Mandate of the Institute
The Institute of Traditional Medicine is charged with the responsibility to research into traditional healing systems, in Tanzania , to identify useful practices which can be adopted and to also identify useful materia medica that can be modernized and developed into drugs. Tanzania is estimated to have a traditional healer:population ratio of 1:400, thus giving an estimated number of over 80,000 traditional healers with varying specialities. The majority of healers are herbalists using mainly plants and a few animal and mineral products. There are also practices such as bone setting and socio-cultural aspects which contribute to the healing practices.

Tanzania has over 12,000 higher plant species and it is estimated that at least a quarter of these plants have medicinal value. The Institute has so far documented slightly over 2500 species with limited preliminary chemical and pharmacological work. This means that there is still a lot of work to be done to effectively exploit this vast potential. It is also true that some of plants growing in Tanzania are already proven to have medicinal value and have a big market potential worldwide and can be exploited for local drug production. Some examples include Cinchona ledgeriana, Artemisia afra, Rauvolfia caffra, Rauvolfia serpetina, Atropa belladonna, Catharanthus rosea, Pischiera fuchsiaefolia , Moringa oleifera, Vuacanga Africana, Prunus Africana, and Waltheria indica, to just mention a few . The Institute aspires to play a leading role in the development of this vast resource by strategically building expertise in all areas related to drug development, including basic science knowledge base, biological testing, pre-clinical toxicological studies, clinical trials and evaluation, pharmaceutical technology, standardization of herbal pharmaceuticals, biotechnology aimed at producing plants with best levels of active molecules and maturing in a short period. Other areas include tissue culture, for production of secondary metabolites as drugs etc. Involvement of development partners, private entrepreneurs and increased financial input from government to support research, training, recruitment and development of infrastructure are much needed.

To act as a center of excellence in the evaluation, documentation, creation and dissemination of knowledge on traditional medicine and drug discovery and, hence, contribute to the intellectual life of Tanzania, educate the public and ensure that research in traditional medicine responds to the health needs of the people and acts as a catalyst to improve health care services in the country.

• To conduct scientific investigations on plants, animal and mineral products used for medicinal purposes.
• To evaluate, rationalize and promote the use of natural products, and beneficial customs and practices of traditional medicine.
• To identify and discourage products, customs and practices which are detrimental to health.

•  To initiate and promote clinical trials on promising traditional medicines.

•  To promote local production of already established herbal medicines and plant derived pharmaceuticals and help to reduce the burden on imports

•  To enhance phytochemical and biological screening of potential medicinal materials in plants, animals and mineral substances.

•  To promote community based cultivation of medicinal plants to supply materials for local production of herbal medicines and use this avenue as a strategy for poverty reduction.

•  To disseminate information obtained from research to the scientific community, traditional healers and the public at large.

•  To promote Ex-situ and In- Situ conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants for sustainable production of herbal medicines.

The future direction

• The Institute is now in phase III of its research plan. In the stage more emphasis is being put on clinical evaluation of traditional recipes with the aim of incorporating them into the modern health care system.The Institute has realized its role in training. Increasingly, the Institute is getting involved in the training of, especially, postgraduate students. We hope to become a center for training in the area of pharmaceutical biology.
• There are intentions to get involved in the cultivation of medicinal plants for commercial purposes.

The Goals of the Institute
To achieve its mission the Institute has the following set goals:

•  To promote the use of traditional medicines and traditional methods of healing

The Institute will use its expertise to evaluate, rationalize and promote the use of natural products, and beneficial customs and practices of traditional medicine. It will also carry out clinical observations and toxicological studies as a means to promote safe products and to identify and discourage harmful products, customs and practices which are detrimental to health. Useful practices like bone setting, methods of contraception etc will be documented and promoted.

•  To promote commercial exploitation of medicinal plants

The Institute shall organize itself to promote trade in herbal medicines, as a way to contribute to the national poverty reduction strategy. The Institute, in collaboration with other institutions, intends to promote community based cultivation of medicinal plants and sale of their extracts and possibly isolated pure compounds within the country and abroad. This will promote commerce in medicinal plants and, therefore become a source of income for the people.

•  To contribute to the discovery of new drugs

The Institute will, through collaboration with traditional healers and traditional birth attendants, conduct scientific investigations on plants, animal and mineral products that are used traditionally as medicines with the purpose of developing new drugs. The pursuit of patents shall be part of the core activities of the Institute and shall serve the purpose of discovery of new drugs to treat conditions that are prevalent in Tanzania and also serve as a source of income by generating new drug molecules, which are of interest to the pharmaceutical industries. The Institute shall build a strong team of natural product chemists and experts in biological testing to address this goal.

•  To contribute to the local production of pharmaceuticals

There are a number of established medicinal plants growing in Tanzania . The country continues to import drugs derived from these plants while their production could be done locally. The Institute would like to pioneer the production of drugs from known plants that grow in Tanzania . The Institute is endeavoring to champion research and development activities in the production of herbal pharmaceuticals and pass on the developed products to industrial partners for production and distribution. The Institute shall benefit from the sale of the produced medicines by collecting royalties at agreed rates lasting the life time of the products in the market. In order to achieve this goal the Institute shall build a strong team of experts in pharmaceutical technology and acquire equipment for laboratory production of capsules, tablets and powders. The Institute will also seek to acquire analytical equipment for the analysis of content and ingredients in pharmaceutical formulations. The Institute shall also acquire equipment for stability testing for the purpose of establishing shelf life of drugs that will be produced.