Young scientist wins the best poster presentation at forum
Murunwa Madzinga (24) recently won the first prize for a poster presentation at the 2017 Indigenous Plant Use Forum (IPUF) conference.
LIMPOPO – The title of her winning poster was: Formulation of herbal soap using South African Plants with antibacterial and antifungal activity.
Madzinga was born and bred in Tshakhuma village outside Thohoyandou.
After winning the award, Madzinga said she was honoured to have received the prize as a young scientist and that it serves as encouragement for her to do more.
“It has truly increased my enthusiasm for my work,” she said.
Madzinga also took the time to express her sincere gratitude towards her supervisors, Dr Quenton Kritzinger and Prof Namrita Lall, adding that she would not have succeeded without their help.
Madzinga is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in medicinal plant science at the University of Pretoria and her studies focus on the validation of some medicinal plants indigenous to South Africa that are traditionally used for treatment of skin infections.
“With this research, I would like to contribute to the primary health care system, especially in rural areas where access to and availability of health care is still problematic,” she said.
Her honours studies investigated the efficacy of some of the plants used against bacterial and fungal skin pathogens.
The extracts showing the best activity were then infused into a herbal soap that was then evaluated against the pathogens.
