Sudanese female traditional healer attains 14 patents on treatment of intractable diseases
11 March, 2013Khartoum (Sudanow. Info) – This age is known as the era of globalization and communications, information and technological revolutions. However, and despite this great advancement in the various scientific fields, yet many issues remained unsolved including some medical and health issues, which resulted in emergence of some deadly diseases that have claimed the lives of thousands of women, men, elderly people and children due to lack of treatment. END
Consequently, a number of experts in the field of alternative medicine or (traditional medicine) in Sudan embarked on working to find solutions for those medical issues and their experiments have proved successful and consistent with modern science. Additionally, traditional healing depends on natural herbs which our Prophet Mohamed (Peace be Upon Him) has recommended using it in curing patients, as narrated in the Sira (biography of the Prophet Mohamed (Peace be Upon Him)) and the Prophetic medicine.
Al-Haja Magbola Eid Farah Ali is a Sudanese woman who is a traditional healer and an expert in the field of traditional medicine. She has attained 14 patents in treating many intractable diseases.
Sudanow interviewed Al-Haja Magbola at her home in Omdurman and got acquainted with her experience and huge contributions in the field of traditional or herbal medicine, which is also known as the alternative medicine.
Here below, Sudanow publishes the text of the interview:
Q: When did you start working in the field of traditional or herbal medicine?
Ans: “First I would like to say that I’m from Awald Bakheet area in North Kordofan State. I have started working in the field of herbal medicine since 1964. I was only ten years then where I assisted my father who had been treating people by natural herbs for long.”
Q: What was your role when you were assisting your father?
Ans: “I used to carry out the initial preparation of the medicine including grinding and boiling the herbs before my father completes the rest of the work.”
Q: When did you start to work independently from your father, and who else of your brothers or sisters inherited this job from your father?
Ans: “I’m the only one who inherited this experience from my father, directly after his death in 1973. This was because my brothers had other matters of interest. I have been treating people with herbs since that time and developed my work after emergence of many intractable diseases such as diabetic, hypertension, kidney failure, asthma, cancers, hepatitis virus, the different types of sterility and bird flu.”
Q: Is your work associated with any spiritual rituals or it is just a matter of experience and practice?
Ans: “It is just practice and the experience which I inherited from my father.”
Q: Where do you get the different types of herbs which you use in treating the people, and is there anyone who helps you in collecting them? Do you have a permission from the authority to practice your work?
Ans: “I get the herbs from the forests of West Kordofan State, namely Wady Al-Malik and Wady allayoun at Al-Khuwai, Sudary, Um Numan and Um Badir areas. As for who assists me, my children do, and regarding the permission, I have received permission from the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Institute (MAPRI), Sudan, when Professor Mohamed Jalal was the Director General.”
Q: What are the most common diseases that you have treated and how do you diagnose the disease? What is the duration of the treatment for each disease and what is the number of the cases which you have treated so far?
Ans: “After I know the symptoms of the disease, I ask the patient to do a laboratory test or a speculum, according to the case. As for the most common diseases which I have treated, they include the causes of sterility in both women and men and the treatment duration differs according to the case. For instance, in cases of the woman’s tube occlusion, I give the patient syrup for cleaning the tubes and another for reactivating the glands.
As for the deadly feline or cat virus which kills the fetus, the patient is given syrup for cleaning in addition to another one to kill the virus and prevent the fetus. The duration may last for two months.
So far I have treated over 600 sterility cases. Here I must recall a very famous sterility case among men that I have treated. The man was at his forties where he married five times without having any children. When he was at his fifties, he married for the sixth time. I have treated him for three months and after the treatment, his wife first gave birth to a boy and then to four. This was in 2007. The man now lives at Ombada area in Omdurman.”
Q: What are the types of cancer which you have treated and how long did the treatment take? How many cases of cancer did you treat and how did you prove they were cancer?
Ans: “I have treated the womb cancer which was most common and the breast cancer in 45 days, the rectum cancer in a month and esophagus cancer in two months and a half. As for the type of treatment, the patient is given 3 doses a day for the internal tumors. With regard to the number of cases which I have treated, they amounted to 80 from different parts of Sudan.
