The potential of African plants as a source of drugs

African plants have long been the source of important products with nutriti onal and therapeutical value. Coffee originates from Ethiopia, Strophanthus species are strong arrow poisons and supply cardenolides for use against c ardiac insufficiency, the Catharanthus roseus alkaloids are well-known anti leukaemic agents - just to mention a few examples. Research is continuing o n the vegetable material from this continent in an endeavour to find new co mpounds of therapeutic interest. An outline is presented here covering the results obtained by the Institute of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry of th e University of Lausanne during 15 years' work on African plants. The strat egy employed for the study of these plants is outlined, covering all aspect s from the selection of plant material to the isolation of pure natural pro ducts. Different bioactivities have been investigated: the search for new a ntifungal, molluscicidal and larvicidal agents has been the most important axis. Results are also included for antibacterial, cytotoxicity, anti-infla mmatory testing.