Peer Reviewed: Analytical Chemistry in the Developing World

Abstract

Despite some good programs and strategies to advance science in developing countries, more needs to be done. The extraction, characterization, and structural elucidation of components found in plants have been among the key research areas in many developing countries. Natural products are of interest because of the need to have a firm scientific basis for much of the herbal medicine practiced in these countries and to search for lead compounds for drug development. Most of this research, however, is classified as organic, natural product, or phytochemistry. Some developing countries have productive research groups in these areas, and they are among the leading laboratories, not only in the region, but globally. CHEMISTRY in the Developing WorldMAdvice from university-based analytical chemists is in high demand in many developing countries. Chemistry departments are relatively well established when it comes to physical and workforce resources, compared with most other laboratories in their localities. Many challenging problems are forwarded to analytical chemists at universities by government and nongovernment organizations.The pesticide residue analysis research at the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) is a typical example. Tanzania exports fish from Lake Victoria to the European Union (EU), and, at one time, this was suspended because the EU required assurance that pesticide residues in the fish were below certain limits. At that time, there was no authority in Tanzania able to analyze the residues in question, so a Ph.D. student in the budding pesticide laboratory at the University of Dar es Salaam undertook this task (2). Her results were of sufficient quality that they contributed to the lifting of the EU ban on the export of Tanzanian fish. Thus, university chemistry departments often face the additional burden of providing their respective countries with services that would not normally fall within their domain elsewhere. A long list of challengesThe lack of adequate research capacity is a major weakness in many developing countries. The factors contributing to this problem are diverse and complex. As a group, developing countries differ greatly from their industrialized counterparts in their science and technology policies, financial capacities, and workforce resources. Conditions among developing countries can vary just as much.In this article, we concentrate on the major analytical challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these are poor technical support, difficulties in procuring spare parts, lack of research chemicals, shortage of capital equipment, insufficient access to funding sources, communication problems, insufficient access to and limited use of international scientific journals, weak national or regional research journals, few strong professional societies, low mobility of researchers, insufficient incentives for productive research, low salaries for university staff, and extensive educational obligations ("teaching load").Using scientific equipment in a developing country is often surp...

The Development of Global Science

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Connecting Resources for Tertiary Chemical Education with Scientists and Students in Developing Countries

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