“How to treat vaginal discharge with guava leaves,” reads the headline of a message posted on Facebook in Nigeria in May 2020.

“Ingredients – 25 leaves of guava. 2 liters of water preparation and user’s guide. Pour the guava leaves in a saucepan with two liters of water and leave on fire for 1 hour. Remove it, let it sit and then use the liquid to wash the vaginal area. Repeat this treatment twice a day, for a full week.”

Guava, with the botanical name Psidium guajava, is a fruit and small tropical tree from the Myrtaceae family. The fruit is round to pear-shaped, and edible.

But can guava leaves be used to treat vaginal discharge?

Not scientifically proven

Vaginal discharge is the way a woman’s body expels fluid made up of dead cells and bacteria. This process is normal. Abnormal vaginal discharge has a different colour and smell.

“I’m not aware of such a procedure, and we don’t practice it,” John Ekabua, a professor of adolescent gynaecology and reproductive health at Nigeria’s University of Calabar, told Africa Check.

Aloysius Inofomoh, a consultant obstetrician at Chygor-Cole Specialist Hospital in Lagos state, said: “I don’t know of any way guava leaves treat vaginal discharge.”

He added: “Guava is a fruit which, when consumed, can give calories and vitamins. Good hygiene will help keep a woman’s genitals clean and healthy.”