Faculty Focus: Bill Folk
MU creates center to study South African healing practices
Bill Folk studies South African plants used to treat people infected with HIV.
The University of Missouri has partnered with the University of Western Cape in South Africa to study traditional healing practices used for AIDS and secondary infections. With a $4.4 million grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, researchers from both universities document the safety and efficacy of South African plants used by traditional healers.
Principal investigator Bill Folk, professor of biochemistry and senior associate dean for research at MU's School of Medicine, serves with Quinton Johnson, director of the South African Herbal Sciences and Medicine Institute, as co-director of The International Center for Indigenous Phytotherapy Studies (TICIPS). Folk says the center is the only one of its type to be funded by the NIH for research on African traditional healing practices.
"In South Africa, the majority of health care is provided by traditional healers — especially in the treatment of AIDS and tuberculosis," Folk says. "At the same time, South Africa is one of the most botanically diverse and rich regions in the world, and a large number of its plants are used in health care. This is why we need to learn more about these plants to determine their safety and efficacy."
Folk focuses on Lessertia frutescens, also known as sutherlandia, which is one of the most widely used plants in South Africa to treat people infected with HIV. Researchers study the effects of the native plant on South Africans recently diagnosed with HIV.
"There is some evidence to show sutherlandia may reduce the severity of infections, such as bronchial infections or the common cold," Folk says. "This is consistent with what is reputed about this plant — that it has the capacity to improve immune function and prevent physical deterioration, which is why it's used in the treatment of those infected with HIV."
Other plant researchers examine Artemisia afra, typically used in the treatment of respiratory infections, such as tuberculosis. By testing the plant in animals, TICIPS researchers want to determine whether the South African plant is capable of reducing the severity of — or even preventing — tuberculosis infections. In addition, Artemisia afra is tested for its effectiveness in treating cervical cancer, the second-most-common cancer of women in developing countries.
Through collaborations with South Africa, TICIPS researchers will investigate the potential benefits of plants used by traditional healers for people living in South Africa, the United States and elsewhere.
"We know some of these traditional healing practices have been brought to the United States, for example," Folk says. "Learning more about the plants used in these healing practices as well as other traditional South African therapies could help provide benefits we currently are unable to offer the American public."
TICIPS's U.S. partners include the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri Botanical Garden, University of Texas and Georgetown University. South African collaborators include the University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu-Natal and the country's traditional healers. Researchers also will work with organizations outside of the life sciences, including MU's School of Journalism, which will inform the public and health care providers of the studies' findings.