The Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Institute (NCRI), in Kampala, is a division of the Ugandan Ministry of Health and is devoted to reviewing conventional medications. Grace Nambatya Kyeyune is the director of research and a natural-products research scientist at NCRI. She joined the NCRI as a scientific officer in the chemistry division in 1984 after earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Makerere University in Kampala. However, a case of eczema and an unsuccessful herbal remedy for it inspired her to study medicinal chemistry more thoroughly.obtaining a master's degree in 1989, followed by a PhD in 1993, both from Loughborough University in the UK. There, she discovered how to extract medications from herbs and determine how they affect people. She is currently one of Uganda's top experts on natural products, in charge of the NCRI's assessment of medicinal plants' safety and efficacy as treatments.
How did you first become interested in studying conventional medicine using cutting-edge scientific techniques?
Like other Africans of the era, my grandfather treated a number of illnesses with traditional medicine. When we were little, our parents would give us baths in an extract from the Entada abyssinica (omwoloola) tree's leaves to treat various ailments, including skin diseases.
But while I was a university student, I developed an eczema rash on my feet that left patches of black and white on my body. This incident prompted me to pursue a career in traditional medicine. The blotches on my body bothered me. The rash did not go away despite the usage of contemporary steroid creams like hydrocortisone. I was inspired to try traditional herbs because I was a chemist who also had understanding of them.I went to a well-known herbal clinic in Kampala at the time in the hopes that my skin issue would be resolved. The outcomes were disastrous, though, and the rash was actually made worse by the herbal remedy's negative effects. The news was grim. I was inspired to join the group of people trying to advance the advancement of traditional medicine by this experience and the absence of regulation of these items.
How does the NCRI contribute to ensuring the efficacy and safety of these products?
I can only say that things are moving forward. The development and promotion of traditional medicine are outlined in a statute that we have dubbed the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Bill. Some herbalists have received training in good hygiene, quality control, and resource conservation procedures along the chain of processing herbs. At the NCRI, we have a facility where we validate the goods for safety, in part by carrying out a phytochemical screen to identify the main constituents.
We observe fruitful outcomes. More than 230 natural products that are now on the market have been registered in the database of Uganda's National Drug Authority.
Additionally, through the Clinical Trial Centre for Natural Products at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, the biggest public hospital in the nation, we are working together to test some of our traditional medicine products in phase I and II clinical studies.
For instance, in collaboration with a multidisciplinary group of experts, we are assessing whether a drug called UBV-01N, which is used to treat viral infections, could also be used to treat COVID-19 symptoms.
You conducted extensive benchmarking across numerous nations. What have you learned that you want to apply to Ugandan traditional medicine?
In addition to China, South Korea, and India in Asia, we also travelled to Ghana and South Africa on the continent. Traditional medicine has been practised for a very long time in these nations. Their daily lives and eating traditions have been incorporated. At Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, there is a bachelor's degree in herbal medicine. We established a collaboration in South Africa that also grants us access to their laboratory technology, such as tissue culture, for the development of our products. We have learned how to grow herbs in the lab for standardised biomass production for natural medications from South Korea.
Do you believe that conducting clinical trials of conventional medications that are widely used and more reasonably priced is more crucial given the shortage of financing for such studies in many African nations than testing novel cancer medications or other pharmaceuticals?
I believe it is preferable to do clinical studies on conventional medications that have been successfully used for many generations in our communities and are already in use. Many conventional treatments are effective and supported by science. The Ugandan greenheart tree (Warbugia ugandensis), an extract from which has been used to treat coughs and malaria, is one example of an item that even big pharmaceutical companies are choosing from here to be developed into medications.
In order to create the ideal dose and delivery strategy for safety and effectiveness, standardisation is what we are advocating. We would receive World Health Organization accreditation for export, which will aid in the growth of our economy.
Given that many of these medications are based on traditional knowledge that has been passed down from one generation to the next, how will intellectual property rights be handled?
The Uganda Registration Services Bureau and we collaborate. A database of conventional knowledge has been produced. Anyone interested in the advancement and promotion of traditional medicine in Uganda should start here. Information is available regarding traditional medicine paperwork, benefit-sharing agreements, and existing patents, as well as which communities hold the rights to the development of specific traditional medicines.
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