In the foregoing sections, encounters with ethnoveterinary healers were presented and the outcome of numerous interviews and discussions held with camel herders in the Butana area recorded. These surveys revealed the wealth of information that exists among healers and herders, as well as their interest in many aspects of animal husbandry, therapy and prophylaxis. These encounters also revealed the viability and acceptance of traditional healing practices by a wide range of clients, including both resident and mobile populations.
It is clear that the interest into animal healing is more of a personal choice, rather than an inherited or mandatory role imposed by the family or clan. This is reflected in the fact that most interviewed healers had their initiation (and training) through individuals who were not family members. Some were self initiated and more or less had no instructors; they frequently consulted senior healers in the vicinity. Although 15 healers were only interviewed, the community usually spoke of many more healers including women whom they recommended for interview. It actually appeared that each sizeable village or camp had at least one healer to whom the pastoralists resort for advice or help in health related matters. Although the age of healers interviewed in this study indicates clear skewness towards older individuals, this is apparently due to research bias, as the interest was to interview highly knowledgeable healers as stores of what could be considered more ancient practices as well as the ability to explain interventions, terminology, animal merits, ecologic or environmental factors and historic experiences. This appeared to be an unnecessary bias, since younger healers were by no means less knowledgeable than their older colleagues. In fact, some younger healers appeared more resourceful and had a better understanding of some interventions as well as larger coverage of professional duties (surgery, phytotherapy, husbandry, poetry etc.).
However, the effect of age in the pastoral society in the Sudan is obvious. Herders and livestock owners invariably valued older healers over younger healers. The interventions and materia medica of healers reveals the huge potential of ethnoveterinary practice. The rationale of several surgical procedures has been discussed while presenting these procedures, such as cauterization, puncturing, and fracture correction. These procedures revealed sound understanding of anatomic relations and a suitable diagnostic ability. It appears that healers (as well as herders) benefit a lot from the occasional post-mortem examinations performed on dead animals, particularly during an outbreak or as a result of brief illness (sudden death).
One healer who had cauterized a young camel calf for diarrhoea admitted that he would no longer recommend such a procedure for that disease. This valuable knowledge occurred after he opened up that calf and noticed the grossly inflamed intestine. He mentioned that cauterization was not good for such heavily inflamed organ, that sedatives were better, such as fenugneek, black cummin or acacia (garadh). Most of the healers in the area treat both man and animals using essentially similar techniques. This is in line with the observations of Forde (1968), Schwabe (1978) and Grandin et al., (1991) who report similar trends among Masai, Dinka and Meru tribes.
Ethnoveterinary practice is a dynamic rather than a static activity. This is revealed by the continuous addition of newer items to both materia medica and surgical interventions. It is also noticed that some healers are beginning to resort to the use of modern pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics and anthelmentics, perhaps, as a result of the observation of their higher efficacy in comparison with phytoctherapeutics. In this regard, herders were more pragmatic and more commonly employed Western therapeutics than healers. However, the high cost and relative difficulty in renewing supplies encourages both healers and herders to resort to traditional less effective inputs. This is particularly noticeable in the treatment of pneumonia for which antibiotics, if available will first be used. Despite its valuable contribution towards disease control, ethnoveterinary practice has certain limitations (Mathias-Mundy, 1992; Wolfgang, 1983).
The diverse items needed to meet the numerous illnesses, particularly plant items, require a great effort to collect and preserve for future use. The absence of specialized traders "Attarin" in the community makes the effort almost equal to that of obtaining Western medicines from urban centers. This leads to reliance on plants available locally and perhaps also seasonally, which is a great limitation. This is also a possible explanation for the wide (and sometimes haphazard) use of firing, even for infectious diseases (Mathias-Mundy and Mc Corkle, 1989; Pflaumbaum and Kirk, 1992).
