an investigation into the antibacterial activities of medicinal plants ...

under strict quality control measures, the high cost of these medications make them
inaccessible to people in poor communities. The widely available, inexpensive
herbal remedies is a favourable choice of medication and treatment in impoverished
communities with economic and transport burdens.
The number of traditional health practitioners per capita is substantially higher than
that of trained medical personal per capita in countries such as Ghana, Swaziland
and South Africa (http://www.conserveafrica.com/medicinal_plants.rtf; Bodeker,
2001). The traditional healer-to-patient ratio is estimated between 1:200 and 1:400
compared to 1:20 000 for conventional general practitioners in Africa (Stanley, 2004;
http://www.i-sis.org/GSFTM.php). The WHO estimated that herbalism is 3-4 times
more commonly practiced than conventional medicine worldwide
(http://www.thelancet.com/search/search.isa).
The use of traditional medicine as primary health care is encouraged as a result of
the following:
healers knowing the sociocultural background of people,
healers are highly respected and experienced in their work,
economic considerations,
variable effects of many modern drugs,
long waiting times at hospitals,
unmotivated poorly trained hospital staff and
shortage of health professionals, particularly in rural areas (Bodeker, 2001;
http://www.conserveafrica.com/medicinal_plants.rtff; http://www.who.int/inffs/fact134.html;
Rakungira, 2002).
In many societies both traditional and modern health systems exist and normally
people consult both systems for different reasons and during different stages of their
disease (Bodeker, 2001; http://www.conserveafrica.com/medicinal_plants.rtf). A
study of medicinal plants used in Lesotho indicated the one-way referral on certain
occasions from traditional healers to modern doctors (Shale et al., 1999).
In countries such as Vietnam and China the modern and traditional health systems
are integrated at the level of medical education and practice (Bodeker, 2001). In
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