African Traditional Medicine Research between 1998 and 2018: An Informetrics Analysis in South Africa

Traditional knowledge, especially with health-related issues, has become crucial across the world. This can be attributed to the assistance which humans and animals now require. In Africa, traditional healers have strived to offer health remedies through the support of plants with the aim of curing different ailments believed to have been either inherited or caused by attack from spiritual forces. This, to an ordinary person, is difficult to understand; hence the assistance and support of traditional healers play an important role in the treatment of health issues for many people, irrespective of the context. This is commonly referred to as “African traditional medicine” (ATM), being a holistic healthcare system that has attracted numerous researchers. Nonetheless, there is still a paucity of updated, comprehensive collation of research conducted across South Africa. The study that directed this article aimed to assess the publication trends on ATM between 1998 and 2018. The study used interpretive document analysis, where data were harvested from the Web of Science Citation Index Expanded. Findings indicate that 469 documents were retrieved from the database, and the majority of published papers were research articles. A downward trend in terms of the number of publications in 2018 was of concern, considering efforts that were made to encourage research in traditional medicine in South Africa. Results indicate that social sciences contributed the highest number of research publications, while the universities of KwaZulu-Natal, Witwatersrand and Pretoria were the top three contributors with the largest number of publications. The study recommends integrating traditional medicine into the curricula of all South African universities.