The National Academy of Inventors has announced its latest inaugural class of 98 Charter Fellows. The inventors represent 54 research universities and non-profit research organisations across the world. The Charter Fellows will be formally inducted at the annual conference of the National Academy of Inventors in Tampa, Florida, in February.
However, it is Nigerian professor Ernest Izevbigie who specialises in Biology from Jackson State, who is seriously garnering a huge amount of respect for his work. It is his investigation with fauna native to Africa, and its affect on serious illness that has brought him this well deserved attention.
The Bitter leaf is hardly new to many Nigerians, as it is a vegetable they know like the back of their hand. Such people particularly relish it when it is made to accompany Egusi (melon) in a pot of soup. Yet, as popular as the vegetable is, some Nigerians would rather it keep at a safe distance because of its bitter taste.
However the Nigerian professor Izevbigie, has not only popularised the African shrub, whose botanical name is Vernonia amygdalin, he has also conducted research that shows that the vegetable has some medicinal importance that can help thwart cancer. He has successfully earned two patents, including one for the formula he created from bitter leaf – EdoBotanics – a dietary supplement that enhances the immune system and assists with the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
For his efforts, Izevbigie, is now in an exchange programme at the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City. This has also lead to him gaining a place for himself as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, USA. The NAI fellowship status is a huge professional distinction, only being rewarded to academic inventors who have made significant breakthroughs.
The NAI is a non-profit organisation and is US congress-mandated to drive innovation emanating from universities, while also commercialising the innovations. NAI acts as a catalyst, a mechanism through which inventions from university academia are translated into commercial values for the benefit of contemporary society. It comprises universities in the US and other international institutions. It was founded in 2010 to, among other functions, recognise and encourage invention, enhance feasibility of academy and innovation, and translate the inventions of members to benefit society.
The founders wanted to recognise the top scientists and innovators in the world and with his new status, Izevbigie has become just that. He has landed himself as the 101st researcher to be selected and is the first Nigerian and the only African on the NAI fellowship.
Izevbigie says, “Africa has natural products in abundance. It has been estimated that more than 90 per cent of medicinal plants in the world are in Africa. To support that, you look at even the conventional therapy. The World Health Organisation has estimated that the history of more than 75 per cent of the conventional drugs can be traced back to natural products. Basically, what the manufacturers do is that they extract, purify and modify the herbs, the original products are from plants. We have 90 per cent. It makes sense to me to develop what we have rather than depend on the western world to come and do things for us.”
The don, who recalls his own personal use for bitter leaf as a little boy, adding that he was motivated because he knew from then that a lot of his people in Edo State consumed the vegetable for its medicinal properties.
Prof. Izevbigie also disclosed that he has futher received two U.S. patents for Edotide rewarded in 2009 for the treatment of cancer and diabetes, adding that Edotide can suppress, kill, or delay cancerous cells, and it reduces blood glucose by 50% in mammals.
