University of Pretoria Research Explores How Africa’s Medicinal Plants Could Improve Healthcare
The University of Pretoria (UP) is advancing research that could reshape how non-communicable diseases such as metabolic syndrome are prevented and managed in Africa. The Department of Physiology’s Professor Trevor Nyakudya has called for scientifically validated phytomedicine to become an integral part of future healthcare.
Phytomedicine is the scientific study of plant-derived compounds as therapeutic agents that support health and treat disease. According to the International Diabetes Federation, metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cooccurring metabolic abnormalities that, together, dramatically increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, thus affecting the body’s ability to regulate and use energy effectively.
Delivering his inaugural professorial lecture, ‘Phytomedicine and Metabolic Health: Towards Integrative Solutions for a Global Crisis’, Prof Nyakudya presented more than a decade of pre-clinical medical research demonstrating how plant-derived bioactive phytochemicals and phytomedical plant extracts can complement existing conventional medicine in addressing metabolic syndrome, especially type 2 diabetes and related noncommunicable diseases.
His research comes at a time when the burden of metabolic disease is rising rapidly worldwide, particularly across Africa, where healthcare systems face significant resource constraints.“The plants of this continent, studied with the rigour of modern biomedical science, have something urgent and important to offer in the face of one of the defining health challenges of our time,” Prof Nyakudya said.
According to figures cited during his lecture, diabetes currently affects 589 million adults globally, with that number projected to increase to 853 million by 2050.Although conventional medicines remain essential, Prof Nyakudya argued that their effectiveness is often constrained in African settings by affordability, accessibility, long-term adherence and dependence on imported pharmaceuticals.“My argument is more specific: conventional pharmacotherapy, as currently deployed in African contexts, is structurally insufficient,” he said.
Over the course of his career, Prof Nyakudya has built one of South Africa’s leading research programmes in phytomedicine and metabolic health. His body of work spans 60 research-linked outputs and has established a coherent scientific framework linking indigenous medicinal plants with modern biomedical research. Working with collaborators and postgraduate students across South African universities and international research institutions, his laboratory has combined physiological techniques, molecular biology, histology and biochemistry to uncover how plant-derived compounds influence metabolic health at the molecular, cellular and organ levels.
Rather than validating traditional medicine through anecdotal evidence, his research applies rigorous scientific methods to establish the mechanisms by which phytochemicals regulate metabolism, inflammation and glucose control. This mechanistic approach positions phytomedicine firmly within evidence-based biomedical science and creates opportunities for translating indigenous knowledge into future therapeutic interventions.
A cornerstone of his research has focused on several naturally occurring bioactive phytochemicals found in numerous indigenous plant species. Through preclinical studies, his team demonstrated that administering some of these compounds during early critical periods of developmental plasticity could produce lasting protection against metabolic dysfunction later in life by reprogramming key metabolic pathways.
“The implication is profound: plant compounds administered in early life can reprogram metabolic vulnerability, shifting the therapeutic frame from lifelong adult pharmacotherapy to targeted prophylactic early-life intervention,” Prof Nyakudya said.
His research has identified critical molecular pathways through which phytochemicals influence glucose uptake, inflammation and energy metabolism, generating the mechanistic evidence required for future clinical translation. “Phytomedicine, done with mechanistic rigour, is not alternative medicine. It is integrative pharmacology. It engages the same molecular pathways as metformin. It applies the same scientific standards as conventional drug development. The difference is the source – and that difference is an advantage, not a limitation.”
Beyond metabolic disease, Prof Nyakudya is expanding his research into cancer biology and bone metabolism, investigating how plant-derived compounds may simultaneously address multiple chronic diseases through shared biological pathways.
