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Lemongrass (known as kisubi in Luganda) is a spice that Christine Alobo usually stocks up and blends in her teas each evening. A resident of Seeta, Goma Division in Mukono District, Alobo uses lemongrass to spice up her sugarless tea as she looks to make the most of the health benefits.

For a long time, Alobo thought the lemongrass acted purely as a spice. One evening in early May 2022, Teopista Nakitende, a friend, let her in on another benefit. Alobo, a farmer and midwife, was encouraged to plant lemongrass in her garden and around her home because of the ability it has to repel mosquitoes. Two years on, Alobo could not be more grateful.

“We noticed the buzzing mosquitoes were fewer within the fresh grass vicinity. This remedy doesn’t completely stop them, but it reduces their ability to buzz and move from one place to another,” she told Sunday Monitor.

Alobo is one among a legion that has deployed plant-based remedies in the battle against malaria, the leading cause of death in Uganda.

The intermittent and remittent fever is endemic in vast swathes of the country, rearing its ugly head during the country’s two rainy seasons in March-May and August-October. Stakeholders in the fight against malaria attribute its persistence to the shrinking resource envelope as well as the seemingly resistant vector (mosquito) and malaria-causing parasite (plasmodium).

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