Collaboration between traditional healers and biomedical practitioners is now being accepted by many African countries south of the Sahara because of the increasing problem of HIV/AIDS. The key problem, however, is how to initiate collaboration between two health systems which differ in theory of disease causation and management. This paper presents findings on experience learned by initiation of collaboration between traditional healers and the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Arusha and Dar-es-Salaam Municipalities, Tanzania where 132 and 60 traditional healers respectively were interviewed. Of these 110 traditional healers claimed to be treating HIV/AIDS. The objective of the study was to initiate sustainable collaboration with traditional healers in managing HIV/AIDS. Consultative meetings with leaders of traditional healers' associations and government officials were held, followed by surveys at respective traditional healers' "vilinge" (traditional clinics). The findings were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings showed that influential people and leaders of traditional healers' association appeared to be gatekeepers to access potential good healers in the two study areas. After consultative meetings these leaders showed to be willing to collaborate; and opened doors to other traditional healers, who too were willing to collaborate with the Institute of Traditional Medicine in managing HIV/AIDS patients. Seventy five percent of traditional healers who claimed to be treating HIV/AIDS knew some HIV/AIDS symptoms; and some traditional healers attempted to manage these symptoms. Even though, they were willing to collaborate with the Institute of Traditional Medicine there were nevertheless some reservations based on questions surrounding sharing from collaboration. The reality of past experiences of mistreatment of traditional healers in the colonial period informed these reservations. General findings suggest that initiating collaboration is not as easy as it appears to be from the literature, if it is to be meaningful; and thus we are calling for appropriate strategies to access potential healers targeted for any study designed with sustainability in mind.

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Seventy-seven plants are listed, which are used by traditional healers in five regions of eastern Tanzania, Coast, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro and Tanga. For each species are given the botanical name, vernacular name, collection number, locality, habit, distribution and medical uses. Results of a literature survey are also reported, including medical use, isolated constituents and pharmacological effects.

Medicinal plants are an important local resource for the Washambaa of the Western Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. In this study the Washambaa medicinal plants are inventoried. It is based on ethnobotanical fieldwork carried out over 15 months. This study presents for the first time an analysis of medicinal plants used in Africa with a ranking of these taxa by the frequency of their reported use. A total of 328 taxa were collected and yielded 2260 individual use reports. The most popular species are Myrica salicifolia and Toddalia asiatica. Subsequently, the use reports were arranged into 9 groups of medicinal uses based on the types of illness treated. The Factor of Informant Consensus (FIC) is used in order to evaluate the ethnobotanical importance of the plants. The largest number of plants and of use reports are in the group of gastrointestinal disorders. For the most commonly used taxa, an ethnopharmacological evaluation was performed. Studies to evaluate the Washambaa therapeutic claims as well as toxicological data are still lacking for many of the species. This study will form the basis for pharmacological and phytochemical research on selected Washambaa medicinal plants.

Fifty-three Angiosperm species (Sapotaceae to Zingiberaceae), which are used by traditional healers in five regions of Eastern Tanzania (Coast, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro and Tanga) are listed. For each species, the botanical name, vernacular name, collection number, locality, habit, geographic distribution and medicinal uses are given. Additionally, information from the literature on medicinal uses, chemical constituents and pharmacological effects are also provided. Data analysis and conclusions to cover all the six parts of the papers previously published are presented.