I have also treated 250 cases of kidney failure, 300 cases of hepatitis, 250 cases of blood pressure, 450 cases of asthma and 700 cases of diabetes. I have further treated diseases such as vitiligo, eczema, hemorrhoids, dysentery, cholera, malaria, yellow fever and anemia.”
Q: You have mentioned big numbers for the patients who received treatment from you. How did you manage to count them?
Ans: “I have a record for my patients where I ask each one of them to enter the details of his or her illness in addition to the name, address, date of birth together with the details of the doses and their dates all during the treatment duration.”
Q: Given this longstanding experience, have you participated in any relevant events, and may you please mention these participations?
Ans: “Yes I have much participation inside and outside Sudan. At the internal level, I participated in many programs including youth stability projects, the World Intellectual Property Day in 2004, AIDS control program in 2008, the scientific and cultural week, which was organized by the College of Medical Laboratory Science of the Sudan University of Science and Technology where I trained the college students on how to specify the necessary doses for the treatment of diabetes, blood pressure and cancer patients. It was an applied study in which over 300 students of the college have participated. The program lasted for a month. Here I must mention that I specify the doses by using an electronic scale to weigh the grams and the normal scale to weigh the dry herbs. I also participated in the first conference on encouragement of industrial invention and innovation in 2009 and the accompanying exhibition of the productive families’ activities, which was organized by the Women’s Center for Peace and Development in 2012.
Concerning the international participations, I participated in the malaria control program, which was organized by the African Union in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Addis Ababa in 2001 and 2002 where I, as representing Sudan, came number 4 among the representatives of the many other participating countries.”
Q: Who of the people in the field of alternative medicine supported and encouraged you to carry on with your job?
Ans: “They are many, but I mention Professor Mohamed Jalal Mohamed Ahmed, Director of plants research center, Professor Hassan Al-Sabki Khalid, Head of Chemistry Department and Director of the Natural and Fungal Plant research Institute and Dr. Mufida Yousif Al-Khalifa, Head of the Traditional Medicine Department.”
Q: Do you have researches on traditional medicine?
Ans: “Yes I have prepared more than 10 therapeutic samples during 1999-2000-2001-2002-2004. I also have researches on treatment of diseases such vitiligo, anemia and blood pressure where studies are to be conducted based on them at the faculty of pharmacology.”
Q: What are the challenges and problems which faced you during your work in the field of traditional medicine?
Ans: “I was accused of quackery and sorcery and presented before the court where the judge asked me to bring witness to testify that I was not practicing quackery and sorcery where more than 190 witnesses, 100 of them men and 90 women whom I have treated showed at the court and the judge selected three of them, two men and a woman. One of the men, Abdul-Majeed Faraj who live at Al-Kalakla area in Khartoum, was suffering from a twisted gut and I cured him, while the other, Mohamed Nasr who works for Kenana Sugar Company, was suffering from diabetic and I also treated him. The woman was named Fatma Mohamed Ibrahim and failed to have a baby for 16 years since she was married. I treated her and she gave birth to a boy and a girl. The three testified that I was not a juggler but a traditional healer who uses only herbs and natural plants to treat people. From that time the judge instructed me to register my medicines at the attorney general’s chamber so that I wouldn’t come through such troubles.”
Q: Do you mean that the suit filed against you turned to be in your favor?
Ans: “Yea it was in my benefit where I have registered 14 types of medicines at the attorney general’s chamber and the ministry of justice and accordingly I was given patents on them.”
Q: What are the treatments or medicines for which you were given patents according to the patents’ Act for 1971?
Ans: “I was given 5 patents for the treatment of diabetic, kidney disease, Guardia, tapeworm, blood pressure and jaundice in 1999. In 2000 I was given 7 patents on treatment of hepatitis, womb inflammations which cause sterility, malaria, cholera, cancer, asthma and eczema. In 2004 I was given 2 patents for finding treatment to anemia and blood inflammations.”
Q: Do you have any other medicines that have not been patented yet?
Ans: “yes, and these include medicines for treatment of skin and hair diseases in addition to mixes of different beauty creams.”
Q: How do you deal with your patients in terms of fees?
Ans: “I usually set reasonable fees according to the case, but regarding the children of the age category 1 to 12 years old and the people aged 70 and above, I treat them for free for all diseases. For other age categories, I set fees that suit the treatment.”
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