1999

Julie Laplante
On Knowing and Not Knowing “Life” in Molecular Biology and Xhosa Healing: Ontologies in the Preclinical Trial of a South African Indigenous Medicine (Muthi)
Anthropology of Consciousness, Vol. 25, Issue 1, pp. 1–31

Texte accessible via:
https://www.academia.edu/25898956/On_Knowing_and_Not_Knowing_Life_in_Molecular_Biology_and_Xhosa_Healing_Ontologies_in_the_Preclinical_Trial_of_a_South_African_Indigenous_Medicine_Muthi_

Abstract:

Seemingly distant practices of molecular biology and indigenous Xhosa healing have commonalities that I would like to bring into conversation in this article. The preclinical trial of an indigenous medicine brings them together in a research consortium. In this instance, both sets of experts are meant to collaborate in preparing a wild bush for it to pass the tests of the randomized clinical trial (RCT) and to potentially become a biopharmaceutical to counter the tuberculosis pandemic. I aim to tease out how the two sets of actors and their respective practices converge and diverge in their healing hopes and ways of managing uncertainty. Ultimately, I am interested in understanding how the preferred process of making medicine “work” by each set of actors relies upon particular ways of knowing and not knowing life, bringing some ontologies into being, letting others wither away. The shared ways of knowing life as a movement of opening at the edges of the RCT are proposed as paths of recognition between one and the other practice.

Keywords: life, clinical trials, indigenous medicine, molecules, Artemisia afra

2009

Siyabulela Ntutela, Pete Smith, Lungile Matika, James Mukinda, Hiram Arendse, Nasiema Allie, D. Mark Estes, Wilfred Mabusela, Peter Folb, Lafras Steyn, Quinton Johnson, William R. Folk, James Syce and Muazzam Jacob
Efficacy of Artemisia afra phytotherapy in experimental tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2009 December ; 89(Suppl 1): S33–S40.

Texte accessible via :
https://www.academia.edu/7860154/Efficacy_of_Artemisia_afra_phytotherapy_in_experimental_tuberculosis

2014

I. O. Lawal, D. S. Grierson, and A. J. Afolayan
Phytotherapeutic Information on Plants Used for the Treatment of Tuberculosis in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Volume 2014, Article ID 735423, 11 pages

Texte accessible via : http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/735423.pdf

Abstract:

The current rate of deforestation in Africa constitutes a serious danger to the future of medicinal plants on this continent. Conservation of these medicinal plants in the field and the scientific documentation of our knowledge about them are therefore crucial. An ethnobotanical survey of plants used for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) was carried out in selected areas of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. These areas were Hala, Ncera, Sheshegu, and Gquamashe, all within the Nkonkobe Municipality. One hundred informants were interviewed. The survey included the identification of scientific and vernacular names of the plants used for treatment of TB as well as the methods of preparation and administration, the part used, dosage, and duration of treatment. The survey revealed 30 plants belonging to 21 families which are commonly used by traditional healers for the treatment of TB and associated diseases. Of these plants Clausena anisata, Haemanthus albiflos, and Artemisia afra were the most cited. The leaves were the most common part used in the medicinal preparations. Our findings are discussed in relation to the importance of the documentation of medicinal plants.

2015

Pierre Lutgen
Geophagia, Artemisia afra and Tuberculosis

Texte publié sur les site malariaworld.org April 16. 2015
Texte accessible via : https://malariaworld.org/blog/geophagia-artemisia-afra-and-tuberculosis

2015

Pierre Lutgen
Pulmonary administration of Artemisia afra against tuberculosis
Texte publié sur les site malariaworld.org April 29. 2016

Texte accessible via :
https://malariaworld.org/blog/pulmonary-administration-artemisia-afra-against-tuberculosis