BIOTECHNOLOGY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS-CASE STUDIES FROM SOUTH AFRICA

In South Africa traditional medicine fulfills the primary health care needs of a large proportion of the urban and rural population.
Most of the plants and/or plant parts used by traditional healers are collected in the wild.
The increasing population needing plant material has lead to severe pressure on the different environments.
Several tree species, where the bark is used for treatment of pain and infections, are under severe threat.
We have shown that Ocotea bullata and Warburgia salutaris have anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties respectively.
Attempts are being made to micropropagate these very valuable trees.

The majority of plant material sold at medicinal plant markets are bulbs.
Many of the medicinal plants also have potential as future horticultural plants.
Amongst these are Boweia, Crinum, Scilla, Eucomis, Hypoxis and Oxalis species.
Comparative studies of pharmacological properties have shown that all parts of Eucomis plants have high anti-inflammatory activity.
From Hypoxis species a compound rooperol, with promising anti-cancer activity has been isolated.
All these bulbous plants need to be conserved as their environments are being destroyed or they are indiscriminately harvested from the wild.
Biotechnological approaches are being used to help with their conservation and sustainable utilization.

International Symposium on Biotechnology of Tropical and Subtropical Species Part 2

J. van Staden

Anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, horticulture, micropropagation, conservation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.461.7