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Preface Africa’s wealth of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge of plants and their products represents a treasure still largely untapped and under-recognized. Many valuable African natural plant products and botanicals have been used for centuries in traditional medicine for the prevention and treatment of diseases, improvement of human and animal health and nutrition. While we have begun to understand that their judicious use and scientific study can yield new chemistries, drugs, medicines, foods and flavors, the richness in the African environment is in the integral role plants play in multitude of African societies and cultures. The ability to protect these natural resources in many regions is closely tied to the complex issue of economic viability for those communities living and depending upon their indigenous resources, public policy and competing demands on limited resources. Natural products can serve as a driver in economic development, providing governments with rationale and economically-based arguments to protect the environment while permitting the sustainable harvesting and judicious use of the indigenous resources. The increased interest and trade in natural products is becoming more important to rural African communities as income generating activity. Most studies focus on the global market in natural products that is estimated to experience continued growth in the U.S. alone, with global sales in herbs and botanicals reaching $17.5 billion (2000). In this context, the entire African continent, as a source of raw processed and finished products, contributes to less than 1% of this total market, and is contributing largely only those plant and products which are only found in Africa. These figures raise many questions and debate as to the underlying reasons. To us, it symbolizes opportunities and responsibilities. Such numbers also do not reflect the importance and true economic value and trade of the African natural products sector for it does not take into account, local and regional trade which likely far exceeds export values. Nor does it take into account that the vast majority of Africans that use their own plants and plant products to improve their health and nutrition. An economic model that could show the value that these plants contribute to African health care systems relative to just lowering costs that otherwise would be needed to cover medical doctor and hospital visits and treatments and the cost of purchasing prescription drugs, would show a far greater value that these medicinal plants contribute to African nations and would not even account for the reduction in pressures and issues surrounding accessibility and affordability, already so strained in much of the continent. Relative to the still highly informal nature of the natural products trade, there many factors responsible for this low international market share. Some of these include: (1) The lack of ethnobotanical information on the uses, attributes and commercial value of African plants and their products; (2) The lack of quality standards, weak control and product standardization practices; (3)
xi Juliani et al.; African Natural Plant Products: New Discoveries and Challenges in Chemistry and Quality ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2010.
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Domestic perceptions that locally produced products are of inferior quality relative to imports; and (4) the lack of public and private sector investment in the infrastructure that facilities such export readiness, value-addition processing opportunities and thus international trade; and (5) The need for real public policy discussion and changes that could better integrate formally the use of botanicals in health care while assuring safety. This book “African Natural Plant Products: New Discoveries and Challenges in Chemistry and Quality” is a truly international effort to address and highlight the remarkable chemical diversity, and range of African plants and products that are used for a wide variety of applications in foods, flavorings, medicine, health and nutrition. We are honored that so many African researchers, as well as scientists from other regions of the world were so willing to share their expertise. This book with 29 scientific articles and reviews was written by over 80 scientific authors, with the majority of them African (50%). The book is divided into five sections. The overview provides both a foreword and an introduction on the economic value of African Plants and their Products with a focus on Africa. The section “Traditional Medicines from Africa” provide reviews on the latest uses and medicinal applications of plants mostly from South and West African countries. The section “Chemistry, Pharmacognosy and Validation of Traditional Medicines” provides recent advances on science-based validation of traditional uses of African Plants and case studies of African medicinal plants in pharmaceutical preparations and recent new discoveries in natural plant products chemistry, biology and medicine. The section “Quality Control of African Natural Plant Products” provides practical information on the quality, chemistry and proximate analysis, health and nutritional value of a wide array of African plants and products focusing on the development of quality standards. Finally, the last section “Applications and Commercialization of African Natural Plant Products” highlights different uses and applications of plants. The book closes with chapters on economic perspectives and models of benefit sharing in Africa. As the editors, we thank all the authors from Africa, Europe, Asia and the USA for their contributions. We hope the publication of this volume will serve to strengthen ties within the higher education institutions and the public, government, and private sectors in Africa and the rest of the world. The Editors also hope the publication of this book will stimulate more scientific research, the sharing of information, and the respect and recognition of the knowledge that comes from the Traditional Medicinal Practitioners and Healers that carry with them centuries of knowledge passed down from prior generations. We are particular thankful to the United States Agency for International Development whose funding of the Partnership for Food Industry Development in Natural Plant Products (www.pfidnp.org) made this work possible as has the USAID-Regional Center for Southern Africa and the American Chemical Society. We are indebted to our colleagues and friends in the Agri-Business in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products organization and networks (www.asnapp.org) whose dedication in the promotion of sustainable development of African natural products for the benefit of Africans and rural community development is appreciated and acknowledged. In this project, we are honored to participate. We recognize the emerging scientific network arising from the Global Institute for Bioexploration-Africa (www.gibex.org) that promotes ethical, natural product-based pharmacological bioexploration Juliani et al.; African Natural Plant Products: Newxii Discoveries and Challenges in Chemistry and Quality ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2010.
between universities to benefit human health and the environment in developing countries. Each of these programs represents paradigms that foster and protect indigenous knowledge while making new discoveries and commercialization opportunities available to all.
H. Rodolfo Juliani
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New Use Agriculture & Natural Plant Products Program Department of Plant Biology and Plant Pathology School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 59 Dudley Road. New Brunswick 08901. New Jersey.
James E. Simon New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program Department of Plant Biology and Plant Pathology School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 59 Dudley Road. New Brunswick 08901. New Jersey.
Chi-Tang Ho Department of Food Science School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 65 Dudley Road. New Brunswick 08901. New Jersey.
Juliani et al.; African Natural Plant Products: Newxiii Discoveries and Challenges in Chemistry and Quality ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2010.
