Dieta Hoodia

By Nicky Smith

Johannesburg - South Africa has about 10 percent of the world's 250 000 known plant species and it is only a matter of time before this endowment in plant wealth is turned into knowledge that could lead to the creation of new drugs.

Marthinus Horak, the manager for the Council of Science and Industrial Research's (CSIR) bioprospecting programme, said that one out every four prescription drugs had been derived from plants.

On a micro-organism level, this moved up to one in every two prescription drugs.

"Bioprospecting is the search for valuable chemical and genetic constituents of biodiversity," Horak said.

South Africa was uniquely positioned to identify new uses for plants because it had over 200 000 traditional healers, a wealth of plant diversity and formidable scientific ability.

Creating a perspective for the scale of South Africa's plant wealth, Horak said in the UK there were about 1 500 plant species while there were 8 000 different species of Cape fynbos.

In 1990 the CSIR started bioprospecting and found success with the co-operation of the indigenous San and traditional healers in the patenting of the appetite suppressant qualities found in the Hoodia plant.

Horak said that had been a R1 billion success, with benefits shared between the CSIR, the San and other traditional healers.

"Money has already been paid into the San and traditional healers' trust."

The CSIR is researching the properties of 11 500 plants with a focus on finding treatments for diseases ranging from asthma, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and cancer.

Horak estimated that between 3 000 and 5 000 South African plants "may have biological activity". - Nicky Smith