‘Super sex cap merpati’ herbal capsules sachet ‘for women only’ to enhance female sexual function, purchased in Ghana, unknown manufacturer, c2010.

According to the packaging, written in Indonesian, this newly brought to market capsules contained nutmeg (myristicae), fennel (foeniculi fructus) and other herbs which were not listed. The packaging also assures the buyer of ‘export quality’ and to ‘beware of counterfeit goods’. Users were encouraged to take the capsules for three 3 consecutive days and then twice a week.

Purchased from a travelling trader called Comfort Owusu, in Accra, Ghana, this item is one of several collected for the Science Museum by Jonathan Roberts, lecturer at Mount Saint Vincent University and a specialist in the history of medicine and religion in West Africa. Jonathan’s work focuses on the many forms of healing present in Accra, where people have a range of choices in the healthcare they seek. How this example came to be in a market in Accra, with its Indonesian script, is unknown but shows how practices and treatments encountered from different cultures are selectively absorbed and sold, fusing together different medical and healing systems.