Pharmacists' knowledge and perceptions about herbal medicines: A case study of Jos and environs

Background: Due to increased health consciousness among the public, the use of herbal products are on the increase on a daily basis. To achieve optimal benefits, there is a need for pharmacists who are the custodians of knowledge on drugs and drugs-related products to have more understanding and interest in herbal medicine for effective counseling on the products. The purpose of this study was to assess Pharmacists' knowledge and perceptions regarding herbal medicine use. Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were administered to 200 pharmacists working within the study areas to fill; after which the collected data were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS software programmer, version 20. Results: Only 88.5% of the respondents responded on the questionnaires, and their mean age was 34 years; median year of experience in practice was 8.2 years; and their areas of practice included hospital (56.1%), community (28.1%), academic (8.47%), and industries (4.52%). More than half (76.27%) of them believed that herbal products were more efficacious and safer (61.02%) than orthodox medicines; with almost all of them (94.92%) acknowledging the beneficial effects of incorporating herbal medicines into orthodox medicine practice. However, most of them (72.88%) confessed having little knowledge on herbal remedies, especially drug-herbs interactions (81.36%), and their main source of information on herbs was from school (56.50%). Conclusions: The result showed poor level of pharmacists' knowledge on herbal medicine; which might result in poor patients' counseling on herbal therapy, especially regarding their safety and potential interaction with orthodox medicine.