Mr Ekenna Elikee, a registered herbalist, on Tuesday said the treatment of most terminal diseases required “degeneration process” found in plants and herbs.

Elikee, who doubles as a professional pharmacist, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said that terminal sicknesses were re-generational in nature and required an approach to prevent resurfacing of the ailment.

According to him, treatment of some diseases with surgeries and orthodox medications was not enough to cure them.

He said that plants were the best options for treating terminal diseases, adding that most of the diseases people suffer were degenerative diseases, in the sense that they are not emergency cases.

“Terminal diseases do not come accidently; they come by the existence of wrong substances in the human system which comes either by food or irrational use of drugs.

“The body system will be breaking down until there is malfunctioning of the whole system and as a result one disease or the other will surface.

“Diseases like that cannot be recovered by just surgery or by taking one chemical agent; you have to initiate an approach that is towards reversing the trend of regeneration which is purely a degenerative process.

“It helps the system to recover from the process of breaking down into a nuisance and you can’t just do that except through the use of plants that resemble food,” he said.

Elikee stated that plants that react correspondently with orthodox drugs were used to cure advanced ailments, adding that the use of chemicals also had its counter reactive impacts.

According to him, drugs are important when health cases require emergency attention.

He said: “If it is a disease that comes by level of gradual degenerative process, like cancers, kidney failure, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes and prostrate, it needs the use of herbs.’’

However, the herbalist decried the unavailability of plants and herbs used in the treatment of some terminal illnesses.

Elikee also blamed poor delivery services on the epileptic power supply, adding that some plants could be refrigerated and used when they are needed.

The herbal expert added that plants used for treatment of sicknesses were best productive when used at a tender stage.

He noted that some plants were already too matured before they are being sourced and as well not the required specie for the treatment of the ailment.

Elikee called on the government to invest in mechanisation of herbal medicines, adding that it will reduce medical tourism. (NAN)