Lemongrass, known as kisubi in Luganda, has mosquito repellent abilities. Photo | Shutterstock
Lemongrass (known as kisubi in Luganda) is a spice that Christine Alobo usually stocks up and blends in her teas each evening. A resident of Seeta, Goma Division in Mukono District, Alobo uses lemongrass to spice up her sugarless tea as she looks to make the most of the health benefits.
For a long time, Alobo thought the lemongrass acted purely as a spice. One evening in early May 2022, Teopista Nakitende, a friend, let her in on another benefit. Alobo, a farmer and midwife, was encouraged to plant lemongrass in her garden and around her home because of the ability it has to repel mosquitoes. Two years on, Alobo could not be more grateful.
“We noticed the buzzing mosquitoes were fewer within the fresh grass vicinity. This remedy doesn’t completely stop them, but it reduces their ability to buzz and move from one place to another,” she told Sunday Monitor.
Alobo is one among a legion that has deployed plant-based remedies in the battle against malaria, the leading cause of death in Uganda.
The intermittent and remittent fever is endemic in vast swathes of the country, rearing its ugly head during the country’s two rainy seasons in March-May and August-October. Stakeholders in the fight against malaria attribute its persistence to the shrinking resource envelope as well as the seemingly resistant vector (mosquito) and malaria-causing parasite (plasmodium).
Rethinking
In two separate instances during mid-April, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the health minister, and Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary in the health ministry, expressed fear of excessive reliance on the malaria vaccines that Dr Michael Baganizi, the head of immunisation at the ministry, said will commence in October.
“We are now seeing malaria affecting adolescents in addition to our children. The vaccine that we are getting only protects 50 percent. That means it is not the magic bullet,” Dr Aceng told the House on April 20.
This was minutes after Thomas Tayebwa, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who also doubles as the patron of the Parliamentary Forum on Malaria, had led legislators and other stakeholders in the malaria walk in Kampala. The walk was meant to raise awareness in a country where the burden of illness remains firmly fixed on tropical diseases.
Uganda also uses Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) to get a grip on the treatable tropical disease but faces resistance in places. For instance, in March 2019, police in Butebo District learnt that Fred Tuwache torched down his house in protest of the government’s IRS. He is reported to have said the chemicals the Ministry of Health deployed were poisonous to animals and humans.
Mr Tayebwa, during the April malaria walk event, indicated that other containment measures like treatment were already draining government coffers with minimal outcomes.
“This treatment won’t work. Treatment is so costly. The money we are spending on treating malaria is so much, and yet we are losing so many young people,” he said of the disease that in 2015 had a parasite prevalence of 42 percent among children under five.
The Deputy House Speaker also reaffirmed long-held fears about abusing donor-purchased long-lasting-insecticide-treated nets, freely distributed to families to protect Ugandans against mosquito bites. Ugandans are predisposed to insecticides, but Dr Atwine warns that these “have effects in the lungs”, adding that one risks “get[ting] an accumulated toxic dose.”
Plant-based approach
It is against this backdrop that the government is pushing for the uptake of plants in the malaria fight, something that even the Opposition is popularising. On April 19, Christine Kaaya Nakimwero, the shadow minister for Climate and Environment, together with House Speaker Anita Among offered their unstinting support. Nearly a year ago, on April 20, Dr Atwine had also rallied behind the plant-based approach.
“We need to find ways to improve our environment through the National Forestry Authority. We want to see them advocate for trees in every home. We can plant trees that repel mosquitoes, and it’s very simple,” the health ministry’s top accounting officer said.
Consequently, Dr Peter Mbabazi, the Finance and Multi-sectoral partnership coordinator at the same ministry, listed a string of plants that the government encouraged Ugandans to plant, use, and consume. He named lemongrass, rosemary, lemon balm, garlic, onions, and peppermint. He also listed basil, eucalyptus, lavender, and Lantana Camara.
The aforementioned plants emit smells that tend to repel mosquitoes which would otherwise transmit and escalate malaria in communities.
Dr Jimmy Opigo, the Malaria Control Programme manager at the Ministry of Health, told Sunday Monitor that the government’s call for the uptake of plant repellents has picked up, with the drive being rolled out with the support of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
“We are seriously promoting plant repellents. We have worked with nursery [bed] operators and CSOs, especially Rotarians, so that as we beautify our compounds, we make sure medicinal plants go together with small plants plus food crops. The plants have chemicals in them,” he disclosed, adding, “It is picking up, people are now using it because plant-based repellents are friendlier. Most of these repellents contain citronella oil, which is good for the skin when applied.”
Dorothy Namubiru, the public image chairperson of the Rotary Club of Kampala Central (District 9213), said her fraternity uses the “Plant Your Balance Initiative” to, among others, promote environmental conservation and education. Through this programme, the Rotarians oversee a tree nursery bed from which they get plants to supply to communities. The plants distributed include eucalyptus trees that have mosquito-repellent effects. The Rotarians have since moved to schools, including Wanyange Girls Secondary School in Jinja District where they went in July.
Dr Opigo stated that the plant-based method is not entirely new as it was previously employed by indigenous communities that smeared house walls with dung believed to contain plant-repellent properties.
“They smeared it two to four times a year, which was called home decoration for malaria control, so they applied it to the house as IRS,” he said.
The government has embarked on a rollout campaign to popularise the remedy in other parts of the country.
“This is being picked up well in West Nile, the eastern parts, and in Kampala regions,” Dr Opigo said, adding that the Ministry of Health is “trying to incorporate it in lotions and bathing soap. With time most of the bathing soaps will contain them. You bathe, and the scent of the oil stays on the skin such that the [mosquito] insects don’t get to you”.
Tried and tested
This speaks to the power and high potential plants hold in tackling mosquitos and malaria. Several forms of research show that there is merit to the approach. In a study done in Nigeria's south-eastern region of Owerri, lemongrass was experimented on, as a mosquito repellent and used with other oils to make lotions applied to body parts of 12 participants. The study established that lemongrass oil has mosquito repellent abilities, with 74 percent protection against the mansonia mosquitoes for more than two hours.
Another study titled Natural Plant-Based Mosquito-Repellent Products: A Potential Complementary Tool for Malaria Vector Control Intervention and Elimination in Zimbabwe is a piece of research that calls for incorporating plant-based approaches in existing vector control measures.
With the knowledge that combating malaria requires concerted effort, the Government of Uganda has okayed private players to popularise the remedy. One of these is the proprietor of Roperfree, Yusuf Kawoya Kasumba, who uses his Kampala-based outlet to extract substances from lemongrass, eucalyptus and carrier oils.
Similarly, the Swan Serenity, another local outlet in Uganda uses extractions from eucalyptus to manufacture repellents used as a body and air spray.
