Traditional health practitioners (THPs) are established healthcare service providers in their communities, especially in African societies.
This is partly due to a lack of development and poverty, meaning that traditional medicines are still considered essential for the physical and mental welfare of Africans.
Besides the use of indigenous based remedies for treatment of HIV and AIDS, interest has also been increased by the continued use of these remedies for immune system based ailments even when allopathic medicines may be available.
The immune system is a part of the body which is able to detect a pathogen by using a specific receptor to produce an immediate response by the activation of immune components cells, cytokines, and chemokines, and also the release of inflammatory mediators.
As the African concepts of health and sickness are holistic, the approach to illness management and treatment should also be comprehensive and holistic.
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Some common medical principles have emerged over time in various African regions.
These include several scientifically proven techniques and strategies, some of which are culturally specific and of psychological importance.
The philosophy of African traditional healing centers around restoring the body's energy balance and strengthening both mind and body through combinations of physical and mental interventions.
Therefore, these energy medicines are used to stimulate the body's immune and hormonal systems and provide effective strategies to reduce stress, thus reducing the assault on the immune system caused by the production of stress-related biochemicals.
Applying traditional medicines to cleanse the blood is a common practice among Africans and is linked to boosting body energy.
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A belief system exists which says a cure or relief is only to be found through purging the blood and cleansing the body.
Boosting the immune system to fight opportunistic infections has become synonymous with these medicinal products which are based on traditional knowledge.
In evaluating traditional medicines including ATM, Western biomedical scientists mostly have the naïve expectation of discovering drugs from medicinal plants used in ATM.
Although these expectations are justified in certain ailments, certain interventions involving rituals and divinations are hard to evaluate.
Some of the shortcomings of these ethnopharmacological studies are their focus on single plants and finding new active compounds, while THPs generally use a combination of plants with multiple physiological targets.
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Traditional herbalists for centuries have valued the use of a combination of herbal remedies and single extracts and combined medicinal plants to activate the body's own defence mechanisms, self-healing, and protective processes.
The increased use of these immune tonics necessitates an evolution of a mechanism for rapid evaluation of clinical applications of these products.
Researchers have strongly advocated the use of specific animal models to evaluate the immunomodulatory mechanisms of traditional immune tonics.
These can include inbred strains of animals with known susceptibility of infection, autoimmune disease, and cancer.
In vitro studies for understanding the mechanism of action should also be developed and used alongside authenticated ATM material in order to produce results that are reliable.
This has been proven by a recent study by Koffuor et al. which showed that two herbal decoctions used in the management of HIV/AIDS in Ghana had immunostimulatory and antimicrobial effects.
In this study, we therefore aimed to evaluate the traditional energy tonic prescribed by a traditional healer for its possible immune stimulating effects using human blood models and specifically infected animal models.
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Examples of African Tonic Ingredients:
- Filtered Water
- Organic Pineapple Juice
- Organic Ginger Juice (ginger, citric acid)
- Organic Cane Sugar
- Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
- Organic 100% Lemon Juice
- Spirulina Powder
- Organic Baobab Powder
- Organic Agave Syrup
- Organic Turmeric Powder
- Organic Black Pepper
- Organic Lemongrass Powder
- Organic Hibiscus Powder
- Organic Moringa Powder
- African Coffee
Here are some examples of African tonics and their ingredients:
- Tonic 1: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Ginger Juice (ginger, citric acid), Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic 100% Lemon Juice.
- Tonic 2: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Ginger Juice (ginger, citric acid), Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic 100% Lemon Juice, Spirulina Powder.
- Tonic 3: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Baobab Powder, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Agave Syrup, Organic Turmeric Powder Organic Black Pepper.
- Tonic 4: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Ginger Juice (99. 7% ginger, 0.03% citric acid), Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Lemongrass Powder, Organic Hibiscus Powder.
- Tonic 5: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Ginger Juice (ginger, citric acid), Organic Moringa Powder, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic 100% Lemon Juice.
- Tonic 6: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Ginger Juice (99. 7% ginger, 0.03% citric acid), African Coffee, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Lemon Juice.
- Tonic 7: Filtered Water, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Agave Syrup.
- Tonic 8: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Turmeric Powder, Organic Black Pepper.
- Tonic 9: Filtered Water, Organic Pineapple Juice, Organic Ginger Juice (ginger, citric acid), Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic 100% Lemon Juice.
The African Manback Tonic is crafted from a mix of roots and barks native to Ghana, West Africa.
It's traditionally used there to address issues related to sexual function, the spine, and back nerves.
This tonic is designed to strengthen, rejuvenate, and energize.
Available in a 16 fluid ounce bottle, it's free from chemicals, artificial colors, or additives and made in the USA.
Most of the African traditional medicines (ATM) are formulated as energy tonics to boost and maintain immune defences.
In this study, we aimed to evaluate the immune effects of a traditional energy tonic using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), THP-1 monocytes, and bacteria infected rats.
When tested in mitogen and peptidoglycan stimulated PBMCs, this energy tonic showed minimal cytotoxicity, while in acute toxicity studies in rats it did not exhibit any significant toxicity at doses up to 2000 mg/mL/kg.
The energy tonic doses between 100 and 10 μg/mL were shown to stimulate secretion of cytokines and increase sIL-2R levels in PHA-treated PBMCs.
Similar doses in PG-S. aureus-stimulated PBMCs significantly (p < 0.05) increased IL-1α, IL-2, and GM-CSF while causing a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in sIL-2R levels.
NF-κβ transcriptional activity was increased in LPS stimulated THP-1 cells.
In Sprague Dawley rats pretreated with the energy tonic and then infected with S. aureus, there were insignificant increases in cytokines and sIL-2R when compared to bacteria infected only and 5% Enrofloxacin treated rats.
Posttreatment with energy tonic doses after infection with S. aureus did not enhance inflammatory cytokines significantly but changed the immune response profile and decreased corticosterone levels.
This ATM showed promising immunomodulatory effects on isolated immune cells and modulated the immune response of rat models infected with S. aureus.
