A National Research and development platform for Novel Drug Development from indigenous medicinal plants.
This project seeks to develop novel medicines and tonics from indigenous Southern
African medicinal plants. Specialists from a variety of clinical and scientific
institutions have pooled their resources and worked in conjunction with traditional
knowledge to analyze natural material in search of new safe products effective
against malaria, tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus, immune modulation and the
production of tonics.
The principal objective of the Malaria Programme’s involvement within
this project has been to investigate both crude and bio-fractionated plant extracts
for activity against mosquitoes that transmit malaria. This had been achieved
by conducting bioassays against the mosquito’s aquatic larval stages,
insecticidal activity using adult female mosquitoes and insect repellent activity.
