In May 2005, herbal experts from 14 countries gathered in South Africa and formed the Association for African Medicinal Plants Standards (AAMPS). The organization’s goals include developing and promoting internationally recognized quality control standards for African medicinal plants and creating an African Herbal Pharmacopoeia comprised of 53 native medicinal plant species.¹

Denzil Phillips, founder and director of Denzil Phillips International Ltd, and a co-organizer of the South Africa meeting, explained that the organization’s founding was a spontaneous act of the delegates (D. Phillips, oral communication, August 2005). According to Phillips, the 28 experts of African herbal medicine who attended the meeting in South Africa originally gathered for the purpose of reviewing the progress of 23 African herbal profiles. These profiles were drafted by the University of Pretoria in collaboration with other African Universities, and funded by the African Caribbean Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) Centre for Development of Enterprise and the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (see Table 1). During the review process, the members of the meeting unanimously agreed that the issue of African herbal quality standards warranted the establishment of a permanent organization. They signed the Centurion Lake Declaration² pledging their commitment to the organization’s goals.

Table 1. African Plants Selected for Profiling by AAMPS

The founding members of AAMPS subsequently voted on 30 additional plants for herbal profiling, resulting in a pharmacopeia of 53 medicinal plant species. All plant species selected for the pharmacopeia are native to Africa, are not endangered, and are of regional or international importance.

Phillips said the University of Pretoria will likely serve as coordinator of the pharmacopeia’s development, with a group of experts and sub-contractors from all over Africa preparing the profiles of plants most commonly grown in their regions. These profiles will contain elements addressing regulatory issues, similar to those featured in the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (www.herbal-ahp.org) and The ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs,³ as well as elements designed for companies that might import or trade such plants.

The founding members of AAMPS will review all of the profiles before the pharmacopeia is published, which is expected to take place by the end of 2006. AAMPS ultimately plans to launch an interactive database and Web site featuring the 53 profiles, in addition to releasing print and CD ROM versions of the pharmacopeia. “We’re building what’s called a living database,” Phillips said. “We plan to continue to upgrade [the profiles].”

According to Phillips, several of the plants chosen for the pharmacopeia are recognized as medicines in much of Africa but not sold officially within their native regions (i.e., they are not recognized as officially approved drugs by government agencies). “We hope to get them integrated into the African healthcare system,” Phillips said. Among such plants are Toddalia asiatica, (L.) Lam., Rutaceae; Euphorbia hirta, L., Euphorbiaceae; and Adansonia digitata, L., Bombacaceae. AAMPS also intends to assist the development of business and income within Africa, foster increased trade between Africa and international markets, and help train African pharmacologists.

Professor James E. Simon, PhD, director of the New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program at Rutgers University, said AAMPS could also help challenge stereotypes of African herbal products (J. Simon, oral communication, August 2005). A common perception about African herbal products is that they lack quality standards and are not harvested sustainably. AAMPS could play a major role in alleviating this negative image by encouraging more formal trade procedures, modern and consistent processing, and quality control measures similar to those employed in the United States and Europe. “Africa has both a challenge and opportunity to show itself not as a second or tertiary tier provider of cheap raw botanicals but as a premier source of high quality botanicals, whether in the raw unprocessed form or as partially or fully processed natural products,” Simon said.

“Africa is one of those underdeveloped and underappreciated regions with phenomenal potential and a virtual treasure of genetic diversity relative to medicinal plants,” Simon continued. African herbs and herbal products already contribute millions of dollars to the international herbal industry. According to Simon, the herb industry on the African continent is poised to play a more significant role in the global arena than it does presently.

Kodzo Gbewonyo, ScD, president of BioResources International Inc. in Somerset, NJ, stressed that the progression of the African herbal industry is especially important to the people of Africa (oral communication, August 2005). “The costs of Western medicines are way beyond the reach of most Africans,” he said. Furthermore, the poor ratio of trained doctors to patients in Africa, as well as the preference of many Africans for natural medicines over conventional western pharmaceutical treatments, emphasizes the necessity of quality herbal alternatives within the continent. “About 70 to 80% of Africans rely on traditional healers as their first caregivers,” Gbewonyo said.

Phillips said AAMPS is particularly interested in raising awareness of the organization and garnering financial support for its mission. “We want everyone to know what we’re doing and to criticize what we’re doing and to contribute,” Phillips said. AAMPS offers membership to others committed to the cause of African quality standards and the development of an African Herbal Pharmacopoeia, and the organization has its office registered in Mauritius.¹ He added that the pharmacopeia that AAMPS is developing will be the first to highlight native plants from across Africa. Phillips said a previous attempt at an African pharmacopeia, commissioned by the Organization for African Unity, mostly focused on plants of European and Indian origin, was very limited in circulation, and featured profiles very limited in depth and breadth.

More information about AAMPS can be found at its Web site: www.aamps.org.

References

1. Centurion Lake African Medicinal Plants Standards Meeting Launches New Association to Prepare African Pharmacopoeia [press release]. Association for African Medicinal Plants Standards Web Site. Available at: http://www.aamps.org/aamps pressrelease.pdf. Accessed August 10, 2005.

2. Association for African Medicinal Plants Standards. Centurion Lake Declaration. Available at: http://www.underutilized-species.org/documents/map/declaration.pdf. Accessed February 8, 2006.

3. Blumenthal M, Hall T, Goldberg A, Kunz T, Dinda K, Brinckmann J, Wollschlaeger B, eds. The ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs. Austin, TX: American Botanical Council; 2003.