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152 Chapter 4
the university- based chemists who served as an advisor to the board
explained:
I was on their council, I was one of the fi rst. . . . I told them that well, it
would be very diffi cult for them to get properly established, because if it
had been diffi cult for the universities to get proper funding for organic
chemistry research, it would be even more diffi cult for them.
58
Given the scarcity of its resources, CSRPM offered a two- pronged ap-
proach to enable laboratory work through university collaboration. First,
along with the Faculty of Pharmacy at Kumasi, it requested 250,000
cedis to purchase three primary pieces of equipment: a mass spectrom-
eter, a physiograph, and an automatic polarimeter in May 1975. The idea
was that they “would be available for use by the whole country when
received.”
59
The mass spectrometer was seen as the most critical, and the
researchers pointed to its nationalist value in researching “our indigenous
medicinal plants.”
60
Researchers at Legon also believed they ought to ben-
efi t, and later correspondence suggested that perhaps two mass spectrom-
eters might be acquired. By November 1975, two spectrometers were made
available in Ghana through the British Technical Assistance scheme and lo-
cated at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. Ironically, they were “not
suitable for the type of research envisaged by the [CSRPM] committee,”
and a further request was made to government for different versions of
spectrometers.
61
A year after the original request, in May 1976, the govern-
ment approved 460,000 cedis for the purchase of two mass spectrometers
appropriate to biomedical research to be located at Legon and Kumasi.
62
The second approach was to train postgraduate students specifi -
cally in medicinal plant research at affi liated chemistry laboratories at
the University of Ghana at Legon, the University of Cape Coast, and
the University of Ghana Medical School at Korle Bu. Refl ecting on these
early days at CSRPM, Tackie explained how they “thought it was going to
be a wonderful place” but unfortunately, “the biggest drawback [was the]
lack of requisite qualifi ed people.”
63
Nine selected individuals included
N. Osei- Agyeman, C. B. Oseni, Twum Ampofo Ansah, and Paul Kofi ,
the latter a fi ne arts graduate who was to train in medical illustration
in Mampong under S. K. Avumatsado. The postgraduate students were
located at affi liated institutions through the Ghanaian National Ser vice
requirement, a scheme that in later years brought qualifi ed scientists to
serve at the CSRPM laboratories.
64
What did this mean for Cryptolepis research? By 1978, the Ghanaian
pharmacy professor Dwuma- Badu, who was working at Kumasi, had
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Take Bitter Roots for Malaria 153
identifi ed two alkaloids, quindoline and cryptolepine, from Cryptolepis.
This led to enthusiasm for Cryptolepis studies in both Ghana and Nigeria,
where parallel teams of researchers at the University of Nigeria, Lagos,
also worked to understand the chemistry behind the plant. In 1982, the
faculty of Pharmacy at Kumasi hosted a regional discussion of ongoing
research on Cryptolepis. The chemical investigations on the alkaloidal
content of the plant appeared alongside Boye and Ampofo’s clinical
studies.
65
Yet, little was to come of this redoubled effort at scientifi c research.
Further military coup d’états in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as well as
fi nancial distress and near- famine conditions in the 1980s, thwarted ef-
forts to establish a stable research environment. CSRPM struggled to pay
con sul tant herbalists and sought equipment and support from UNESCO
and the World Health Or ga ni za tion to pay salaries and maintain the
arboretum.
66
In the country as a whole, emigration reached an all- time
high by 1984, particularly among physicians and university graduates.
It was not until the late 1980s that further work on Cryptolepis was re-
vitalized. Given the instability of the Ghanaian economy, university
researchers fought primarily just to keep afl oat, many opting to work in
Nigeria and abroad. For instance, Tackie served as an external examiner
at the University of Nsukka in Nigeria. The University of Cape Coast
chemist Francis Tayman, after his wife nearly died from complications
with gallstones in Ghana, weathered the early 1980s in Germany, where
he made some money through textile import- export. On the other hand,
some researchers found the 1980s to be their most productive period. A
chemist who was later to head CSRPM, Archibald Sittie, was able to get a
post at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research during this
period, where facilities for bioassays were available.
67
During the diffi cult fi nancial periods in the 1980s, Ampofo stayed
in Ghana. He focused his energies on popularizing medicinal plants in
nearby towns. Much as they had during World War II, people returned to
healing plants in the face of drug scarcity and limited foreign exchange.
