How to use this guide

This guide covers common complaints that are reasonable to manage at home. It does not cover malaria, typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, hepatitis, measles, dengue, or sickle cell crises. Those are emergencies or notifiable diseases. Using herbs to delay proper testing and treatment for them costs lives. If you have a high fever, bloody stool, yellow eyes, severe dehydration, or a sickle cell crisis, go to a clinic.

On dosages. Where the European (ESCOP) or World Health Organization monographs give established figures, those ranges are used. Some local plants, including Chaya, have no official monograph and no validated tincture ratio. For those, the traditional-use amount is given and the limitation is stated plainly. Numbers are not invented to look official.

On names. English and the common Nigerian name (Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba) are given where a widely recognised local name exists. Where none does, only the English and botanical name appear.

General rule. Start low, watch how your body reacts, and stop if anything gets worse. A standardised extract is not the same strength as the same weight of raw plant. When in doubt, ask a pharmacist, and always tell your doctor what herbs you are taking, because herb and drug interactions are real.