Kenya set to turn herbal medicine to treat Coronavirus

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:51 pm

Kenya has identified some herbal medicines likely to treat and could possibly cure Coronavirus.

The front-runner is a herbal product developed by the Kenya Medical Research Institute to treat herpes simplex, a common viral disease that causes sores on the mouth and genitals.

The Ministry of Health says Zedupex was developed by Kenyan scientists from medicinal trees more than five years ago.

“Kemri has commenced exploring the efficacy of its in-house product (Zedupex) and other natural products against Covid-19,” Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said in his response to questioning by MPs.

Zedupex was developed by three scientists at the institute’s Natural Products Research and Drug Development Research Programme.

It was patented in 2016 and registered as a herbal product by the PPB the same year. It is available in powder form packed in 250-gramme containers.

The prescription for herpes simplex is a teaspoonful of Zedupex powder in a cup of boiled water. “It is one of the herbal products with antiviral properties we are testing for efficacy. But it is definitely safe and that’s the most important,” Dr Festus Tolo, one of the researchers behind the drug, told the KnowAfrika. The trials are being done at Kemri’s city laboratory.

The drug, which is a Kemri intellectual property, has not been administered on any coronavirus patient.

Tolo said it is too early to speak about the drug’s efficacy against Covid-19. Both herbal and traditional medicines of plant origin have, according to Tolo, provided templates for synthetic drugs and will play a role in the search for Covid-19 treatment.

“For instance, the oldest malaria treatment, quinine, was developed from a tree extract before it was synthesised,” he said. Kenya is not the only country exploring the treatment of the disease with herbal products.

(TheStar)