In addition to running his practice at Tetteh Quarshie and CSRPM, Am-
pofo participated in the Ghana Rural Reconstruction Movement in col-
laboration with his brother, the obstetrician D. A. Ampofo, and lawyer
Kwadwo Ohene- Ampofo. The Rural Reconstruction Movement hoped
to bring the benefi ts of education and health to impoverished, rural
settings, particularly in the Akuapem mountains. As part of this initia-
tive, Ampofo published a guide to medicinal plants in 1983 to help local
famers, schoolteachers, and other individuals treat simple ailments. The
guide provided straightforward instructions in En glish and the names of
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154 Chapter 4
plants in Twi. None of the diseases treated included malaria, however.
This project indicated Ampofo’s commitment to improving the life
expectancies of everyday citizens in Ghana at a time when others with
his international connections and training might have opted to leave the
country.
68
Despite these economic problems, Cryptolepis investigations contin-
ued at CSRPM and collaborating universities, and Ghanaian research
teams were fairly certain of success. By the 1990s, it seemed that re-
search on Cryptolepis might be reinvigorated through new possibilities
in the fi eld of biochemistry. In his inaugural lecture at the University of
Ghana- Legon on April 18, 1991, chemistry Professor Ivan Addae- Mensah
spoke of the great promise in antimalarial drug development with Cryp-
tolepis extracts:
Work on Cryptolepis sanguinolenta . . . is to me one of the best examples
of how joint multidisciplinary, transnational research collaboration
between sister African Universities can prove extremely fruitful and
benefi cial. . . . If my friends in Kumasi had not had faith in their own
work, and trust in their preliminary results, they would have abandoned
the work midstream. And who knows, someone else might have picked
it up later in Eu rope or America and claimed credit for it. . . . If the
clinical trials prove successful, this compound could well be a potential
marketable antimalarial drug, developed mainly by researchers here in
West Africa.
69
Addae- Mensah had been active in alkaloidal chemistry research with
Torto and B. A. Dadson since the 1960s, and in recent years had been en-
couraged to lend his support by developments in Cryptolepis studies. Aside
from the plant’s antimalarial properties, he and collaborators at Legon,
Kumasi, and CSRPM conducted further investigations on the antimicro-
bial effects of Cryptolepis.
But commercializing plants alongside the “open- door policy” proved
complex during CSRPM’s fi rst three de cades. Increasingly, healers
called on the state and its scientifi c operators to provide legal recogni-
tion and compensation for their research assistance at CSRPM and other
institutes. Keen on scientifi c innovation and professional survival, scien-
tists had to make a variety of moral choices to proceed with their inves-
tigations. The specifi c instance of the fi ght to market Cryptolepis reveals
how Ghanaian scientists formed alliances with local healers and foreign
investigators to further their research agendas, all the while competing
with them for the monetary rewards of the end product.
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Take Bitter Roots for Malaria 155
CLAIMING CRYPTOLEPIS
As Ampofo’s health failed in the 1990s, other scientifi c leaders sought
control of CSRPM. Tackie assumed the role of director until a dispute
about the future of Cryptolepis forced him to step down. Tackie made
the decision to apply for a U.S. patent on cryptospirolepine, an alkaloid
in the plant, in partnership with Paul Schiff, an American biochem-
ist. Other Ghanaian researchers opted to focus on the production of a
medicinal tea made from the plant, with the assistance of Diane Winn,
Ampofo’s longtime American collaborator. In both instances, scientists
in the impoverished country relied on foreign contacts and investment
to bring the dream of a Ghanaian pharmaceutical industry into reality.
But, as patents soon expired because of failure to pay necessary fees, and
plants died, scientists encountered challenges in transforming Cryptol-
epis into either a viable pharmaceutical or an herbal product.
A Patent and a Tonic
Tackie took over direction of CSRPM in the early 1990s. Ampofo’s clini-
cal studies in collaboration with Boye had provided evidence for the
viability of Cryptolepis in treating malaria. Tackie, in contrast, focused
on the chemical structure of the alkaloids responsible for effecting
cure. Tackie had been awarded a 1970– 1971 Fulbright professorship at
Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in the United States. During his time
in the States, he had met Paul Schiff, a pharmaceutical chemist at the
University of Pittsburgh who was interested in medicinal plant research.
Tackie explained that he lost touch with Schiff until the 1990s, when
Schiff resurfaced and together they conducted collaborative work on
the alkaloidal structure of Cryptolepis.
70
By 1991, their investigations—
funded by a $100,000 grant from the NIH— led to the elucidation of
the total proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of the
alkaloid Cryptolepine.
