Medicinal Crops of Africa

The great biodiversity in the tropical forests, savannahs, and velds and unique environments of sub-Sahara Africa has provided indigenous cultures with a diverse range of plants and as a consequence a wealth of traditional knowledge about the use of the plants for medicinal purposes. Given that Africa includes over 50 countries, 800 languages, 3,000 dialects; it is a veritable treasure of genetic resources including medicinal plants. While the medicinal plant trade continues to grow globally, exports from Africa contribute little to the overall trade in natural products and generally only revolve around plant species of international interest that are indigenous to Africa. Africa is only a minor player in the global natural products market. We identified several key challenges facing the natural products sector in this region.

These include the presently limited value-addition occurring within region and as a consequence exports tend to be bulk raw materials; local markets generally largely selling unprocessed/semi-processed plant materials; the industry is large but informal and diffuse and there is limited financial resources to support research and infrastructure for both the processor and a distinct but equally important issue in the lack of financial credit available in general to the farmer in much of this region for production investments; lack of private sector investment in processing and packaging facilities; and serious issues in parts of this region surround common property resource issues (ownership and rights to land tenure; threat of over-harvesting, etc.). In addition, there is limited technical support is available to growers,

collectors, & post-harvest firms, limited expertise on appropriate germplasm and seed availability, inadequate and/or lack of processing equipment. This has resulted in a lack of or inadequate quality control and lack of product standardization. There is a very limited knowledge of foreign market demand, few market/business

contacts and the perception that there is difficulty in protecting their intellectual property.

The objective of this paper is to present an overview to some of the leading African medicinal plants in sub-Sahara Africa that are in the international trade, plus an introduction to a number of lesser-known promising medicinal plants (Table 1).

More:     http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu07/pdfs/simon322-331.pdf

Environment News

UN General Assembly Proclaims 3 March as World Wildlife Day Fri, Dec 27, 2013

The United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim 3 March as World Wildlife Day, to celebrate and raise awareness of the world's wild fauna and flora.

- See more at: http://www.unep.org/newscentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2756&ArticleID=10687#sthash.wsumhxJT.dpuf

Major boost for climate change resilience in Africa

[CAPE TOWN] A new US$10 million fund has been launched to increase climate change resilience in Africa.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), UN agencies and humanitarian organisations launched the Climate Services Adaptation Programme in Africa at the 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Warsaw, Poland last month (21 November).
The programme, which is funded by the Norwegian government, is to be implemented under the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) from 2014 to 2016.

http://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/climate-change/news/major-boost-for-climate-change-resilience-in-africa.html

‘Landscapes approach’ could alleviate West Africa climate change woes – scientists

An integrated approach to land management that ensures sustainable policies could help agriculture-dependent West Africa cope with the looming effects of climate change, a panel of experts proposed.
Climate change is already affecting the livelihoods of West African smallholder farmers who rely on rain-fed agricultural techniques, and it is expected to make food shortages more acute as the region’s population continues to grow, said panelists at an event at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), on the sidelines of the recent U.N. climate talks in Warsaw, Poland.

http://www.eco-business.com/news/landscapes-approach-could-alleviate-west-africa-climate-change-woes-scientists/

Africa battles to access climate change funds

Despite the global allocation of funds to mitigate the effects of climate change, many African countries have not been able to access the money due to inadequate policies and planning. 
By Jeffrey Moyo, Harare/Johannesburg
Livias Duri, 72, from Zimbabwe’s Mwenezi district in Masvingo province, 436 km south-west of the capital Harare, depends on agriculture for his livelihood.
But he lives in an area that is one of Zimbabwe’s most drought-prone.
“Yes, we hear world governments often meet to discuss ways of combating the impact of climate change, but truly I have neither seen nor heard about anything good that has come out of such talks. Drought has become part of our lives here in Mwenezi. If the rains come, it’s either too much or too little,” Duri said.

http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/africa-battles-access-climate-change-funds

Severe water shortages in Malawi

RUMPHI, 12 December 2013 (IRIN) - Parts of Malawi, including large parts of the northern region, have not received rain since February 2013 and are now experiencing severe water shortages. Women in the affected areas are leaving their homes in the early hours of the morning and walking up to 40 minutes to fetch water from the closest source.

“One will have to be up and on their way to the nearest borehole by midnight if she is to be in a position to get water, because by that time several other people will already have lined up for the same,” said Lucky Chadewa, who lives in Chikwawa in northern Malawi’s Rumphi district.

The water table has dropped as the rainless days have continued and boreholes yield less water or even dry up. The women wait for them to refill rather than return home empty-handed. “It is totally just by luck that one gets… [any] these days because after filling just a few buckets, the borehole stops producing water,” Chadewa told IRIN.

Women often leave their buckets in the queue at the borehole and rush back home so they can get their children ready for school. But when they return they find that their buckets have been pushed to the back of the queue and they may spend the rest of the day waiting to fill them.

http://www.irinnews.org/report/99315/severe-water-shortages-in-malawi

Bioactive pectic polysaccharides from Glinus oppositifolius(L.) Aug. DC., a Malian medicinal plant, isolation and partial characterization

Abstract

Glinus oppositifolius(L.) Aug. DC. (Aizoaceae) is a Malian medicinal plant used against various types of illnesses related to the immune response, like joint pains, inflammations, fever, malaria and wounds. Two pectin type polysaccharides, GOA1 and GOA2, being isolated from a 50◦C water extract from the aerial parts of Glinus oppositifolius were investigated for their activity towards the complement system and

different leukocyte subsets because of the assumed effects on conditions related to the immune system. The polysaccharide polymer in GOA1 was shown to contain considerable amounts of the neutral sugars arabinose (26.4 mol%) and galactose (42.9 mol%), and methylation analysis indicated the presence of arabinogalactans type I (AG-I) and type II (AG-II). GOA2 was rich in galacturonic acid (68.3 mol%), along with rhamnose, arabinose and galactose. Structural studies indicated that rhamnose and galacturonic acid might constitute a rhamnogalacturonan backbone, often found in pectic substances, with side chains consisting of arabinose and galactose. Both GOA1 and GOA2 were shown to exhibit potent dose-dependent complement fixating activities, and induced chemotaxis of macrophages, T cells and NK cells.

More at:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ncmh/harding_pdfs/Paper291.pdf