The Natural Integrative Medicine Practitioners Association (NIMPA) has urged the Federal Government to tap the country’s multibillion Dollar rich biodiversity as a quick measure to revamp the economy.
NIMPA said the action would help to confront global climate change that has collapsed the price of oil from $200 to a benchmark of about $30 per barrel.
In a statement signed by the President, Dr. Isaac Ayodele; and the Secretary General, Dr. Gilbert Ezengige, NIMPA insisted that Nigeria is capable of realizing over $100 billion annually from the cultivation, production, commercialization and exportation of its rich medicinal plants which are the basic materials for traditional, alternative medicine and some synthetic drugs.
NIMPA said potent drugs such as morphine, quinine, digoxin, atrophine, ephedrine, emetine and artemisinin were extracted from medicinal plants and later synthesized by pharmaceutical companies pointing out that the days of bastardizing made in Nigeria medicine and importing foreign made herbs should stop in the bid to save Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
