unusual to those who come from urban areas of the developed world, but for those in the less affluent nations, such experiences are a common occurrence. In fact, demographic studies by various national governments and inter-governmental organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that for 75 to 90 per cent of the rural population of the world, the herbalist is the only person who handles their medical problems.

4. Over the years, I have come to distinguish between three types of medicinal practitioners. The first is the herbalist who generally enjoys the prestige and reputation of being the real traditional medical professional. The second group represents divine healers. They are fetish priests whose practice depends upon their purported supernatural powers of diagnosis. Thirdly, the witch doctor, the practitioner who is credited with the ability to intercept the evil deeds of a witch.

5. These practitioners have done well by relying almost exclusively on herbs for actual treatment while serving as the people’s spiritual leaders and psychologists.

6. From the drug-stores in New Delhi, I picked up some well-packaged bark and roots of Rauwolfia Serpentina, a plant that was very well-known in ancient Asiatic medicine. The storekeeper said that it cures hypertension. This plant has the power to lower the blood pressure and pulse. It is used to calm down mad people because alkaloids in the plant have a specific influence on the mind.