**8. Utilization of African medicinal plants for pharmaceutical research and drug development for the present and the future pandemics**

Niprisan is a drug for the treatment of Sickle cell anemia was developed from herbs in Nigeria based on Yoruba Traditional Medicine [38]. Nigeria is home to the largest population of sickle cell anemia patients, estimated to have around 4 million patients with more than 150,000 children born annually with the disease. Despite decades of research, only one FDA-approved drug, hydroxyurea, is available for use in sickle cell anemia [39, 40]. In the late 1980s, in an effort to advance research of traditional herbal medicines, Nigeria's Ministry of Science and Technology established the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD)–a research body dedicated to identifying, characterizing, developing, and documenting the use of traditional herbal medicines in Nigeria. In May, 2011, three antisickling herbs (*Entandrophragma utile*, *Chenopodium ambrosioides*, and *Petiveria alliacea*) based on Yoruba Traditional Medicine were used at NIPRD to develop Niprisan. At present, three other recipes are currently awaiting development [38]. The Madagascar's research institutes have in the past in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have identified Ipomoeassin and schweinfurthins with potent antiproliferative activities. These compounds were identified from Madagascar's medicinal plants *Ipomoea squamosa* and *Macaranga alnifolia* respectively in the 1990's [41]. More recently the Madagascar's development of Covid-Organics formulated from *Artemisia annua* and other plants by the Malagasy Institute of Applied (IMRA) and the National Pharmacology Research Centre underscore the urgent need for the utilization of African medicinal plants for the research and development of new drugs. These efforts have demonstrated that African medicinal plants can be utilized for the development of many drugs for the treatment of various diseases.
