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Panacea Pharmacy supports Department of Herbal Medicine at Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at KNUST

By Cephas Kwaku Debrah
General News Panacea Pharmacy supports Department of Herbal Medicine at Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at KNUST
AUG 5, 2021 LISTEN

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Panacea Pharmacy, Pharmacist Emmanuel Mantey has aided teaching and learning at the Department of Herbal Medicine of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Thursday 22nd July, 2021.

The support includes furnishing four (4) offices for lecturers, renovating the Faculty’s Physic garden and donating clinical appliances such as sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, pen torch, reflective hammer, scale weight, thermometer and measuring tapes to the Department.

According to Pharm. Mantey, the donation forms part of the company’s social responsibility to support and promote Pharmaceutical Science development in the country, typically the indigenous primary healthcare system.

Pharm. Mantey reiterated that, when given the enabling environment, "we can locally produce our own drugs and develop our healthcare system to compete with others globally."

The Head of Department for Herbal Medicine, Professor Isaac Ayensu received the items on behalf of the Department and expressed his appreciation for the support shown by the company.

He later appealed to individuals and cooperate bodies to come to the aid of the Department and support it to provide research and training in traditional medicine especially herbal medicine and healthcare to people.

Staff of the Department present at the donation expressed their joy and emphasized how important these donations are to support the experiential training of Herbal Medical Students at their training sites.

Department of Herbal Medicine

The Department of Herbal Medicine was introduced at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, KNUST in 2001 to offer a Bachelor of Science Degree in Herbal Medicine. The programme trains in basic medical, pharmaceutical and social sciences and aims at producing healthcare professionals (Medical Herbalists) who will provide primary healthcare using quality, safe, effective and standard herbal medicines.

This training involves two other institutions aside KNUST: Centre for Research Into Plant Medicine (CRPM) and the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital all in Akuapem-Mampong, Eastern region of Ghana. Herbal medicine graduates after their National Service continue their training in Akuapem-Mampong with the institutions mentioned above. They are taken through six months of research into plant medicine and another six months of intense clinical training at the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital where they are taught to identify cases for referrals, emergencies, primary healthcare, etc. A professional examination is then organized by the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), after which they are given professional license to practice as clinicians (Medical Herbalists) in herbal facilities in hospitals across the country. Others may opt to be researchers or lecturers, production and processing specialist, quality assurance specialist, herb cultivator or collector and Herbal industry representative or work as a consultant.

Vision and achievement

Throughout the years, the Department of Herbal Medicine has remained focused in being recognized internationally as a premier centre of excellence in teaching, research and entrepreneurial training in Complementary and Alternative Medicine/Traditional medicine, especially herbal medicine in Ghana and Africa. It has also been noted for producing high calibre traditional health professionals and scientists who have become instrumental in the development and promotion of herbal products to support the sustainable development of the health sector and industry in Ghana and the rest of Africa.

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