Diabetes: Don advises FG to establish medicinal plant hubs

Diabetes: Don advises FG to establish medicinal plant hubs
NAN-H-9
Plants
By Aminu Ahmed Garko
Minna, March 9, 2018 (NAN) A biochemist, Prof. Abubakar Saidu, has advised the Federal Government to establish medicinal plant hubs in the country to boost research in alternative medicine to combat diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.
A statement issued on Friday quotes Saidu as making the call when he delivered the 62nd inaugural lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Minna.
The topic of the lecture was “Therapies for Diabetes Mellitus: My Role,” the statement by Mrs Lydia Legbo, the institution’s Public Relations Officer, said.
Saidu of the Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology, Minna, cited India and China as some of the countries that have established such hubs with huge success recorded.
He explained that diabetes was a non-communicable disease of endocrine origin and was a metabolic disorder that affected both adults and children of all races.
“Heredity plays a prominent role in determining one’s risk of diabetes, but only as a predisposing factor and not an absolute determinant.
“Genetic factors play more important role in the diabetes Type 2 than the Type 1,” he said.
The don listed Insulin therapy, oral therapy and phytotherapy as the three main approaches available as medications for the management or treatment of diabetes mellitus.
He said that diabetes as a disease undermined output in the society in terms of service delivery and may lead to undesirable ill effects.
Saidu called for synergy between the World Health Organisation (WHO), International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) and World Diabetes Foundation (WDF).
He noted that there was need for policy makers and health intervention agencies to refocus on a workable or realisable policy on non-communicable diseases as against the current trend where the focus is mainly on communicable diseases.
The biochemist further called for collaboration between the pharmaceutical industries and Universities in Nigeria to work together in the area of antidiabetic drug development.
Addressing dignitaries at the event, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdullahi Bala, expressed delight with the presentation and commended staff and other guests for attending the event. (NAN)
AAG/AOS/MST
Edited by Bayo Sekoni/Muhammad Suleiman Tola