Natural Products Chemistry

Green chemistry is developed to monitor and solve problems related to environment and health. Accordingly, new strategies and active scientific research are taking place to deliver new innovative solutions for current problems. South Africa contains one of the most important and diverse flora in the world. Knowledge abstracted from South African traditional medicine represents one of the most important source for development of new medicine and or treatment for grave diseases like HIV and AIDS. Our research group dedicated to unlock the potential of the Cape Flora and to discover new active agents as new scaffolds for development of new safe and potent drugs. Also, the research group activities cover the discovery of new raw materials for application as natural cosmetic agents from Cape Flora.

Green Nanotechnology is a solid part of the green economy, and its innovations have been implemented in many industrial sectors to increase efficiency by reducing waste or minimizing the consumption of raw materials and/or final products. Metal nanoparticles (NPs), because of their unique physical/chemical properties, have received considerable attention in recent years. The efficient architectural design of metal nanoparticles for biomedical applications requires not only uniform size and shape but also communicating biofunctional groups that have the ability to stabilize, activate and effectively target the biological system. Such a design needs an active metal surface that can bind to the active payload in a way that reaches the end target of the NP function. Our research group's main target is to use pure natural products to synthesize and design a new generation of gold (Au) NPs “We’ call it UNI-CAP gold nanoparticles that can avoid the shortcomings of the current AuNPs and the conventional therapeutic agents.

Prof Ahmed A. Hussein Mohammed
PhD (1999) in Organic Chemistry (Natural Products Chemistry), Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

Chemistry Department, Office 2-33
New Chemical Engineering and Chemistry Building
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville Campus
Private Bag X17 Bellville 7535 , Cape Town, South Africa

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+27 21 959 6193

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ahmed_Hussein12
Scopus ID: 1579104
ORCiD: 0000-0002-3877-9959

Dr Sylvester Omoruyi

Dr Rajan Sharma

Mr Akinfenwa Omolaja Akeem (Nigeria)

Ms Kadiiaitu Ossamy (Gabon)

Mr Ali Eltaher (Sudan)

Mr Eloge (Gabon)

Ms Naledi Seatle (South Africa)

Mr Bleck Romario (Cameroon)

• Omolaja, A.A., Pearce, B., Omoruyia, S.I., Badmus, J.A., Ismail, E., Marnewick, J., Botha, S., Benjeddou, M., Ekpob, O.E., Hussein, A.A. The potential of chalcone-capped gold nanoparticles for the management of diabetes mellitus. (2021) Surfaces and Interfaces, 25, art. no. 101251. DOI: 10.1016/j.surfin.2021.101251
• Etsassala, N.G.E.R., Hussein, A.A., Nchu, F. Potential application of some Lamiaceae species in the management of diabetes. (2021) Plants, 10 (2), art. no. 279, pp. 1-22. DOI: 10.3390/plants10020279
• Suliman, S., Yagi, S., Elbashir, A.A., Mohammed, I., Hussein, A., Ak, G., Zengin, G., Orlando, G., Ferrante, C. Phenolic profile, enzyme inhibition and antioxidant activities and bioinformatics analysis of leaf and stem bark of Ficus sycomorus L. (2021) Process Biochemistry, 101, pp. 169-178. DOI: 10.1016/j.procbio.2020.11.011
• Ndjoubi, K.O., Sharma, R., Badmus, J.A., Jacobs, A., Jordaan, A., Marnewick, J., Warner, D.F., Hussein, A.A. Antimycobacterial, cytotoxic, and antioxidant activities of abietane diterpenoids isolated from Plectranthus madagascariensis. (2021) Plants, 10 (1), art. no. 175, pp. 1-12. DOI: 10.3390/plants10010175
• Tanui, H.K., Hussein, A.A., Luckay, R.C. Selective removal of iron(III), lead(II) and copper(II) ions by polar crude phytochemicals recovered from ten South African plants: identification of plant phytochemicals. (2021) International Journal of Phytoremediation, 23 (7), pp. 755-764. DOI: 10.1080/15226514.2020.1857332
• Omoruyi, S.I., Kangwa, T.S., Ibrakaw, A.S., Cupido, C.N., Marnewick, J.L., Ekpo, O.E., Hussein, A.A. Cytotoxic activities of selected plants of the family Amaryllidaceae on brain tumour cell lines. (2021) South African Journal of Botany, 136, pp. 118-125. DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2020.09.015
• Ibrakaw, A.S., Boatwright, J.S., Lesch, T., Cupido, C.N., Hussein, A.A. Triterpenes and other minor chemical constituents of Boophone haemanthoides F.M. Leight (Amaryllidaceae). (2021) South African Journal of Botany, 136, pp. 35-39. DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2020.06.025
• Omoruyi, S.I., Delport, J., Kangwa, T.S., Ibrakaw, A.S., Cupido, C.N., Ekpo, O.E., Hussein, A.A. In vitro neuroprotective potential of Clivia miniata and Nerine humilis (Amaryllidaceae) in MPP+-induced neuronal toxicity in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. (2021) South African Journal of Botany, 136, pp. 110-117. DOI: 10.1016/j.sajb.2020.06.028
• Badmus, J.A., Ekpo, O.E., Sharma, J.R., Sibuyi, N.R.S., Meyer, M., Hussein, A.A., Hiss, D.C. An insight into the mechanism of holamine-and funtumine-induced cell death in cancer cells. (2020) Molecules, 25 (23), art. no. 5716, . Cited 1 time. DOI: 10.3390/molecules25235716
• Ibrakaw, A.S., Omoruyi, S.I., Ekpo, O.E., Hussein, A.A. Neuroprotective activities of Boophone haemanthoides (Amaryllidaceae) extract and its chemical constituents. (2020) Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 25 (22). DOI: 10.3390/molecules25225376
• Etsassala, N.G.E.R., Ndjoubi, K.O., Mbira, T.J., Pearce, B., Pearce, K., Iwuoha, E.I., Hussein, A.A., Benjeddou, M. Glucose-uptake activity and cytotoxicity of diterpenes and triterpenes isolated from Lamiaceae plant species. (2020) Molecules, 25 (18), art. no. 4129. DOI: 10.3390/molecules25184129
• Badeggi, U.M., Ismail, E., Adeloye, A.O., Botha, S., Badmus, J.A., Marnewick, J.L., Cupido, C.N., Hussein, A.A. Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles capped with procyanidins from Leucosidea sericea as potential antidiabetic and antioxidant agents. (2020) Biomolecules, 10 (3), art. no. 452. DOI: 10.3390/biom1003045
• Badeggi, U.M., Badmus, J.A., Botha, S.S., Ismail, E., Marnewick, J.L., Africa, C.W.J., Hussein, A.A. Biosynthesis, characterization, and biological activities of procyanidin capped silver nanoparticles. (2020) Journal of Functional Biomaterials, 11 (3), art. no. 66. DOI: 10.3390/JFB11030066
• Ndjoubi, K.O., Sharma, R., Hussein, A.A. The potential of natural diterpenes against tuberculosis: An updated review. (2020) Current Pharmaceutical Design, 26 (24), pp. 2909-2932. DOI: 10.2174/1381612826666200612163326
• Etsassala, N.G.E.R., Cupido, C.N., Iwuoha, E.I., Hussein, A.A. Abietane diterpenes as potential candidates for the management of type 2 diabetes. (2020) Current Pharmaceutical Design, 26 (24), pp. 2885-2891. DOI: 10.2174/1381612826666200331082917