Diabetes Case Reports

Abstract

Herbal Medicine and Treatment of Diabetes in Africa: Case Study in Cameroon

Tsabang N, Nanga Ngah, Fokunang Tembe Estella and Agbor GA

African population lives in widespread ecosystems which are generally interconnected with many countries. Therefore, in the eyes of the situation of Cameroon from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel, medicinal plants used in this country, are frequently found in other African countries. The migrations of population and Fulani? moving?s in African savannahs or in African altitude forests have encouraged the oral transmission of medical practices. The objective of this study was to determine the diabetic patients who use herbal medicine and collect and identify the types of plants used and the type of diabetic patients using familial herbal treatment. An ethnopharmacological and ethnomedical data form was prepared and addressed to diabetic patients, previously diagnosed in the hospitals between January 1988 and April 4, 2016. A total of 116 diabetic patients responded. These patients were constituted by 70 type 2 diabetic patients, 36 type 1 diabetic patients and 10 diabetics with hypertension patients. Twenty-one plants were recorded in 58 socio-cultural groups, living in several phytogeographic units. Twelve recipes, nine recipes and three recipes were respectively recorded in coastal dense humid rain forests, in continental dense humid rain forests and in soudano- Guinean-Zambesian savannahs. From this sample of plants, the chemical and pharmacological investigation may reveal interesting properties important for drugs discover.