The Yamoa™ story so far.....

The African culture allows a healer or shaman to practice traditional medicine. These treatments have been used for centuries quite successfully. Unfortunately the knowledge is only passed down through generations and the methods used are closely guarded secrets. The ingredients used for creating these miraculous medicines come from tree bark, various herbs, roots, local fruits and berries and they all have healing properties. Indigenous peoples throughout Africa and the world at large routinely take advantage of the natural medicinal properties in the plant life surrounding them. As a matter of fact this “botanising” was what began the pharmaceutical industry when willow tree bark became known as a pain-killer and as a result aspirin was invented.

Akua Asirifia was one such shaman, a grandmother with the healing touch she was famous for miles around. She always had long lines of patients, young and old waiting outside her house, remembers her grandson Jerry. Using a powder made from a gum tree she would cure those suffering from debilitating asthma and other respiratory and bronchial problems including hay fever. In most cases one treatment was enough and people were finally cured from these medical problems that they’d suffered from for years.

Local Interest

As early as the 1970s, a Swiss doctor, Hans (Johann) Heinrich Meister, working with the Basel Mission in the Agogo Presbyterian hospital located in the Ashanti region of Ghana began hearing from patients that their symptoms completely disappeared after taking the gum tree powder. Dr. Meister investigated these claims because he too had always suffered from asthma. He sought out Akua and was amazed at the results. He was cured. He then returned and asked Akua for permission to have the powder tested for safety and implored her to reveal the secret if the powder was deemed safe.

Akua refused, concerned that if the secret of her powder was revealed it would be abused. She worried that a big pharmaceutical company would put a high price on it making it unaffordable for the many that needed it. She held steadfast protecting the secret of her powder as it had been for generations. Dr. Meister stayed in touch, sending his incurable cases to her and continued to visit from time to time. He never stopped asking but was always refused, according to Jerry, Akua’s devoted grandson.

Jerry realised when he grew older that he was not destined to take after his grandmother and become a shaman. He decided to become a primary school teacher and follow his ambition and make a life for himself in England.

Early Days in the 'West'

Jerry started his new life in England as a postal worker, encountering people every day suffering from asthma and hay fever with no cure in sight. He finally travelled back to his home in Ghana in 1994 and implored his grandmother to reveal the secret remedy. Akua finally relented. There was a big celebration culminating in a tribal ceremony with Akua Asirifia finally bestowing her secrets onto her beloved grandson Jerry Yamoa.

Akua took Jerry into the forest showing him the bark of a gum tree, the source of the cure. She gave him sole responsibility for dispensing the remedy to all those who were in need. Akua was in possession of many secrets of natural remedies and during this visit she taught Jerry everything she knew about the healing properties of the herbs, plants and tree barks surrounding them. She peacefully died at the age of 107, content that her grandson would sustain her legacy.

When he returned to England Jerry had 20 colleagues who suffered from asthma and hay fever try the powdered bark remedy. Each and every one of them reported they were much improved if not totally cured. The results were overwhelming with a 90% success rate after two years. Those who had received the magic powder were still healthy and strong after having that initial treatment for only a month. They hadn’t needed any other medication and were perfectly healthy.

Word spread and Jerry was forced to return to Ghana to arrange for regular shipments of the powder back to the UK. As more and more people were cured Channel 4 Television got word and aired a feature on Yamoa Powder on the “London Today” programme.

Helping More People

Wanting to help even more people Jerry tried to bring his powder to the masses by reaching out to Boots the Chemists and Glaxo-Wellcome, but only met resistance. After all why would the pharmaceutical companies want to risk losing the millions they were making on keeping people ill by maintaining their asthma and hay fever? Jerry was naïve in thinking they would actually want to market a natural remedy that worked. Their money was made keeping people sick, not curing them.

Undeterred Jerry began selling his now branded 'Yamoa™ Powder' on his own to everyone he encountered who needed it. Word continued to spread and sales increased at a steady stream. Those suffering from asthma and hay fever were telling friends and family and the results were obvious to everyone around.

Jerry continued selling the product and by the end of that year 70% of all his sales were by word-of-mouth, but this method of marketing has its limitations so Jerry reached out to health shops hoping they would carry it in their stores. At the time, because there had been no scientific studies conducted on Yamoa™ health shops were reluctant to stock it, so Jerry then partnered with Not the Norm Limited to create Yamoapowder.com as a vehicle to make the product available worldwide.

Scientific Research Does Support Yamoa™!

Over the years, and due to the widespread success of Yamoa™, a number of scientists and researchers from London, France, Ivory Coast and the US have studied its properties and published peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, International Immunopharmacology, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters and The Journal of Immunology. Further information is available on our Science & Research page.