The United Nations think that health care is the nub to development, and the forerunner to any of the other Sustainable Development Goals; that is for a country, or a continent…or Africa to develop strongly, there must be sound healthcare system first. I think that there are many suffering in Africa because of the unaffordable, inaccessible, and inadequate health care system, and I think that in order to keep the tolls of death low, perhaps people don’t need to wait for a revolution to the health sector, maybe what we need is an easily accessible, and affordable health alternative. Because of the many polluted rivers, African children die daily from diarrhea. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that 2,195 children die EACH DAY from diarrhea. Due to the unaffordable health care system, many diabetic sufferers die without receiving proper medication or medical attention. Hence, many African countries like my country, Nigeria, have one of the highest diabetic sufferers and deaths.
My name is Ivan Ezeigbo. I am 20 years old, and currently a sophomore at Minerva Schools at KGI, California, USA. I was inspired by Monica Marcu’s book, The Miracle Tree, to research with a team back in Nigeria on the blood regulatory power of the contents of the leaves of a very medicinal plant. It is a herbal plant that has just drawn a lot of attention in its potential to cure over three hundred ailments. This is the Moringa Oleifera. We experimented on Wistar albino rats. The idea was to inject alloxan intraperitoneally to all groups of Wistar albino rats with healthy working pancreas (alloxan increases blood sugar level, thus inducing hyperglycaemia or making them “pseudo-diabetic”). The bioactive agents of moringa leaves were extracted with ethanol and water, and two groups of the rats were treated each with these contents. An additional group was treated with synthetic insulin (insulin is a natural blood regulatory hormone that brings down blood sugar level), and all three groups were observed. We discovered that the group of Wistar albino rats treated with the bioactive agents of the moringa leaves extracted with water had a SIGNIFICANTLY SIMILAR blood sugar level as those treated with synthetic insulin, and less significant with those treated with ethanol. This unearthened two truths. First, moringa has powerful blood regulatory effects, almost equivalent to the natural insulin. Secondly, water is a better extraction agent than ethanol, unlike the case for many other plant leaves. Aside its blood regulatory power, moringa also cures diarrhea, and many other bacterial and fungal infections. It is also a healthy store for numerous nutrients, vitamins and amino acids. It also thrives very well in these tropical regions of Africa, especially the Southern Nigeria. Armed with this knowledge, I took up the entrepreneurial project of making moringa teas using tea bags because this would not only help a lot of poor people in Nigeria, and Africa in general, who cannot afford or obtain quality health care, but would be a cheap and accessible way of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, since water is a good extraction agent for moringa, moringa teas would provide consumers the maximal health benefits. Even though, I have not had the necessary funding and have been self-funding this project, my motivation to help people live longer and healthier has kept this dream going, and I have not tired out in bringing this to fruition. I am still conducting researches and experiments on my tea, and I have just purchased about two plots of land for moringa farming. I would still need to set up an industry where these teas will be processed.
This is good news to diabetic sufferers in Africa; it is good news to poor children and families in Africa who cannot afford quality health care. This is good news to hypertensive patients and the obese. This is good news to Africa. My dream is that this project greatly lowers mortality rate in Africa, and if we are not being too optimistic, perhaps…just perhaps, we may begin to realize stronger development.
A link to the paper we published on the experiment with Wistar albino rats: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.diabetes.20160503.02.html
Thanks,