InterPress News Service (IPS); Friday, 14 February 1997.
Tansa Musa

Together with the Nigerian Cross River National Park, Korup, protects a significant area of the West African rain forest zone. Korup, which is estimated to be 60 million years old, has a great diversity of plant and animal life.

Daniel Agoons, conservation officer at the Korup Forest Project, says the forest contains more than 400 varieties of trees and 325 species of birds. There are also 174 species of reptiles and amphibians, as well as 140 fish species.

But the greatest find for Cameroonian scientists in the rain forest was the Ancistrocladus Korupensis, a plant which contains an important alkaloid --Michellamine B -- used in ongoing research for a drug for the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

According to the Korup Forest Project director Paul Symonds, more than 90 medicinal plants have been discovered in the park, 36 of them new to science.

Ancistrocladus, which grows as a vine, was discovered in the rain forest some six years ago. Because of its importance in AIDS research, scientists in the country have started a programme to conserve the rare plant.

"We fear that using this limited source for anti-AIDS research could eventually lead to extinction of the species. That is why we are attempting to domesticate the plant and increase its production," says Professor Johnson Jato, director of the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP).

Finding ways to propagate the plant is key to its conservation, Jato says. So far, by careful use of high humidity propagators, the BDCP team has succeeded in speeding up the growth of transplanted young plants, and they have been able to germinate and rapidly grow the plant from seeds.

Young plants have been successfully transplanted from the rainforest, domesticated in a nursery and then planted on a farm. They are protected and shaded by palms and watered twice daily.

Cuttings of the plant have also been taken, dipped in a rooting hormone and then planted in a one-to-one mixture of sawdust and sand. The cuttings are placed in humidity propagators where they are constantly examined for rooting.

Scientists continue to test the plants grown outside of the rain forest, the plant's natural environment, for the Michellamine B alkaloid. And so far, the results are "encouraging".

Harvested six months after being transplanted and tested for Michellamine B, both the young and old leaves contained the active alkaloid, with the older ones having a higher content, which suggests that the amount of the compound in the leaves increases with age.

According to Cameroonian scientists, this is an indication that the plant can grow outside of its natural habitat. Early results also show that that the plant can be grown from seeds in a nursery, and that the seeds do not need to be subjected to any special technique to germinate. Out of 150 seeds sown, only four did not germinate.

Scientists say that tests show too that the fallen leaves from the plant also contain Michellamine B and the quantity of the alkaloid in them is slightly higher than in dried fresh leaves.

This further strenghthens evidence that the quantity of the alkaloid increases with the age of the leaves, since the fallen leaves are presumably older.

"It is clear from the study," says Dr C.N. Mbi, a member of the five-man research team, "that Ancistrocladus Korupensis can be cultivated from both seeds and cuttings. The seeds do not require any particular treatment to germinate, while the cuttings only require high humidity for rooting.

"Through this study we are in our own modest way contributing to the search for a cure to the AIDS disease. Finding the cure remains a major challenge for researchers, but we think that it is possible...," Dr Mbi adds. (END/IPS/TM/PM97)

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