South African Healing Plants to be Studied

"South Africa is home to more than 200,000 traditional healers who care for more than 27 million people," according to Medical Research News. The International Center for Indigenous Phytotherapy Studies (TICIPS), a collaborative research effort between the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, will look at the safety and effectiveness of some of the plants used by the traditional healers.

Native healers use plants to treat conditions from the common cold to AIDS. Two of the more widely used plants will be the focus of the first studies: Lessertia frutescens, commonly used to prevent wasting in AIDS patients and Artemisia afra, which is used to treat respiratory infections and may be effective against tuberculosis and cancer.

Link: $4.4 million, 4-year grant aims to bridge gap between Western and African medicine from News-Medical.Net

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 11:16 AM on December 6, 2005