South Africa has an incredibly rich array of flora with more than 30,000 species of higher plants of which some 3,000 are used for medicinal purposes. Approximately 80% of South Africans utilize traditional healers (Inyangas & Sangomas), and indigenous phytotherapies developed over centuries.
Several thousand of them are used by traditional healers every day in that country for treating a range of problems from the common cold to serious diseases such as AIDS. How safe and effective these treatments are will be the focus of The International Center for Indigenous Phytotherapy Studies (TICIPS), a collaborative research effort between the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. The center will be funded by a $4.4 million, 4-year grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicines (NCCAM), a division of the National Institutes of Health.
The primary mission of TICIPS is to partner with traditional healers and key South African stakeholders to conduct scientifically rigorous research on indigenous phytotherapies. Ultimately it is hoped that these therapies could be integrated into conventional health care systems.
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