Introductory Remarks: African Perspective on Natural Products and Molecular Medicine

摘要

South Africa contains 25,000 unique species of plants, one tenth of the world's known floral biodiversity. Apparently there are more plant species on Table Mountain than in the entire British Isles. In addition, it contains much unique biodiversity in fauna and potentially enormous untapped marine biodiversity off its shores. Over 3,000 of these plants and animal products are used by the 200,000 traditional practitioners in South Africa, who are consulted by up to 80% of the population. These practices are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old and constitute what we call indigenous knowledge. It seems fitting, therefore, that the study of medicine that began over 5,000 years in Africa in the medicinal herbariums of Ancient Egypt should return to African shores. The South African MRC has a very active natural products research program. In some instances, our scientists have extracted and characterized the active chemical moieties for possible development as novel drugs. In other cases, the approach has been to use the natural product in its native state and study its safety and efficacy.