THE NATURAL PRODUCTS RESEARCH LABORATORY, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
The Natural Product Research Lab is run and managed by a group of competent staff with a wealth of experience. The group constitute of two Professors, one Associate Professor, three Senior Lecturers and one Lecturer . The group also has the high number of postgraduate students (both MSc and PhD) within the college, including international students from Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Cameroon, South Sudan. The group has direct access to Chromatographic (HPLC, MPLC, Chromatotron) and Spectroscopic (IR, UV, NMR, MPLC, NMR (60 MHz, 400 MHz) instruments. High field NMR and MS analyses are done through international collaboration. Bench-top bioassay is conducted by members of the group while specialised biological tests of crude extracts and pure compounds are done through national and international partnerships. Particularly the antiplasmodial collaboration with the Walter Reed Project, US-Army, based in Kenya, has been the most productive. Plant collections and authentication is done through partnership with the taxonomists based at the Herbarium, School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi. In addition to the academic atmosphere, the social association within the group has made an additional reason in making our group attractive to postgraduate students. The Natural Product Research Network for Eastern and Central Africa (NAPRECA) has its coordination office in this Department.
