Prof Alvaro Viljoen.
The award that was constituted by the Emami and Indian Conglomerate Company, was conferred on him during the 10th International Congress of Society for Ethnopharmacology held on 24-26 February in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, a state in northeastern India.
Speaking about the award, Prof Vijoen said he was elated to receive this international award for regional research on South Africa’s medicinal flora. According to him it confirms the value and importance of documenting the safety, efficacy and quality of South Africa’s Materia Medica.
Prof Viljoen was invited to present a plenary lecture at the Congress. During the lecture entitled “Compiling the first South African Herbal Pharmacopoeia – an important step in the globalization of South African medicinal plants”, Prof Viljoen, who is also the Director for the SAMRC Herbal Drugs Research Unit at TUT, provided an overview of the scientific journey in completing the South African Herbal Pharmacopeia that was published in November 2022.
Prof Viljoen and several other TUT colleagues are the editors of this benchmark publication, which will form part of a book launch planned for later in the year.