We have untapped herbal resource to extract potent medicine- Dr. Amoateng
A senior lecturer with the School of Pharmacy, University of Ghana, Legon, Dr. Parrick Amoateng has said there exist a myriad of untapped herbal resource in Africa that when exploited could help alleviate or cure some diseases that has bedeviled the continent for ages.
He said in an interview on the Jolly Breakfast show this morning that dedicated funding need to be taken to advance research into herbal medicine.
He said; “Africa, we have it. We have the herbs. Most of the drugs we have in convention now are from plants. There exist so much literature produced by the whites but for Africa, we still have an untapped resources. Most of which we don’t even know. So there’s so much to be explored in Africa”
“Now we are going into an exploitation of our natural resource because the West have finished any research they have to do on any plant they have there” he added.
He thus recommended some collaboration between academia and traditional herbalist to determine and document the potency of traditional medicine produced from local herbs or resources.
Dr. Amoateng argues that “the only way you can convince the scientific community is to carry out test on these herbs”
Dr. Patrick Amoateng is currently the President of the Ghana Neuroscience Society and Society of Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA). He is also the Executive Secretary (President) of the Western Africa Network of Natural Product Research Scientists (WANNPRES), the second Ghanaian after the late Professor Marian Ewurama Addy to hold this highest office of the 20 year old organization.
He is also currently the lead investigator for a Zebrafish project which is expected to become a paradigm changer in drug discovery efforts in Africa. He has authored 43 journal publications in peer-reviewed journals, two books and an editorial in the journal, Nature.
