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Fanta Yadang and Hadidjatou Dairou have received the L'Oréal-Unesco Young Talent Prize for Women in Science
Photo: Daniel Beloumou Olomo / AFP
On the African continent, medicinal plants are used for or against almost everything, especially in rural areas: for virility, for abdominal pain. For wound healing, against palpitations. But in many places, knowledge is being lost and is being displaced by pharmaceutical products from Asia, Europe or America. In the Global North, it's the other way around, where the market for natural healing products is booming.
In Cameroon, two young scientists want to bring both worlds together: traditional medicine and Western medicine. At an institute in the capital Yaoundé, they are conducting research together on medicinal plants and their medicinal efficacy. At the end of last year, the two were awarded the L'Oréal Unesco For Women in Science Award for their work. DER SPIEGEL spoke to them about Western clichés and the role of ghosts.
MIRROR: They both conduct research on African medicinal plants. What has been your greatest scientific success so far?
Yadang: In my doctoral thesis, I was able to prove that the components of Carissa edulis, an African thorn bush, can improve memory performance. I have proven this through studies on mice.
Dairou: I looked at the bark of Garcinia kola, a kola nut. In doing so, I found that it can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and prevent inflammation in the cells. That was a breakthrough. I was very happy.
MIRROR: The knowledge of medicinal plants has been present on the African continent for generations. What else can your research contribute?
Dairou: When we were growing up, there were only medicines from Europe, from the West. Medicinal plants hardly played a role anymore. Through our research, we rediscovered the ancient knowledge. Similar studies are now being carried out in many areas: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic problems. We want to provide humanity with evidence that we can actually treat many diseases with traditional medicinal plants.
Yadang: We want to use scientific findings to restore confidence in traditional means and methods, and to prove their effectiveness through studies.
MIRROR: Why has this trust disappeared?
Dairou: During the colonial period, the use of medicinal plants was dismissed as mystical nonsense. This continues to have an effect today. Now we are trying to overcome this stigma and explain to people: medicinal plants are something natural, it has nothing to do with hocus-pocus. They work. In the meantime, there is a revival of traditional medicine.
Yadang: Many Western medicines now use active ingredients from medicinal plants. That proves their effectiveness.
MIRROR: Although the former colonial masters demonized these means.
Dairou: Yes, there is a certain irony to that.
MIRROR: So modern science and traditional medicine are not mutually exclusive?
Yadang: That's not it. We need to go to the communities, educate about common diseases and diagnose them locally. We need to explain the different symptoms and then explain how they can be treated – either with Western medicine or with medicinal plants if that is possible. Some medications can be replaced by natural products, while others cannot. We also go to the traditional healers, collect their remedies and take them to the laboratory. Then we determine how high the dosage needs to be and at what point the substances can have a toxic effect – because that is sometimes the case, too.
Dairou: Modernscience needs medicinal plants, and medicinal plants need modern science. In oncology, for example, the two are now combined in the treatment of some types of cancer, and it works very well. In this way, we will be able to achieve better healing in many areas in the future. We need to greatly expand scientific research into traditional medicine to make it even safer.
MIRROR: But traditional beliefs also have their downsides. In many African countries, Alzheimer's-like symptoms are often interpreted as something spiritual, as witchcraft, and patients are rejected and isolated from their communities.
Yadang: Yes, that's a big problem. People should know that these symptoms are not witchcraft or a mystical disease, but that patients should be properly diagnosed and treated. But traditional medicine can also help here. Thanks to our research, we can now say that there are also medicinal plants that are effective against such symptoms. This is because treating Alzheimer's with Western medicine is very expensive. Most people in this country can't afford that. So, thanks to the medicinal plants, they have access to therapy.
MIRROR: Religion plays a major role in many traditional healers, combining medicinal plants with spiritual components. How do you deal with this?
Dairou: That's true. Sometimes the healers don't want to share their knowledge with us, they say: You don't understand how to deal with the spirits. Then it depends a lot on the right words. We make them understand that we do not condemn them, that we do not doubt their faith. We're just trying to make their therapies even better. But yes, this is quite a difficult undertaking.
MIRROR: How difficult is it to be recognized as a scientist in conservative Cameroon?
Dairou: We have to redouble our efforts to ensure that our ideas are heard. Our field is a male domain, so it is difficult to assert yourself as a woman. But we don't give up and firmly believe in our success.
Yadang: In our culture, women belong in the kitchen. They shouldn't go to school, they shouldn't work, they should give birth to children. That's how it's seen.
Dairou: Oh yes.
Yadang: But attitudes are slowly changing, finally. Still, it's hard for us.
MIRROR: These are the cultural hurdles in Cameroon. Are you taken seriously as a researcher from Africa in the Global North?
Yadang: I don't want to sound wistful, but if you publish a scientific article as an African, it is fundamentally doubted outside the continent and labelled as not credible. That really hurts. We have to prove again and again that our work is serious.
Dairou: We need to work with Western scientists to get our work noticed. Only then will we be believed that we can conduct this kind of research here at all. Without this cooperation with universities from the Global North, it is often not possible at all.
Yadang: It's really frustrating. If you want to publish in a Western journal, they don't even take the time to read our papers, they reject them outright. That's not fair.
MIRROR: Did the Unesco Prize help?
Yadang: Yes, he helped me a lot. I am now going to Nigeria, to the University of Ibadan, to continue my research project there. Because at my institute in Cameroon, we don't have enough resources and we don't have the equipment to do so. One day I would like to build a large laboratory in Cameroon so that we can do everything in the country.
Dairou: Thanks to the award, our work has become much more visible within science. This will definitely help my career. It gives me confidence and strength to go through the daily struggles, big and small.
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