[Ip-health] Herbal Medicine: A pharmacopoeia for Africa

[prabhu ram]

https://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3D7995196


African genesis

Oct 5th 2006

>From The Economist print edition

A pharmacopoeia for Africa


IT IS easy to forget that the pharmaceutical industry has its roots in
the ancient art of botanising. That was the name apothecaries gave to
the activity of collecting plants that time and tradition had shown
possessed useful medical properties. Even the first synthetic
blockbuster drugs, Bayer's aspirin and heroin, were minor
modifications of molecules extracted from, respectively, willow bark
and poppy seed-pods.

Much of the world still relies on herbs for its medicines. Used
correctly, they can be extremely effective. The twin problems of
herbal medicine, though, are ignorance about what truly works and what
does not, and quality control of a product that is not the result of
standard production methods. To help overcome those deficiencies in a
continent that is particularly dependent on herbal medicine, a group
of researchers is assembling a pan-African pharmacopoeia=97a database of
plants with medicinal properties.


The Association for African Medicinal Plants Standards, a
collaboration of medicinal-plant scientists from 14 countries, plans
to launch the first edition of this database by December. It will
contain detailed profiles of 23 plants, including devil's claw, which
is used to treat rheumatism; red stinkwood, whose bark provides an
ingredient for prostate-cancer drugs; and African ginger, which is
good for relieving headaches. The association's members plan to add
another 30 plants early next year.

Each profile will contain descriptions of the plant itself, of its
medical properties, and of chemical tests that can be used to identify
it. Not only will this information help local healthworkers, by
winnowing what works from what does not, it may also increase
international trade in African herbal medicines.

According to the World Health Organisation, the global market for
medicinal plants exceeds $60 billion a year. Most of this, though, is
in plants from Asia. Increasing Africa's slice would be a useful boost
to the continent's international trade. At the moment, African
medicinal plants are often ignored because foreign buyers have no
guarantee of the quality of the materials they are purchasing. The
hope is that by telling buyers which herbs are valuable for what,
which characteristics to seek when making a purchase, and which
chemical tests identify active ingredients, the new pharmacopoeia will
provide that boost. The pharmacopoeia, in other words, would create a
set of standards that all parties could work towards.

Pharmacopoeias have been used to control the quality of medicines for
centuries. England's first one appeared in 1618. Today, though, most
of them focus on factory-made drugs. It seems unlikely that the
association's efforts will launch another Bayer. But if they make
African medicine more effective and boost trade to boot, that will be
no mean achievement