UNIZIK AND CHINA TO PATNER IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE PRODUCTION

AWKA—NNAMDI Azikiwe University, Awka and Hunam University of Chinese Medicine, China, are to collaborate in the processing and production of traditional medicine.

Chief physician of Hunam University, Professor Junwen Wang, who led the Chinese team, explained that under the programme, Chinese traditional medicine that had lasted 2000 years, would be introduced to Nigeria through Confucius Institutes. Wang, who is also the Dean and Director of International Education in the university, said UNIZIK would be the first institution in Nigeria to benefit from the partnership. “This is our first station. Next, we will move to Lagos where they also have Confucius Institute,” he said. The Vice Chancellor of UNIZIK, Prof. Joseph Ahaneku said the whole idea was for both universities to have a symbiotic relationship through which they would move into research and medical processing expected to impact in the lives of Nigerians. The vice chancellor lamented that Nigeria still had a lot of herbs that were still unprocessed and unharnessed, adding that with the collaboration, UNIZIK would begin processing of herbs through its department of pharmacognosy and traditional medicine in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He said: “We want to move into research and medical processing of things that will impact on our people. In doing that, the University will go into what other institutions in Nigeria and Africa have in terms of natural products.”