**1. Introduction**

In August 2010, Reverend Ambilikile Mwasupile, a retired pastor in the Loliondo area of northern Tanzania began to treat people for a range of chronic ailments including diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, herpes, HIV/AIDS, liver disorders and asthma. A report on the phenomenon by Malebo and Mbwambo [1] describes how he was instructed in dreams to use a decoction of the root of the *Mugariga* tree to heal people with chronic illnesses. He would pray over the root before preparing the decoction, and pray again before personally administering it to the patient using Babu's own "miraculous cup" known as *kikombe cha Babu* [2]. He was, for a brief period, a media sensation throughout East Africa and was known as Babu wa Loliondo providing what was known as the "miracle cure". People travelled long distances by road and helicopter in order to get the once-off treatment. The flocks of people making their way to the remote village caused great disruption locally (**Figure 1**). The Loliondo cure was reported in local, national and international media including in the BBC [3] and the New York Times [4].

After initial scepticism, the Tanzanian government, local health officials and the national research hospital endorsed Babu wa Loliondo [2]. Popularity waned after 10 months, at least in part because the pastor called for a break due to the chaos caused locally. It was also reported that some elderly people died as they waited in queues for days [4] and that some HIV positive patients died, having stopped their anti-retroviral treatment subsequent to treatment with *Mugariga* [2]. Vähäkangas [2] describes how Babu wa Loliondo was, during that brief time, able to bridge the gap for people in the region between the scientific, traditional and Christian worldviews and between physical and spiritual healing.

*Mugariga* was identified as *Carissa spinarum* L. (*C. spinarum*), a plant known among several local ethnic groups as having healing properties [1]. In fact, prior to this, KEMRI (Kenya Medical Research Institute) was already investigating *C. spinarum* for its antiviral properties and in 2014 produced *Zedupex*™ containing *C. spinarum* [5]. Interest in the Loliondo "miracle cure" has re-emerged recently in relation to COVID-19. It was reported in the media that KEMRI was investigating *Zedupex*™ for efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 [6, 7].

*C. spinarum*, a member of the Apocynaceae family, is a complex and varied species that is widely distributed geographically throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia [8]. This research will show that it has a large body of associated ethnobiological data, spanning its geographical range, dating from 1886 through to the present. This study aims to analyse this data through the lens of changes in ethnobiological research since its inception as a discipline, in the late nineteenth century, to the present.

Ethnobiology as a discipline is defined by the Society of Ethnobiology [9] as "the scientific study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments"

#### **Figure 1.** *Queues of traffic as people make their way to Loliondo (photo with permission from Jonathan Kalan).*

#### Carissa spinarum *L.: A Case Study in Ethnobotany and Bioprospecting Research DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104665*

with ethnobotany a major subdiscipline of ethnobiology. Ethnobiology is concerned with the material and symbolic aspects of interactions between humans and their environments, having multidisciplinary foundations and outlooks. It has undergone many changes since its academic beginnings in the late 1800s. Hunn describes four phases in the development of ethnobiology, although the characteristics of each phase are not limited to the defined time periods (see **Table 1**) [10]. Hunn's Phase I, characteristic of the later nineteenth century to the 1950s, is primarily descriptive presenting lists of plant species and their medicinal and other uses [11]. Phase II, dating from the 1950s to the 1970s, examined the role of cognition in human relationships with their environments researching folk classification, linguistics and symbolic aspects, representing the perspective of the person whose culture is being studied. It is described as the emic phase [12]. Phase III developed from the 1970s through to the 1990s examining indigenous knowledge and the broader ecological context which resulted in the formation of the ISE Code of Ethics [13]. Phase IV from the 1990s onwards is characterised by the rise to prominence of concerns around the rights of local communities, specifically: the exploitation of indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights of indigenous knowledge holders. The indigenous voice is heard in this phase as a research collaborator rather than as a participant. A developing Phase V involves deeper networking and collaborative work between researchers across geographies and disciplines to address pressing issues of ecological and cultural crises [11]. D'Ambrosio identifies the same broad phasing as illustrated in **Table 1** [12]. In Phase IV, he identifies both biocultural and ethical components in the focus and conduct of research.

Ethnobiology has, thus, historically had a significant focus on ethnomedicine (EM). The main emphasis within EM research from its inception has been on finding new drug leads in what Reyes-García [14] called the "romance of ethnopharmacology" as a route to this end. The interest in mining medicinal plants for economic purposes dates back to the colonial period [15]. This search for new drugs has resulted in the prominence of Phase I-type research in Hunn's classification where medicinal species and their therapeutic uses are documented [11, 16].

*C. spinarum* is a species with a wealth of associated biocultural knowledge including practical and ritual uses across its range, with its use in health and healing


**Table 1.**

*Elements of history of ethnobiology (adapted from D'Ambrosio 2014).*

being the most widely reported in the literature. Despite its widespread usage, it is not well-known outside the oral and folk traditions of Africa, South Asia and Australia as evidenced by a Google search. Using the Google Trends search function, as used in an analysis of global and regional interest of Açai berries [17], there is a low level of interest in *C. spinarum* relative to other medicinal species of global and regional importance such as *Azadirachta indica* A. Juss, *Withania somnifera* (L.) Dunal, *Argemone mexicana* L., and *Echinacea purpurea* (L.) Moench. Written records began during the colonial era and there has been recent media interest in its medical potential in East Africa [1]. There is limited recorded usage in the ancient texts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic and Siddha medicines although a similar species, *C. carandas* L., is listed in Ayurvedic databases [18]. The focus on healing properties may be a function of the studies that have been conducted where the emphasis is often on ethnomedicine (EM) and the ultimate potential for bioprospecting. Broad ethnobotanical studies and anthropological research would help to situate this healing focus in the context of the wider value of biodiversity as integral to existence in communities of the Global South [19].

Previous articles reviewing *C. spinarum* have examined the phytochemistry and pharmacology of the species with limited attention to the wider ethnobiology of this species [20–26]. The scope of this chapter is to:

