Anselm Gbenga Adodo; Nigerian Botanist, priest and monk of the Catholic order who spearheaded research into herbal medicine. He was born in Akure on 2 November 1969. Adodo’s quest for a scientific and reliable herbal alternative to orthodox medicine began as a hobby in 1994, eight years after he joined the Ewu Benedictine Monastery as a monk. Mainly out of necessity, the reclusive Adodo decided to employ the use of herbs to treat some health problems he had to contend with. But confronted with the need to have a permanent work place and store, he constructed a make-shift wooden shed where he perfected the herbal preparations.
Adodo and fellow monks embarked on the search not only to ascertain how the drugs work, but why they do so. Their efforts paid off when further expansion of the project in 1996, with the acquisition of more research and documentation facilities, in addition, the monastery employed experts in microbiology, pharmacy and other qualified medical personnel in other medical fields, from across the country, to coordinate research, documentation and production processes. The result was the birth of the ultra-modern PAX Herbal Research Laboratories located inside Saint Benedictine Monastery.
By 2006, Adodo’s Herbal Research Laboratories had produced over 50 different species of herbal medicines. Fifteen of them had been certified by NAFDAC, with another 20 ready for the regulatory body’s impending test and certification[i].
[i] The News June 19, 2006