As a result of this research, Tackie and Schiff fi led a patent application
in 1993 for a novel malaria drug formula from Cryptolepis. Tackie listed
his affi liation at CSRPM; Schiff listed his at Health Search International
(the precursor to Winn’s company Phyto- Riker). U.S. Patent 5,362,726,
approved the next year, might have served to establish a viable claim to
malaria- related uses of Cryptolepis. The patent was a claim for a specifi c
reformulation of Cryptolepis into cryptospirolepine, an “isolated, pure,
active component,” which the inventors described as an innovation on
the “crude extract” from the plant.
71
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156 Chapter 4
Schiff and Tackie, described as co- inventors, provided instructions
for how the extract could be purifi ed and reduced to a tablet form to be
taken daily. The compound and method were specifi cally for treating
falciparum malaria. But in the end, the patent did not lead to Cryptolepis
being manufactured as described, and the patent expired in November
1998 because of failure to pay fees. When I asked Schiff why they de-
cided to patent cryptospirolepine, he explained that at that time he and
Tackie were working with Winn’s company Health Search International
and that a lawyer for the company encouraged them to fi le a patent. Re-
garding Winn, he explained, it “was great” once she “came on the scene.
She is a real spark plug. She had some plans and hopes to market and
produce [medicines] from Cryptolepis.”
72
Simultaneously, Tackie created Malaherb, an herbal preparation de-
rived from Cryptolepis. He and his son Reggie Nii Tackie, manufactured
the plant as a medicinal beverage in Ghana. Malaherb advertisements
referred to investigations conducted by Ampofo and Boye at CSRPM in
the early 1980s:
DESCRIPTION:
MALAHERB [“The Malaria Herb”] is the aqueous decoction of
Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, a shrub indigenous to West Africa.
Cryptolepis contains the class of pharmacologically active compounds
called alkaloids. The major alkaloid is cryptolepine. Malaherb is
presented in 330 ml bottles.
EFFICACY:
Cryptolepine’s effi cacy has been well demonstrated and documented.
In a series of inhibition experiments, the aqueous extracts inhibited
signifi cantly the growth of plasmodium falciprium strains, what ever
their degree of re sis tance to cholorquine.
Data on the clinical use of Cryptolepis extract on fi le at the Centre
for Scientifi c Research into Plant Medicine reports complete recovery
from malaria symptoms within 3 days and negative blood fi lms within
3 days.
73
Printed with high- quality inks, one Malaherb poster titled “Fight Harder,
Drink Malaherb,” depicted a sick man in bed drinking red liquid from a
spoon with a bottle of green- label Malaherb on his bedside table. A corre-
sponding image showed a bottle of larger- than- life Malaherb with a face,
legs, arms, and hands in red boxing gloves knocking out a huge, skinny
mosquito, also in red boxing gloves and shoes suitable for the ring.
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Take Bitter Roots for Malaria 157
Tackie’s private activities on Cryptolepis led to confl ict at CSRPM and
his resignation in 1997. Tackie’s dilemma represented the fi nancial and
professional strategies necessary for survival in the Ghanaian scientifi c
community during the late twentieth century. In Tackie’s case, CSRPM
did not have adequate resources for signifi cant chemical tests. Although
Tackie wanted to be perceived as a legitimate scientist, as an equal in the
global scientifi c community, he was keenly aware that without dabbling
in tonic production, he might not have suffi cient funds at his retirement.
In our conversations, Tackie explained to me that there was nothing
wrong with his decision, because the plant was already in the public
domain and commonly known. He was careful, however, to show me pa-
pers published by journals in the United States listing his name and the
center as collaborators. This indicated that he strategically used patents,
publication, chemical nomenclature, and trade secrets all in a bid to sur-
vive in Ghana’s highly politicized scientifi c community.
International Partnerships and Rivalries
Ampofo, on the other hand, increasingly communicated his vision for
plant medicine through Winn. This alliance made some scientists in
Ghana wary. Ampofo originally met the Johns Hopkins biochemist in
1962 when she visited Ghana as part of a medical team from NIH. Ac-
cording to Winn, Ampofo introduced her to healers who cured her of
cervical cancer in the 1960s and then breast cancer in the 1980s. In
turn, Winn assisted CSRPM with purchases of equipment and medical
assistance for Ampofo in the United States when he became blind and
paralyzed. She also provided Ampofo with a novel sickle- cell anemia
treatment for his daughter that had been developed by her former hus-
band, Makio Kuruyama, in 1969. Winn became extremely interested in
medicinal plants in Ghana and founded Health Search International, for
which Tackie and Schiff initially consulted and fi led the cyrptolepine
patent. During the later years of Ampofo’s life, Winn became very close
to him, speaking to him almost daily while he lay on his death bed.
Those who observed their relationship explained that Winn became
“like a daughter” to Ampofo.