Another limitation is gross contamination to both healer and patient, due to the lack of an antiseptic and the healers (and herders) limited use of soap, salt and boiled water. This aspect is particularly serious in lieu of certain diseases such as brucellosis, salmonellosis (Agab and Abbas, 1995), anthrax (Schwabe and Kuojok, 1981) and numerous other conditions. In this regard, the handling of cases of dystocia was often followed by death of mothers due to septicaemias resulting from operative contamination. However, given the situation and the circumstances within which traditional healers operate, it is only fare to admit their genius in meeting the demands and requests of their clients. Even the best veterinarian will be utterly helpless in the desert if he or she is not equipped with an arsenal of supplies and diagnostic aids, to respond to these requests for assistance. Such a situation often occurred to the author. Apart from writing a prescription for the pastoralist to collect next time he is in town, nothing else could be done for complaints as simple as keratoconjunctivitis or eczema.
Camel herders are universally known for their hardiness and extreme observational ability (Reid, 1930; Allan, 1965; Cunnison, 1966). This perhaps stems from the fact that camels need close watching at all times. The camels' sense of "home" appears to be very limited, and indeed given the large, extensive and markless deserts in which it survives, it can easily be lost either in groups or as individuals. Specially during the short rains (June-July) the desert swarms with bands of 2-3 men (sometimes a single youth) riding for days and nights in search of lost camels.
The herders in Butana have an exemplary record of the camels' physiologic, behavioural and pathologic characteristics. Beside knowing individual animals closely, they keep an excellent mental record of pregnancy history, calving history and production potential of their breeding stock (Abbas et al., 1992). Their knowledge on diseases affecting camels can be illustrated by the list of (over 50) terms used to denote various conditions and the differentiation of several conditions not by symptom or sign only (system specificity) but also by the affected organ (organ specificity). This diagnostic ability, most probably, stems from close observation which allows the herder to follow the sequential development of many diseases. For example, lameness has at least about six causes (or source points), cough at least three, and stomach pains at least four origins. The local terminology is indicative of the aetiology, anatomy or the pathognomic symptomatology of each condition. Sometimes, it indicated the most important contributory factor, such as "reeh" to denote pneumonias occurring during wind seasonal change of direction. Since information is passed orally, there appears to be no barrier in communication between herders and healers. This could account for the extensively shared knowledge between the two groups on many aspects of anatomy-physiology and diseases, range, and the environment. Since healers were in most instances former herders (some are still herders/owners) it is perhaps safe to conclude that the present-day herders will feature some candidates, who if given the relief from having to herd daily, could become excellent healers.
Encounters with some (very few) herders often made our work in veterinary researchers a lot easier. These herders were reliable, compassionate towards animals, specially the sick, and kept excellent record of case outcome or progress. A lot of help is expected from these herders in on-going efforts to evaluate some candidate phytotherapeutics, as well as diagnostic efforts to elucidate some ambiguous conditions affecting camels such as the ill-defined "Haboob" syndrome, bent neck and certain types of ataxia in camels.
In our efforts to create closer links with pastoralists, a series of paravet training courses have been designed and an Arabic booklet describing major diseases and their treatment has been prepared (Abbas, 1995). So far three 1-2 month sessions in which about 75 young men were trained, were held in co-operation with several NGOs: (Save the Children's Fund, USA; Area Development Schese, Butana (UNDP); Dryland Husbandry Project (OSSREA, EPOS) and Plan Sudan (Kassala). It is hoped that these youth could continue to be interested in field practice, and bridge the gap between herders, healers and the Veterinary Departments. It is envisaged that these paravetes will be followed up in one way or another to further evaluate the contribution of this activity towards better disease control, and to see if conflicts or co-operation arise between them and traditional healers.
Many of the botanics reported in this study have also been mentioned by other researchers to be used medicinally in other parts of the world.
