UNIJOS authorises use of herbal tea for ‘COVID-19 prevention’ — without NAFDAC approval

The University of Jos (UNIJOS) has authorised the use of a herbal tea, which it said has shown efficacy for the prevention of COVID-19.

In a memo dated January 11, the university senate gave approval for consumption of the tea, produced in 2020 by the UNIJOS Africa Centre of Excellence in Phytomedicine Research and Development.

TheCable, however, learnt that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is yet to approve the drug for use.

Mojisola Adeyeye, director-general of NAFDAC, told TheCable on Friday that she was not aware of any such approval and would have to check with the relevant directorate at the agency.

But Simeon Omale, a pharmacologist who is one of the lead researchers, confirmed that the centre only has a pre-conditional approval — and not a final nod — for the supplement.

He, however, added that “we have done the research that NAFDAC needs to ascertain the safety of the product.”

Innocent Emmanuel, chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Plateau state, also told TheCable that the association “has not been communicated officially” about the development.

‘HASTY STEP’

In the memo signed by Monday Danjem, UNIJOS registrar, the senate said it deliberated on the herbal tea during its fourth special meeting for the 2019/2020 academic session.

“Senate was informed that the University of Jos Centre for Excellence in Phytomedicine has produced a home-made herbal tea for the prevention of COVID-19, and it is sold at an affordable price,” the memo reads.

“Senate directed that the information should be disseminated to all staff in the University Community for patronage of the herbal tea.”

Findings by TheCable, however, showed that the university authorities only acted in anticipation of a yet-to-be-given approval from NAFDAC.

Omale confirmed that while no clinical trial on humans has been carried out on the herbal tea, “we have done the safety profile (and) it is very safe.”

“We have done some reasonable research on it. We have done the safety profile; we claimed anti-inflammatory, we claimed anti-oxidant, we claimed anti-COVID. We have checked the active ingredients of the herbal tea against SARS-COV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19, and it has very good interaction with the virus,” he said.

“Using the fruit flies being used for drug discovery in the modern world, we tested for the anti-inflammatory that we reported there, and we have also checked it for anti-malaria. So, those basic experiments have been done.”

Asked why the university authorised the herbal tea for use when it is yet to get final approval from NAFDAC, the researcher said with the urgent nature of the pandemic, “if you have gotten some evidence, there is an accelerated kind of approval.”

“Herbal medicine is not like the normal orthodox drugs that you go through various stages of clinical trials. For herbal medicine, as long as people are taking it and it is safe, NAFDAC will just do a little profile to check how safe it is and they give you number,” he explained.

“We have done the research that NAFDAC needs to ascertain the safety of the product; that is the document we are going to present to them on Monday.”