Natural Products Research at Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, AAU. 

Drug discovery is the process through which potential new medicines are identified. As a Pharmacognosist, drug discovery from natural products is the interest of my research. Currently, I lead a research group called BaSIL (Bioactive Secondary Metabolites for Improving Life). The main objective of the group is to study Ethiopian medicinal plants with potential medicinal
property. A particular class of rarely distributed plant peptides known as cyclotides is also of great research interest of BaSIL. Another impetus of our research is traditional medicine. The knowledge in traditional medicine is a very essential input in the quest of obtaining active natural compounds that could serve as leads to new drugs. Hence, we carry out activities starting from ethnobotanical data collection, to documentation, bioactivity testing, modelling of active principles, standardization and clinical trials. The research demands collaborative work with traditional healers, botanists, social pharmacists, chemists, physicians and computer scientists.