Status of natural product sciences in Ethiopia

Abstract

This brief review summarizes important episodes in the plant chemistry research undertaken over two centuries from and within Ethiopia. Ethiopia is endowed with a substantial plant and animal genetic resources, some of which were tapped for food or medicine throughout the generations, albeit traditionally. In order to fully realize the benefits of these resources, their chemical contents need to be investigated with state-of-the-art chemical analysis. Chemistry's vital role to do this was greatly facilitated by the opening of graduate programs in Addis Ababa University, and later in other universities, which led to a steady stream of research undertaken mostly on native plants that were expected to have some potency as medicine or food additives. These include among others, coffee, khat, khoso, endod, civetone, mettere, kebericho, gesho, etc. The challenge with regard to using natural products is the miniscule amounts of the active ingredients, which will not allow the full range of evaluations in terms of benefits, toxicity, etc. to be done before application. Genome editing and synthetic biology are expected to enhance the production of these active compounds in the near future.