**1. Introduction**

Medicinal plants have been in use since ancient times [1]; they carry a long history [2]. These plants are an important mode of combat to serious illnesses and diseases in the world [3]. These crops and their derivatives are used for healing by various populations, and in extreme scenarios, these plants have been chosen as natural alternatives or substitutes to their orthodox counterparts [4]. Reported evidence has indicated that these natural products and their derivatives account for an estimated more than 50% of all the drugs used globally [5]. Available data have previously

estimated that 90% of world's rural people use medicinal plants for therapeutic purposes, and according to a recent survey by the World Health Organisation (WHO) 87% of its African member states population rely on traditional medicine, mainly medicinal plants, as their main primary health care source [6–9]. For instance, it has been reported that 90% of the Ethiopians use herbal remedies as their main source of medicines, while up to 80% of South Africans are estimated to be in consultation with healers traditional [6, 7]. Thus, sub-Saharan African medicinal plants in their diverse forms are holistic involving both the body and the mind [6].

Obviously, the history of medicinal plants on the African continent is huge, the oldest, and probably the most diverse [6], for there are over 2000 spoken languages [10], in the sub-Saharan African region, during the use of traditional medicinal plants for healing purposes. In this regard, a variety of medicinal plants is reported to be used for the treatment of ailments in this region of Africa [11]. Hence, it has been reported that sub-Saharan Africa alone has over 50,000 distinct plant species, of which more than 25% of these species is reported to have been used for several centuries in traditional African medicine for the prevention and treatment of illnesses [12]. Recent reports have suggested that the remarkable and enormous biodiversity in medicinal plants in sub-Saharan Africa should not be surprising considering that the continent is geographically located within the tropical and subtropical climate [6, 12, 13]. The region has one of the biggest forests of the world, the Congo basin, which spans across six countries, namely the entire Central African Region (**Figure 1**), i.e., Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The basin on its own is estimated to have approximately 10,000 species of tropical plants and 30% of these are endemic to the region. This forest, in some extents, provides livelihood to millions of people across this region.

Nevertheless, despite the vast medicinal plants' diversity and highest endemism, sub-Saharan Africa still doesn't have sufficient drugs being commercialized globally [6, 14, 15]. This has been exacerbated by the fact that only a small fraction of medicinal plants, on the African continent, is from commercial cultivated sources, as most of medicinal plants consumed in sub-Saharan Africa and those destined for exportation are mostly harvested from the wild, including forests and national parks; albeit few countries, including Madagascar, Kenya and South Africa, taking initiatives towards commercially producing medicinal plants [16]. Therefore, we can only hope for the continent to efficiently making use of its remarkable medicinal plant potentials to improve the lives of its growing population. Hence, there are positive signs in this regard which have emerged recently. For instance, a WHO reported that by 2018, more than 85% of the total Member States in the WHO African Region have reported having a national policy for medicinal plants and others, compared to Western Pacific Region and the Eastern Mediterranean Region WHO Member States with 65% and 45%, respectively [8].

Additionally, the same report also found that the African region scored the highest percentage (>80%) of countries with national or state level laws and regulations for medicinal plants and others. Certainly, this is a promising path that the African continent has embarked on, even though more still need to be established.

Furthermore, there are several other threats to sub-Saharan Africa's medicinal plant potentials. For example, the literature reviewed has indicated that medicinal plants on the continent are disappearing due to the destruction of its natural habitats in the form of high rates of deforestation, rapid agricultural development, urbanization, and uncontrolled harvesting of these plant materials [6, 7, 12, 17, 18]. Nonetheless, there are threats that have emerged during the last few decades, and

*Medicinal Plants Threatened by Undocumented Emerging Pollutants: The Sub-Saharan African… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.103825*

**Figure 1.** *Sub-Saharan African regions.*

which, in our view, have not been reported on, and have thus remained undocumented. They are threats form emerging persistent organic pollutants (POPs), perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), in particular. Emerging contaminants are contaminants about which we have a new awareness or understanding about how they move in the environment or affect health [19].
