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African Spider Plant

Cleome gynandra

Cleome gynandra

Description

The leafy green medicinal herb, African Spider plant (Cleome gynandra), is a critical component in the diets of millions of people around the world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Very high in essential micronutrients including, Vitamin A & Iron, can serve to combat debilitating nutrient deficiencies. In addition to the micronutrients, consumption of African Spider Plant was used in traditional African medicine. In our lab, fractionation and medicinal bioassays assays are employed to guide chemical profiling utilizing LC-MS, column chromatography, GC-MS, NMR and other analytical techniques. This study is part of joint efforts with African institutions to improve nutrition and economy in poor areas of Africa.

Funding

2015-2020. USAID/Hort. Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research. Income and Nutrition of Smallholder Farmers in Eastern Africa Using African Indigenous Vegetables. The major goals of this project is to study the impact of how nutrient-rich African Indigenous Vegetables can impact dietary diversity and human nutrition in rural households in Kenya and Zambia. Rutgers conducts the analytical chemistry for nutrient composition and phytochemistry and characterization of anti-nutritive factors. Project includes a consortium of US and Africa-based universities and other partners. Wu serves as a collaborating investigator, leading the phytochemistry and nutritional plant composition.

Publications

2020. Somers, B.; F.F. Dinnsa; Q.L. Wu and J.E. Simon. Elemental micronutrients, antioxidant activity, total polyphenol, and total flavonoid content of selected African spider plant accessions (Cleome gynandra) grown in eastern Africa and the eastern United States. J. of Medicinally Active Plants 9(3):157-165.

2020. Zorde, M., D.R. Byrnes, F.F. Dinssa, S. Weller and J.E. Simon. Selection for delayed flowering time in response to long photoperiod to increase vegetative growth and multiple harvests in spider plant (Cleome gynandra). J. Medicinally Active Plants 9(2):60-70.