BY CHIOMA OBINNA & GABRIEL OLAWALE

At least 10 hectares of medicinal garden at Idena Itoikin, in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State are being rehabilitated to promote herbal medicine in Lagos.

The N5 million project which is being carried out by the State government, according to Registrar of the Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board, Dr. Bodunrin Oluwa, is to compliment orthodox medicine. Oluwa said: “We have constructed a reliable fence round the Nursery shed which is mainly one hectare, mixed chambers for the control of the environment of medicinal plants amongst others.

Efforts are in place to ensure that traditional medicine practice and activities in the sector are of standard and efficacious enough to complement orthodox practices.

Oluwa stated that necessary steps are being taken to sanitise herbal medicine to ensure full realisation of government’s objectives.

“We want to restore the confidence and reliance of people in herbal medicine. The medicinal garden will protect our medicinal plants from extinction so as to meet up with some foreign countries like India, America etc: where different medicinal plants have been cultivated to forestall over reliance on importation of products by practitioners.”

Speaking, the Board’s Head of Research Unit and Project Coordinator, Mr. Coker appealed to the State Government to commence other worthy projects at the site towards making the garden a full-fledged botanical garden.