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Allied J Med Res 2017
Volume 1 Issue 2 Herbal Medicine 2017
September 01-02, 2017 London, UK
3rd International Conference and Expo on
Herbal & Alternative Medicine
Page 42
Trends in South African traditional
medicine: ethnobotany, phytochemistry and
biotechnology
Ambrose Okem
North-West University, South Africa
To date, South Africa is one of the few nations that have
made significant progress to integrate traditional and
complementary medicine into the legislative framework
for health practitioners. There are over 190000 registered
traditional health practitioners providing healthcare
needs to millions of South African. According to the WHO
recent classification, South Africa can be categorised
as having an inclusive system. Many regulatory policies
are placed now to fully integrate traditional medicine into
the national healthcare system. The recent surge in the
demands for herbal medicinal plant products has led to
steady growth in traditional medicine market making it a
multibillion rand economy in South Africa. However, many
of these products currently sold are without control due to
lack of appropriate registration system. According to the
Red Data List of South African Plants, most of the highly
valued medicinal plants are listed as threaten, declining
or at the verge of extinction due to over exploitation of
the wild population. In vitro propagation techniques offer
promising perspectives to overcome the problem of
overexploitation of medicinal plants from the wild. Plant
biotechnology improves the commercial production of
highly useful bioactive compounds.
Allied J Med Res 2017