Wilfred T Mabusela
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Title: Phytochemical studies of selected south african medicinal plants
Biography
Biography: Wilfred T Mabusela
Abstract
Traditional medicine is a cultural practice with a long history in South Africa and involves the use of approximately 3000 plants, out of a national biodiversity represented by about 30 000 higher plant species. A number of these medicinal plants have been investigated in our lab for their phytochemical composition, and this paper will describe some of the contributions which we have made in this regard during the last few years. Selected plant species, which included Sutherlandia (Lessertia) frutescens, Galenia africana, Cissampelos capensis, and Gethyllis multifolia among others, were subjected to extraction using a variety of organic solvents followed by chromatographic fractionation of the extracts obtained. Isolated compounds were examined for their chemical structural features with the aid of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy, leading to the identification of compounds belonging to the following classes: alkaloids, flavonoids and, triterpenoid- and flavonoid- glycosides, some of which were of novel character. Some of the crude extracts and purified compounds were also studied for cytotoxicity using the brine shrimp lethality bioassay, and for antimicrobial activity against gram-negative and gram positive bacteria as well as fungal species.
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