Traditional medicines as a mechanism for driving research innovation in Africa

Abstract

The outcomes from recent high profile deliberations concerning African health research and economic development all point towards the need for a mechanism to support health innovation on the continent. The mission of the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI), is to promote and sustain African-led health product innovation to address African public health needs through the assembly of research networks, and building of capacity to support human and economic development. ANDI is widely viewed as the vehicle to implementing some of these recommendations. There is tremendous opportunity for Africa, to leverage the expertise in natural products and traditional medicines in support of this objective to kick-start innovation. This report highlights key recommendations that have emerged through expert forums convened by ANDI on the challenges, opportunities and prospects for investing in this important area of research.

Role of Traditional Antimalarial Plants in the Battle Against the Global Malaria Burden

“…ANDI intends to develop and fund a portfolio of collaborative network projects and leverage existing capacity in Africa in a manner that will support capacity and infrastructural development for product research, development, and delivery. The key objective is to discover, develop, and deliver affordable new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other health products (including those based upon natural products and traditional medicines) to fight and prevent diseases that disproportionately affect the African continent (Addae-Mensah et al 2011).…”

Application of multi-target phytotherapeutic concept in malaria drug discovery: a systems biology approach in biomarker identification

“…Many research groups are resorting to plants as a major source of new anti-malarial chemotherapeutic agents because of the extensive use of these plants for malaria therapy in African Traditional Medicine. Their use, however, does not take into consideration their safety [111]. It is therefore imperative to establish the pre-clinical safety profile of plants and their components that exhibit good anti-malarial activity in animal models.…”

The antimalaria effect of Momordica charantia L. and Mirabilis jalapa leaf extracts using animal model

“…In the search for new therapeutic substances, a great number of researchers have resorted to plant sources (Chin et al, 2006;Fabricant and Farnsworth, 2001;Addae-Mensah et al, 2011). This is due to the fact that many of these plants are used in African traditional medicine (ATM) (Ginsburg and Deharo, 2011) and drugs from natural products have been summon for use as origin of development of new antimalarials (Guantai and *Corresponding author.…”