From ethnobotany to the laboratory: a computer aided ethnobotanic method for the identification of plants with interesting biological activities

The investigation of natural products used in Traditional Medicine in Africa is complicated as modern analytical and screening methods are often not available. Computer aided product identification from traditional usage records (CAPITURE) may provide an interesting alternative and has been evaluated in the context of an ethnobotanical survey on fungal diseases and their traditional treatment in Tchamba District (Togo). 53 traditional healers were interviewed and their knowledge, recorded [1]. Several indicators, the Use Value (UV), Plant Part Value (PPV), Specific Use (SU) value, Intraspecific Use Value (IUV) and Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), were applied to the data [2,3]. Those indices, in addition to a bibliographic review, were then fed into a computer-aided approach which predicted two interesting plants (out of the 43 species survey-recorded) and their specific activities: Pterocarpus erinaceus sap against ringworm, Daniellia oliveri sap against intertrigo and respectively their roots and barks against candidiasis. Subsequent laboratory studies have confirmed the predicted antimicrobial activities with MIC (128 µg/ml to 30 mg/ml) and without any notable toxicity on normal human cells (MRC-5 cells). Although such method may not be flawless, it provides first leads, and in the face of limited resources, is an attractive alternative worth considering.