The natural remedies that really do work
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Your support makes all the difference.A "living database" is being compiled of the thousands of plants with medicinal properties growing on continental Africa.
The list will seek to test and record the properties of hundreds of plants and herbs traditionally thought to have healing powers. The continent is home to some 30 per cent of the world's plant life, with approximately 3,400 species believed to have medicinal properties.
The hope is that the "pharmacopoeia" will help to overcome ignorance about what truly works and what is myth. Each profile will contain a detailed description of the plant itself, its medicinal properties, and chemical tests that can be used to identify it.
The programme, to be overseen by the newly formed Association for African Medicinal Plants Standards (AAMPS), is already under way. It features 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.
According to the World Health Organisation, the global market for medicinal plants exceeds $60bn (£31bn) a year, most of which is spent on plants from Asia. African medicinal plants are often ignored because foreign buyers have no quality guarantee and so valuable trade is lost.
"Now it's Africa's turn," says Professor Kobus Eloff of the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
Kola nut: Cola
FOUND: The rainforests of West Africa
HISTORY: It gave Coca-Cola its name
USE: A common additive in slimming pills
Honeybush: Cyclopia intermedia
FOUND: Near Cape Town, South Africa
HISTORY: A treatment for the menopause
USE: Sinus relief and possibly for diabetes
Cancer bush: Sutherlandia frutescens
FOUND: South Africa
HISTORY: Used as a pick-me-up
USE: To help those with Aids and cancer, and tuberculosis
Rooibos tea: Aspalathus linearis
FOUND: South Africa
HISTORY: Farmers kept a pot brewing
USE: Said to have anti-HIV properties and to be a calming remedy
Lily of the desert
Aloe ferox
FOUND: South Africa
HISTORY: Healing burns, after nuclear bombs fell on Japan
USE: As an antiseptic and in moisturiser
Devil's claw: Harpagophytum procumbens
FOUND: South Africa
HISTORY: Painkiller
USE: In treatments for muscular back and rheumatic disorders
Boswellia: Frankincense
FOUND: North and North East Africa
HISTORY: Used to treat arthritis, dysentery
USE: As an anti-inflammatory
African ginger: Siphonochilus
aethiopicus
FOUND: South Africa
HISTORY: Highly prized by the Zulus
USE: Can help combat asthma and colds
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