Although a welcome addition to the literature, this work cannot claim to
be particularly African in character, in that more than 60% of the mono-
graphs presented (±100) deal with plant species not indigenous to Africa
(although some have become naturalised there). Volume 2, envisaged at the
time, has not yet materialised. Few African countries have recognised the
African Pharmacopoeia as official; in South Africa the British Pharma-
copoeia and British Pharmaceutical Codex are used. In view of the
increasing number of scientific papers dealing with African traditional medi-
cines published during the past 15 years in journals such asPhytomedicine,
Planta Medica,Phytochemistry, Phytotherapy Research, Fitoterapia, Phar-
maceutical Biologyand Journal of Ethnopharmacology,^18 a revival of the
African Pharmacopoeiaproject now seems likely.
At the present time, few states in the WHO African Region have a national
TM pharmacopoeia although several (Angola, Republic of Congo, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa) are in the
process of developing one. At national level, pharmaceutical monographs are
currently available for Ghanaian,^19 Mozambican,^20 South African^21 and
Ugandan plant species^2 used as TMs. Iwu^23 has presented monographs for 152
African plant species used as TMs and a separate collection of 50 monographs
for African TM plant species is currently in preparation.^24 These monographs
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Oliver-Bever BEP. Medicinal Plants of Tropical West Africa.
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Hedberg I, Staugård F. Traditional Medicine in Botswana: Tradi-
tional medicinalplants. Gaborone, Botswana: Ipeleng Publishers,
1989.
Iwu MM. Handbook of African Medicinal Plants. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press Inc., 1993.
Kokwaro JO. Medicinal Plants of East Africa, 2nd edn. Nairobi,
Kenya: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1993.
Sofowora A. Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine in Africa,
2nd edn. Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum/John Wiley, 1993.
Hutchings A et al. Zulu Medicinal Plants. Pietermaritzburg, South
Africa: University of Natal Press, 1996.
Maliehe EB. Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Lesotho. Maseru,
Lesotho: Mafeteng Development Project, 1997.
Von Koenen E. Medicinal, Poisonous and Edible Plants in Namibia.
Windhoek,Namibia: Klaus Hess Publishers, 2001.