Build it: The Alabukun story and The magic powder

This story is close to home, and it is an inspirational one. My father-in-law (Late Pa. Adewumi Theophilus) worked for the parent holding company, Kuramo Industries Limited, the maker and marketer of Alabukun powder. He served this company for more than 40 years until his retirement in 2006.  Late Pa. Adewumi Theophilus entered the company as a salesman and retired as a Managing Director.


One astounding thing about this product called Alabukun powder is the efficacy and the healing potency it has endured for over 100 years.

Despite Jacob Odulate's demise in 1962 around the age of 78, he continues to be remembered for his landmark contribution to healthcare in Nigeria.

Late Pa. Adewumi Theophilus was a close and loyal ally of Jacob Odulate (founder) and successfully ran Alabukun in the '70s & '80s with the children of  Late Jacob Odulate (Dr. Jacobson Oladele ODULATE (Eye Surgeon)  and Segun ODULATE (Physicist & Business Entrepreneur)

The Alabukun brand is currently under the management of Koye Odulate, one of the grand children of Chief Jacob Odulate.

For 100 years, the brand has remained relevant,  selling in all parts of Nigeria, the Benin Republic, Cameroon, Ghana, and some parts of Europe

From the proceeds of the sale of Alabukun Powder, Alabukun Mentholine and other drug products he made, Odulate was able to sponsor his children to some of the best universities abroad at that time to further their education. One after the other, his children went off to study at Durham, Newcastle, USA and London to qualify as educationists, medical doctors, lawyers and engineers.

Alabukun was founded by a Nigerian pharmacy apprentice and entrepreneur, Jacob Sogboyega Odulate in 1918, a period when Aspirin-caffeine (headache) powder brands were just starting to spring up in the United States. The year was also at  the peak of colonial control in Nigeria (today’s country was just created in 1914). 

There was no modern pharmaceutical industry and only a few western drugs were imported and distributed in the country by European companies.

Though there was already Aspirin, a drug discovered in 1897, in the market, Nigerians barely had access to western drugs and most people only knew of traditional local medication based on herbs.

Odulate, born in 1884 in Lagos, was armed with a basic knowledge of European pharmaceutical products and medical care acquired locally as a pharmacy apprentice in Abeokuta, introduced his own brand of Aspirin-caffeine powder to the locals and went ahead to make sure it was always available and affordable to them.

Odulate who was nicknamed by locals as Alabukun (Blessed Jacob), started producing what would become Alabukun powder from local materials and imported patent drugs which he imported from the United Kingdom through a British company, called Ayrton Saunders & Co. based in Liverpool.
Odulate also established a retail chain called “Alabukun Patent Medicine Supply Stores” and sold patent drugs. He also ran a clinic where he attended to minor injuries and wounds.

Today, a sachet of Alabukun powder contains 760 mg of acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) and 60 mg of caffeine. Its powder form means, when compared to tablets, it dissolves faster and therefore works faster.  Most people mix it with water but its also mixed with everything from soda drinks to gin.