Selamawit Seid Nega’s study shows that 60 percent of the women used medicinal plants during their pregnancy, the percentage being the same in both Addis Ababa and Bati.
University of Oslo (Titan)–A study of Ethiopian women’s use of traditional medicinal plants during pregnancy has come up with several surprises. One of them is that the use of medicinal plants is the same regardless of education or living in urban or more rural areas. The most worrisome surprise is that most women don’t tell their doctors about the practice.
Before Selamawit Seid Nega at the University of Oslo embarked on her ground-breaking study, the hypothesis was that pregnant women in urban areas were using less medicinal plants than their more rural or semi-urban sisters.
“My research shows that the prevalence of medicinal plant use both in urban town Addis Ababa and a semi urban town – Bati – is the same. I also suspected that the use of medicinal plants would decrease with the level of education. But that was not the case”, Selamawit* explains.
“The only factors that I found associated with the use of medicinal plants, are age and marital status. The odds of medicinal plant use during pregnancy is three times higher among the unmarried women than their married counterparts. And the older the women get, the greater the chance of using medicinal plants”, Selamawit adds.
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Researcher Selamawit Seid Nega has interviewed 600 pregnant women in four health centers in Ethiopia, three in the capital city Addis Ababa and one in the semi-urban town Bati located in north-central Ethiopia. Her study shows that 60 percent of the women used medicinal plants during their pregnancy, the percentage being the same in both towns.
The result also indicates that 38.8 percent of the participants used both pharmaceuticals and medicinal plants during their current pregnancy in Bati, compared to 23.8 percent in Addis Ababa.
“But the really big surprise is that a large majority of the medicinal plant users (94 percent) don’t tell their doctors about the use of medicinal plants That is, in my mind, a cause for concern”, Selamawit comments.
Nega is worried because herbal teas and other traditional medicinal plants may contain substances that have interactions with pharmaceutical drugs, or maybe they even can harm the fetus or the pregnant woman. “Nobody knows for sure, because there has been very little research on this topic”, says Selamawit.
Association with religion
“Our study has found a significant association between religion and the use of the plant known as black cumin in English and tikur azmud in Amharic (Nigella sativa). Being a Muslim increases the chance of using tikur azmud 19 times. Those who are using tikur azmud has referred to the Quran, the holy book of Islam, and Prophet Mohammed’s quote narrated by Abu Hurayrah “Use this Black Seed regularly, because it is a cure for every disease, except death.” (Sahih Bukhari 7:71:592).
The most commonly used medicinal plant products used by pregnant women in Ethiopia are made from Ethiopian basil (Ocimum lamiifolum) and ginger (Zingiber officinale). Products made from medicinal plants are often perceived as harmless because they are “natural”, but that may not be the case.
“One experimental study showed that aqueous infusion of fringed rue (Ruta chalepensis) during the organogenesis period of pregnant mice caused significant changes in development of reflexes, weight gain of pups, physical signs and differences in histological changes in fetus and placenta. In addition, the use of R. chalepensis showed loss of muscular strength and impaired neuromuscular function, Selamawit explains.
“You never know how much active ingredients there are in the dose you are ingesting. When it comes to garlic, some researchers have found possible interactions with some medications like paracetamol. Nobody knows for sure if it is safe for pregnant women to use these products”, explains Selamawit.
Advice to pregnant women
“I wanted to do this research because we have too little knowledge about the potential side effects of the concomitant use of pharmaceutical drugs and medicinal plants. Maybe some of these practices are harmful. My advice to pregnant women is that they have to confirm with their doctors before using any medicinal plants. That would reduce some of this uncertainty”, Selamawit suggests.
Ethiopia was one of the poorest countries in Africa, but has gone through a period of rapid economic growth in later years. The government has used the growth partly to invest in establishing public health clinics all over the country. The result is that pregnant women have free access to prenatal care and professional doctors. So – why do they still use a lot of medicinal plants, and why don’t they tell their doctors? Is it because they don’t trust doctors?
“No, the interviews indicate that most women trust their doctors, but they just don’t know that they should inform about the use of plant products. They are instead thinking about visits to the doctor and using medicinal plants as separate topics. In addition, they don’t know that some of the home-made medications may have side effects,” Selamawit answers.
Read the complete story at University of Oslo (Titan)