At Ampofo’s funeral, Winn announced her plans to continue his
research. She had reor ga nized Health Search International into Phyto-
Riker Pharmaceuticals, a U.S.- based company (see Figure 4.5). In No-
vember 1997, Phyto- Riker offi cially bought out the pharmacy division
of GIHOC. Originally established as the State Pharmaceutical Corpora-
tion in 1962, GIHOC’s pharmaceutical division had met with struc-
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158 Chapter 4
tural and fi nancial diffi culties in a po liti cally turbulent postcolonial
Ghana. Under the direction of Kennon A. Brennan, the African Ameri-
can cofound er who served as the company’s fi rst president, Phyto- Riker
Pharmaceuticals hoped to manufacture low- cost drugs in Ghana to dis-
tribute to sixteen West African nations. While maintaining headquar-
ters in New York, Phyto- Riker used a 1991 German- built plant in Ghana
to produce its pharmaceuticals. Downplaying any possible negative
interpretations of their takeover, Phyto- Riker put the nation of Ghana
at the center of its plans, hoping to work closely with Ghanaian chem-
ists and herbalists to design a number of drugs based on indigenous
medicinals.
Phyto- Riker began operations with the production of generic drugs.
I fi rst toured the manufacturing plant at GIHOC in 1999 at a publicity
event or ga nized to attract African- American investors. We donned white
paper shirts and shoe coverings to observe the shiny metal machines
that would, in the future, produce pills. In its initial stages, Phyto- Riker
described its research program on ethnomedicinals and their develop-
ment for a global pharmaceutical industry with great enthusiasm and
high hopes, referring to the potential for “new blockbuster drugs” for such
diseases as HIV/AIDS and sickle- cell anemia. “Some day,” a promotional
Figure 4.5 Entrance to Phyto- Riker Pharmaceuticals in Ghana. (Photo by author.)
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Take Bitter Roots for Malaria 159
handout proclaimed, “people the world over may owe their lives to Af-
rica’s Herbal Pharmacy!”
74
Phyto- Riker introduced Phyto- Laria, a malaria treatment made from
Cryptolepis, as their fi rst product based on traditional knowledge. The
company promoted Phyto- Laria as “a true herbal remedy,” in contrast
to the generic drugs: “The herbal tea based on Cryptolepis is a true herbal
remedy containing the naturally occurring complex mixture of phyto-
chemicals in a traditional dosage form with a long- established history
of use, just like the old remedies from which the two aforementioned
malaria drugs [Cinchona and Artemisia] were derived.”
Marketing con sul tants based in the United States created an attrac-
tive preliminary package design for Phyto- Riker, taking Ampofo as the
inspiration for the company. A stylized tropical green leaf design was
overlaid with traditional Ghanaian symbols and a text detailing the
story of Ampofo’s rediscovery of traditional medicine. In fact, Winn,
whose husband at the time was an international patent lawyer, secured
exclusive rights to the use of Ampofo’s name for Phyto- Riker.
Some CSRPM affi liates opted to work with Phyto- Riker, whereas
others were more circumspect. Relationships between associates of the
late physician and employees of Phyto- Riker Pharmaceuticals were of-
ten marked by deep- seated animosity and suspicion, as some Ghanaian
chemists believed it was not in the national interest to cooperate with a
foreign initiative. In the early period after Ampofo’s death, tensions were
so high that the CSRPM director requested military intervention to keep
Winn and other Phyto- Riker employees off the center’s premises. When
asked about this period, one CSRPM affi liate explained:
Dianne Winn was a daughter to Oku Ampofo, working with Dr. Boye
and others. . . . But I think somewhere along the lines, when Phyto-
Riker was established and wanted to annex this place, this place would
be working for Phyto- Riker, wanted access to all the info here. . . . Prof.
Tackie [then the director], Prof. Ayensu, Prof. Addae- Mensah, were all of
the opinion that this was a national asset. . . . I think they [Phyto- Riker]
also had certain terms that were not ideal.
When Ampofo was close to death and Winn broached the idea of buying
GIHOC and establishing Phyto- Riker, it was a diffi cult period for CSRPM.
For many Ghanaian researchers, it confi rmed an ongoing problem with
research disclosure at CSRPM. As evidence of similar problems, one sci-
entist cited the work that Tackie had done on Cryptolepis with Schiff and
his subsequent development of Malaherb:
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160 Chapter 4
The institution (CSRPM) must protect itself. . . . It is not foolproof. . . .
We’ve had a number of people who have worked here, [it became a]
matter of survival. . . . You are not bound to sign any oath of secrecy. . . .
