The Order of Mapungubwe in Bronze

Professor Namrita Lall Awarded for:

Her outstanding contribution to the field of medical sciences. Her work is giving hope to many who are plagued with the scourge of tuberculosis.

Profile of Professor Namrita Lall

Dr Namrita Lall is a lecturer in the Department of Botany at the University of Pretoria (UP). She recently received a “L’Oréal-Unesco Award For Women in Science” for her research on tuberculosis. This fellowship is only awarded to 10 women in the world. She specialises in the extraction and identification of compounds from medicinal plants used to treat tuberculosis and other bacterial infections.

She investigated the antimycobacterial properties of the roots of Euclea natalenisis. She also isolated naphthoquinones and tested them at the Medical Research Council (MRC) for their antimycobacterial property under the collaborative supervision of the consortium members.

The concentration of compounds in the plasma of mice, in a preliminary pharmacokinetic evaluation was done at UP using high performance liquid chromatography.

A comparative analysis of the concentration of naphthoquinones was done in different species of plants belonging to the Ebenaceae family. The growth stage of plants at which there is maximum accumulation of naphthoquinones is also being investigated.

A pilot study to investigate the efficacy of compounds and crude extract was done in mice at MRC. Dr Lall currently has 12 postgraduate students, published 13 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is the inventor of one patent.