(Current Challenges and Updates in Pharmacy Education and Research)

A Cross-Sectional Survey of Iraqi Herbalist Practicing in the Middle Euphrates Area with a Recognition of their Knowledge, Practice and Attitude

Not scheduled

20m

كلية الصيدلة

Recorded poster Conference Trak Two

Speaker

Suhad Humadi (Al-Zahrawi University College)

Description

Background: Traditional medicine still plays an important role in the Iraqi health care system. Large proportion of population profoundly rely on Folk medicine to meet their health needs which makes their safety questionable. As herbalists contribute largely to public health, it is imperative to evaluate their practice and knowledge of herbal medicine to ensure safety of their clients
Method: 54 herbalists were interviewed throughout the Middle Euphrates Area which was denoted by the five-governments including Karbala, Al-Najaf, Babylon, Al-Muthanna and Al-Qadisiya, located in southern Iraq. The information regarding their practice, knowledge and attitude were collected through a cross sectional survey and data were statistically analyzed.
Results: revealed several observations regarding herbalist’s practice and attitude which are crucial in evaluating the safety of public. It was found that most of herbalist identify their herbal items using their own experience rather than references, as well as using this gained experience as their sole source of knowledge. Only few of them used herbal books in conjugation with their experiences. Herbalists with higher years of experience are those who evaluate patient condition properly and monitor their treatment progression as well as referring patients to their physicians when needed. It was also found that although most herbalist do educate their patients regarding expiration and storage condition of the given product, majority of them refrain from writing the full ingredients on their final prescribed remedy regardless of their years of experience. It was also observed that none of herbalist have a record to track adverse reaction from the herbal product given. Conclusion: this study recommends scheduling continuous education programs for herbalist to update their information, and practice especially in reporting unwanted side-effects of remedies sold in their shops, identification process of herbal items, focusing also on listing all active ingredients on the final package.