Tanzania seeks safe energy to preserve medicinal plants

DAR ES SALAAM: TANZANIA has insisted on the use of safe energy as a means to fight pollution, which experts claim to the major source of climate change.

The country’s campaign on safe energy aims to safeguard the environment, whose main components include vegetation, forests, and water sources.

As elaborated by the Tanzanian government’s Chief Laboratory Chemist said pollution fosters climate change that in turn changes the characteristics and behavior of natural plants, including natural medicines.

Speaking to Daily News Digital in Dar Es Salaam, the Manager of the Food and Drug Laboratory at the Government Chief Chemist’s Laboratory Authority (GLCA), Dr. Shimo Peter said climate change changes the characteristics or behavior of plants and the amount of medicine in the plants.

 “But you may also find that these plants in this region or area are all dead and are available in other areas. Climate change is causing many characteristics of plants to change. It may be that it produces this medicine now produces another,” he explained.

He noted that climate change can lead to other uses besides pesticides and other things that cause pollution and characteristics of plants.

“Regarding natural medicines and the role of the chief chemist’s laboratory in these medicines, natural medicines are legally regulated and registered by the Council for Natural Medicine and Alternative Medicine in the registration procedures, there is an important part of researching these natural medicines to be able to confirm the quality and safety of these medicines before they make any decisions, he explained.

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He also said that when they talk about the quality of what they want to identify and see how the medicines are made, they look at the chemical components of the medicines that are present in the medicine.

 “The rate of people coming to test natural medicines continues to increase, and this is due to people’s understanding of the tests,” he said.

 He said they make sure that the medicine meets the country’s quality standards to ensure they are not harmful to humans.

Dr. Peter advised people to use medicines that are registered with the Council for Natural and Alternative Medicine because they have gone through the entire process of checking their safety and quality.

He also urged service providers to work by following government guidelines and procedures to ensure that their medicines are registered and that they provide medicines that are of quality and safe to the community.