Ginger, produced largely in India, is used universally for its carminative and aromatic stimulant effect to the gastrointestinal tract and externally as a rubefacient, and has also a reputation as an aphrodisiac in India and the Far East (Pursaglove et al., 1981). The commercially available dried gingers have been reported to contain oils (15-30%) (Winterton and Richardson, 1965; Connel, 1970), while the pungent principle gingerol is in the range of 17-30% (Nambudri et al., 1975). Hikino et al. (1983) described the anti-emetic contents and uses of ginger methanolic extract in Chinese folk-medicine, while Bone et al. (1990) reported that ginger root was superior as an anti-emetic to metaclopramide treatment. Yamahara et al. (1988) found that orally administered acetone extract of ginger (terpenoid) prevented experimentally induced gastric lesions by 97%. Endo, Kanno and Oshirnd (1990) reported on the antiprotozoal activity of certain ginger extracts. The latter findings are in line with the pastoralist use of ginger decoction as a gastric antiseptic and protectant. However, most of these activities can be concentrated in certain derivatives of the ginger rhizome and some extraction effect is needed to accentuate the effect of these treatments.
Garlic (Allium sativum) has been recognized as an antimicrobial (growth) inhibitor by many workers. For example, El-Ashi (1996), Abdel Nassir et al. (1983), El-Nima et al. (1983) and Chen et al. (1985) have all found growth inhibitors against a range of microbes including El Coli, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus spp. and others in aqueous extracts of garlic. In addition, Sutabhana et al. (1992) reported strong anti-fungal action as well as aflatoxin production inhibition by garlic extract on the common pollutant fungus Aspergillus flavus. These findings were confirmed by recent research (Pai and Platt, 1995). Garlic extract also had anti-platelet aggregation action which could explain its use as a mucosal sedative (Srivasta, 1984).
Balanites aegypica is also extensively used by Sahelian pastoralists to treat skin diseases and ectoparasites for which the kern oil is used (Porter et al., 1988); snake bites by the leaves and buds (Ba, 1982); while the pastoralists in Eritrea were reported by Fre (1989) to use the bark powder for eye diseases and foot rot.
Jatropha curcus was previously handled as a toxic plant whose feeding resulted into severe hepatotoxicity in Nubian goats (Adam, 1978). However, subsequent researches, aided by ethoveterinarian accounts repositioned this plant well in the African materia medica with potent anthelmintic action against round worms (Oliver-Beaver, 1986).
Along this line, the use of Albizia athelmenthica as an anthlementic is well supported by research findings in which rat models were employed (Galal, 1984; Galal et al., 1991). Calotropis procera promises to be a plant of multiple benefits in the arid zones (Fall, 1989). As confirmed by proximate and mineral analysis, this shrub is a store of numerous nutrients at acceptable therapeutic levels (Abbas, Tayeb and Suleiman, 1993). Many of the species of Cassia such as C. Senna, C. occidentalis, C. tora are used in traditional medicine in tropical Africa for the treatment of worms, infection, constipation, pleurisy, oedema, ring worm and eruptive skins conditions (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962; Oliver-Bever, 1986). Seeds of C. tora and C. occidentalis possess strong antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, B. proteus and Vibrio cholerae and against the fungi Aspergillus flavus, A. niger and Trichophyton metagrophytes (gaind et al., 1966; Shah et al., 1968; Quadry and Zafar, 1978).
Azadirachta indica (Neem) proved to be an important multipurpose tree. In Asian countries the sun-dried seeds are used extensively to control pests in household and stored cereal grains, a usage identical with that in the study area (Jotwani and Circar, 1965; Rembold, 1984). Oil extracted from the seeds is used in both man and animals as an anthelmintic, in ringworm, scabies, abdominal ulcers, rheumatism and muscular pains (Fernando, 1982; Ketkar and Ketkar, 1976).
The literature on botanics used in different parts of the world is very extensive. More research is needed to compare the international use of various plant species, as well as to identify those with promising potential as candidate for future pharmaceutics. However, one cannot pass on this issue without remarking on the concordance in ethnomedicine and ethnoveterinary medicine between diverse groups of people who live in different geographic locations (and continents). This should draw more attention from the international research community towards validating and promoting successful ethnoveterinary and ethnomedical components. Future research should concentrate also on the phytochemical properties, toxicity as well as specific therapeutic traits of known ingredients derived from candidate plants.
