Walter Sisulu University is in the process of fostering a collaboration with local farmers in the Amahlathi Local Municipality to cultivate cannabis for medicinal research purposes linked to the treatment of epilepsy.
WSU’s Professor Teke Apalata in the Faculty of Health Sciences said that research confirms that South Africa has a prevalence of neurosis psychosis that causes epilepsy - with an extreme high in the Eastern Cape Province.
“These seizures are especially prevalent in the Eastern Cape due to the consumption of pork meat that is under cooked. Now we are having solutions by trying to reduce the intensity of seizures, convulsions and also reduce mortality using cannabis hemp. We will continue exploring and try tapping into the benefits of this plant to control seizures caused by epilepsy that are resistant to drugs used currently,” said Apalata.
Cannabis is a group of two plant relatives known as hemp and marijuana that are distinguished through their genetic make-up in levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and phytocannabinoid (CBS).
Hemp, which is used for medicinal and industrial products, contains higher levels of CBD and less of the THC which causes psychoactive effects on consumption. This makes hemp legal to cultivate for academic research and agri-economic activities.
"There's more value in cannabis than just smoking it," said WSU Agri Economist, Dr Hosu. “Cannabis can be used in the production of electricity, clothes and medicine,” he added.
WSU’s highly esteemed C3 NRF-rated researcher from the Department of Chemistry, Professor Adebola Oyedeji, said that the work of researchers who were allowed into communities which grow medicinal plants led to the fine products that we can carry in our handbags today and consume to address illnesses.
“If you look at aspirin and Panado – all those medications came from plant origins.
Cannabis is no different from other plants and has a lot of medicinal properties. If we do not have spaces to cultivate it, then we will fail in coming out with a refined product that will be tagged to our communities, “said Oyedeji.
The partnership should be a wealth generating project for the community and Eastern Cape Province through cannabis by-product manufacturing.
Prof. Oyedeji asserted that a series of experiments will be on-going from plant identification, then off to medicinal research and agribusiness side of things.
The project in Amahlathi Local Municipality is in collaboration with Fort Hare University.
By Sinawo Herman