Cyclotides: a source of bioactive metabolites from plants

Abstract

In 1965, the professor in pharmacognosy at Uppsala University, Finn Sandberg reported after an expedition the traditional medicinal use of plants in the Central African Republic. In his report he mentioned the use of decoctions of the plant Oldenlandia affinis by African natives to facilitate childbirth.1 A few years later in the 1970s, a Red Cross doctor, Lorens Gran, observed that tribes in Congo used the plant and he brought samples home to Norway for identification and investigation