Uganda, Africa
Winston Churchill once described Uganda as “the pearl of Africa” – and that’s not only true of its magnificent landscapes, but also because of its wealth of medicinal herbs.
Tradition is strong in Uganda and our connection runs deep. One of our major goals in equatorial Africa is to search out traditional healing plants that are unknown or have been lost to the wider world.
Wellness Research Foundation has established a subsidiary company in Najjanankumbi, in northeastern Uganda. It operates its own healing-herb garden and contains numerous trees, shrubs, creeping plants and herbs.
Many of the plants were identified and sourced by Prince Dr. David H.M.J. Mawanda, a friend and a walking encyclopedia of equatorial African herbs.
Dr. Mawanda, the chief production and research officer at SEFA Organics, a natural-health products company in Kampala, is already helping us research some of our new supplements.
Knowledge of these plants has been passed down through generations of revered healers. In Africa, they call healers like Dr. Mawanda daktari wa miti shamba, “doctor of herbs.” But most of it is done by word of mouth, and so much is still unknown to the rest of the world.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Mawanda has been using his knowledge to help heal Africans of almost every known disorder and disease – from stomach complaints, heart disease, allergies, pain relief and nervousness to depression, insomnia and even cancer.
In fact, many herbalists in Africa are light years ahead of the drug companies in the way they approach cancer.
Many of these traditional African herbal medicines contain powerful antioxidants and natural immune system boosters, as well as substances that contain potent anti-inflammatory compounds, DNA protection and anti-aging properties.
Our aim is to help preserve as much of this knowledge as possible before it is lost forever.
We are proud of our strong ties with equatorial Africa, but it makes us wonder how many cures are growing right under our noses and continue to be ignored by Western medicine.