Prof. Tackie, he left this place and left with a product. . . . All and all he
spent a lot of time, even when he was at Kumasi [on Cryptolepis]. Health
Search helped him isolate compounds, he decided to go commercial, no
rules really to stop someone. . . . [CSRPM] doors were open, [anybody]
could come in and go out. . . . The rec ords were in the herbarium, in full
glare, anybody could just come in and have access. . . . Prof. Farnsworth
[of Shaman Pharmaceuticals] was invited sometime in 1991 or 1992.
In this discussion, the invocation of Farnsworth’s group at Shaman
pharmaceuticals suggested the larger specter of bioprospectors. In fact,
Shaman pharmaceuticals also patented a form of Cryptolepis for use in
diabetes in 1997 and 1998, the former of which has since expired.
At the time of this writing, it is unclear how successful Phyto- Riker’s
treatment Phytolaria will prove to be. As part of a bid to harvest roots
sustainably, Phyto- Riker contracted farmers to grow Cryptolepis. How-
ever, my informal conversations with traditional plant experts suggested
skepticism toward depleting plants for their bitter roots as a viable way
for farmers to secure a living. Others noted that Ghanaians were not ac-
customed to drinking their medicine in tea form, preferring alcoholic bit-
ters or the universal injections publicized during colonial public health
campaigns. Indeed, CSRPM presented a competing product using C.
sanguinolenta in liquid form.
In addition, healers with whom I spoke in Ghana expressed contin-
ued grievances about CSRPM, confi dent that the institute was stealing
their herbal recipes. From the 1990s, Ghana’s Food and Drugs Board gave
approval for CSRPM to test herbal products for toxicity. Healers were
certain that either CSRPM was itself copying their products or acting as
spies for other domestic producers. In its 2000 biannual report, CSRPM
explained that half of the institute’s fi nancing came from sales of plant-
based products.
75
From the healer perspective, the interests of the CSPRM were confus-
ing on several levels. As already described here, since the 1970s members
of traditional healing associations had been called on to submit herbal
recipes for alkaloidal screenings led by Ampofo, Tackie, and others.
76
Yet,
over time these scientists had collaborated with institutes and colleagues
abroad and the center had gained World Health Or ga ni za tion recogni-
tion. The liaisons between scientists, international researchers, and drug
fi rms caused alarm for healers. Healers’ concerns about domestic piracy
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Take Bitter Roots for Malaria 161
were compounded by the circumstances of poverty that led many scien-
tists to compromise their academic orientation. Although some may dis-
count its fears as mere paranoia, CSPRM had indeed fallen on hard times
by 2000, supplementing earnings with its own product line.
Conversations with medicinal plant experts revealed sophisticated
understandings of the larger context of their practice. Tourists, rogue bio-
prospectors, and international journalists all showed interest in healer
activities. Some viewed the greater publicity surrounding herbal manu-
facture with ambivalence. During an interview with prominent herbalist
Sylvester Akadzah and his sons, I was shown a business card given to
them by Chris Kilham, a notorious bioprospector who had done quite a
bit of work on Kava in the South Pacifi c.
77
Surprised to hear that Kilham
had been in Accra, I asked Akadzah if he knew what Kilham was up to.
He and his sons laughed, pointing out that the card said quite explicitly
“Chris Kilham, Medicine Hunter,” and that, as had been their experience
in the past with other interested foreigners, they had never heard back
from him on the plant samples they had given to him.
CONCLUSION: POSTCOLONIAL SCIENTISTS TAKE CREDIT
FOR HERBAL INNOVATIONS
Ghanaian scientists sought ways to privatize herbal medicine after in-
de pen dence in a bid to counteract colonial appropriation of plant data.
Initially, key researchers— including Ampofo and Tackie— worked un-
der a nationalist framework to circulate and share fi ndings with the
NRC. As funding for national research fl agged by the end of the 1960s,
Ampofo and Tackie established a semiprivate research center in the
town of Mampong- Akuapem. Over time, Ghanaian scientists privatized
their fi ndings fi rst through publications and chemical and plant names
granted in their honor. Then, from scientifi c personalization they moved
into commercial products and even patents. Ironically, in their efforts
to establish a basis for personal prosperity, researchers like Ampofo and
Tackie negotiated closer ties with expatriate researchers who shared re-
sources and equipment.
The shift from a nationalized view of herbal knowledge to one with
possibilities for private gain led to confl icts with scientists in other Afri-
can countries as well as with healers. The case of the struggle to commer-
cialize Cryptolepis, however, pointed to the complexities of the initial
vision. It refl ects general shifts in international systems of scientifi c
exchange during the late twentieth century as the market came to
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