Gibson, Diana University of the Western Cape - Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Research in Anthropology and Sociology of Health (RASH), South Africa

Ambiguities in the making of an African Medicine: clinical trials of Sutherlandia frutescens (L.) R.Br 1(Lessertia frutescens)

22084

This paper attends to the large and heterogenous array of people and things that come together in the making of a medicinal plant, Sutherlandia frutescens (Lessertia frutescens) as an African medicine through clinical trials. It is a messy, contested and ambiguous process and is constantly being revised and is always open to surprises and the possibility of failure. I use Sutherlandia to introduce some of the issues that complicate the landscapes of knowledge in South Africa in relation to phytomedicines and pharmaceuticals.

124

Sutherlandia frutescens , trials , knowledge , plant , medicine

African Sociological Review

137