Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Ghanaians have traveled to a plant research center outside the capital, Accra, to give scientists and researchers herbal products and plants they think will help cure the coronavirus — or at least alleviate symptoms. About 70% of Ghanaians depend on herbal remedies for their health care. Last year, government hospitals began integrating the practitioners and training them to incorporate scientific methods into their work. The Center for Plant Medicine Research grew out of a visit by a Ghanaian doctor to China in the 1960s to learn from Chinese herbal medicine. Some people come to the center located in a lush, mountainous area in Ghana’s Eastern Region claiming they have a cure for the virus revealed to them in a dream. In the labs of the center, researchers have been testing local herbal products to see what might help in Ghana’s fight against COVID-19. So far, they have recommended herbal products to boost immunity. But the center is also testing and planning trials of herbal medicines against the virus, scientist Alfred Ampomah Appiah said.
SOURCE: VOA
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