Introduction
In November 2024, I had the honour of delivering the 16th Professorial Inaugural Lecture at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Ribadu Campus, Kaduna. My lecture, titled "Green Plants: Natural Chemical Factory For Drug Development," was an opportunity to share with a broad audience what has driven my research for over two decades — the astonishing chemical diversity hidden inside the plants growing around us every day.
Chemistry is truly at work in every aspect of human existence: in our homes, our shoes, our clothes, our car batteries, and in every pharmaceutical product on a pharmacy shelf. At the heart of this chemistry lies nature's own factory — green plants.
Why Plants?
Plants are sophisticated chemical laboratories. They synthesise tens of thousands of secondary metabolites — alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes, phenolics, saponins — not as metabolic by-products but as highly evolved tools for survival: to deter herbivores, resist microbial attack, attract pollinators, and communicate with their environment.
Traditional medicine systems across Nigeria and Africa have exploited this chemistry for millennia. My work asks the fundamental question: can we isolate, identify, and standardise these compounds so that they form the basis of safe, effective, and affordable modern medicines?
Our Research at NDA
Over the years, my team at the Department of Chemistry, Nigerian Defence Academy, has investigated a wide range of Nigerian medicinal plants — from the bitter-leaf Vernonia amygdalina and lemongrass Cymbopogon citratus to the shea tree Vitellaria paradoxa and the rubber vine Landolphia owariensis. We screen for antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, anthelmintic, and anti-HIV activities, and then work to isolate the specific compounds responsible.
"Every medicinal plant is a library. Each compound is a chapter. Our job as natural product chemists is to read that library carefully." — Prof. Saidu Garba
The Call for a National Centre
During my inaugural lecture, I urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to establish a Centre for Natural Products and Herbal Medicine Research. Nigeria is endowed with extraordinary botanical wealth, yet we continue to import pharmaceuticals at enormous cost. A dedicated national centre would accelerate the translation of plant-based discoveries into registered, standardised medicines — reducing import dependency and creating high-value knowledge-economy jobs.
Looking Forward
My current work focuses on plants with antiviral potential, exploring their activities against viral proteases. The anti-pepsin (HIV-1 protease) study on Vernonia amygdalina and Cymbopogon citratus published in the Asian Journal of Chemical Sciences (2022) is one step in this direction. There is much still to discover.
I am grateful to the Nigerian Defence Academy for the platform and to all the students and colleagues who have contributed to this journey. The forest is vast — and we have only just begun to explore it.
