"I normally use these herbs. They work well and it just takes a day before I start feeling like a virgin again."
These are the words of 38-year-old Sombe Chipolya whose livelihood largely depends on sales from herbal sexual boosters.
Sombe felt compelled to venture into herbal selling due to their popularity especially among young people.
Among the herbal solutions she sells include: vaginal-tightening and body warming herbs for women and penis and libido enhancers for men.
She also sells topical gel meant to enlarge female body parts like the hips, buttocks and breasts as well as gel meant to shrink unwanted belly fat.
Sombe explained that the herbs work well and she personally attests to the herbs' effectiveness, as she recently gave birth and swears the herbs have the ability to swiftly reduce the size of her birth canal.
She said some herbs are consumed in foods such as porridge, soup or drinks and others are inserted in the private parts.
Sombe says she buys her herbs from Tanzania and is quick to admit that her concoctions are quite expensive because of the long distances she travels to buy them.
She buys her medicines from Tanzania because Zambia has been experiencing deforestation in the recent past.
It is commonly believed that the use of sexual boosters in the Zambian society started with our forefathers.
Many claim that sexual boosters have the power to keep couples sexually satisfied and, therefore, reduce the temptation for having extra-marital affairs.
Perhaps this is the motivation for people to take these medicines, although they are not pre-approved by medical doctors.
However, one may question if healthy marriages are a direct result of a couple's healthy sex life. Surely there are other factors that contribute to a healthy marriage like spending quality time together and having open communication.
As many of you may know, these sexual herbs are abundant in our community. Sombe sells her products by the roadside; however, these products can also be found on sale inside public toilets around town centre.
Renowned herbalist and president of the Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia (THPAZ) Rodwell Vongo disapproves of the indiscriminate sale of herbal remedies on the streets.
"Our streets are covered with herb vendors. What is more worrying is that many of them have no permanent trading places. If one has negative reactions from these medicines, they will have nowhere to begin looking for these people," he said.
Doctor Vongo said the herbal remedies are very effective but are sometimes abused by the buyers who do not follow the prescribed dosages but are interested in getting quicker results and end up taking an overdose which kills them.
The continued indiscriminate sale of the herbs has seen Dr Vongo calling on lawmakers to regulate the sale of herbal remedies in order to safeguard lives.
And a customer who spoke on condition of anonymity said she was prompted to buy herbs to tighten her vagina which she felt was losing its elasticity.
She was prescribed 'Sweet Lady' by a herbal dealer. But her experience was as bad as it made her vagina dry, something medical doctors preach against because a woman gets bruised whenever she gets involved in any sexual act.
"Sometimes the herbs would make me have a lot of vaginal discharge with a bad odour which would force me wear a pad like I'm on my menses," she said.
"I would not advise anyone to be taking these medicines because they have the ability to make you dependent on them," she said.
And a Lusaka-based medical doctor said people who take self or street-prescribed herbal remedies end up at the hospital with liver and kidney problems.
Abel Mwale, a senior resident medical officer at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), said it is difficult for medical practitioners to manage patients who take self- or street-prescribed herbal remedies, especially if one is on long-term conventional treatment for TB, for instance.
"The effects of these remedies on the liver and kidneys may not be immediate but this might be evident the next time you visit your doctor. For the sake of your kidney and liver be careful with what you allow to reach these deep-seated organs that perpetuate 'the miracle of life'," he said.
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