African Medicinal Plants

1.1 Traditional Medicine

Humans owe their continued survival largely to the existence of plants for their general livelihood and most essentially medicinal use. Knowledge as to which plants are more useful than the other has been passed on from one generation to the next (Weiner and Weiner, 1994). According to Simpson and Orgorzaly (1995), applications of various plants in different parts of the world vary amongst cultural groups, as plants are distributed quite differently across countries. In South Africa, a number of plant species with medicinal properties are considered to be vital in the treatment of ailments which has been a common practice in rural areas (Masika et al., 2000).

Globally, numerous people depend on herbal medication as

Phytochemists have been extremely captivated in studying plants with the sole intent of isolating novel active compounds in order to substitute the synthetic drugs that are presently on the market, providing a more natural source of drugs for modern medicine (Talib and Mahasneh, 2010). Some of the African indigenous plant species have been subjects of scientific screening in order to find potential natural sources of pharmacological drugs (Shai et al., 2008). The extracts collected from various parts of medicinal plants possess a variety of medicinal properties such as antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory activity and anti-cancer activity (Mahesh and Satish, 2008). There exists specialised structures on plant surfaces that synthesise, accumulate and secrete bioactive compounds (Svoboda and Svoboda, 2000). Research on plants is essential to not only isolate novel compounds but to also understand their secretory structures and their purpose in relation to the secretion of such compounds. Plant surfaces are usually covered in secretory structures that secrete chemical compounds (Wagner et al., 2004). It is important to understand the morphology of the secretory structures found especially on photosynthetic surfaces of plant

It is therefore vital to study the micromorphology of secretory structures and evaluate the potential of the plants they occur on for medicinal purposes. In Africa, many species belonging to the family Vitaceae are used for medicinal purposes. However, since not much work has been done on Cyphostemma hypoleucum (Harv.) Desc. ex Wild & R.B. Drumm., this study seeks to explore and document its