Malaria control in Africa using plant extracts - Project establishment support

In the current pilot project phase we want to establish an international interdisciplinary research group to develop a proposal for a 3-year main project with the aim of developing locally based phytomedicines and insecticides to control malaria in Africa . The research group consists of scientists and experts at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, IMT and the Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, INA), the University in Oslo, Makerere University (Uganda) and Marien Ngouabi University (Republic of Congo). Some of the parties have already been working together. In this pilot project we will do a literature search, plan and accomplish an international workshop in Uganda, carry o ut field work for collection of information and data on traditional phytomedicines and insecticides and laboratory work on extraction and fractionation of selected medicinal and insecticidal African plants. The main output of the pilot project will be a p roposal for the main project. In the main project we intend to do bioassay guided fractionation and structure elucidation of active compounds that can be used for standardization of phytomedicines and insecticides; perform ecological surveys of medicinal plant resources and observational clinical trials based on guidelines from the World Health Organization. We want to formulate phytomedicines and insecticides, and develop them into marketable products. Cultivation methods for the plants used in the prod ucts will be developed if necessary.