干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

This Editorial summarises results of a research activity that was an attempt to promote the domestication and cultivation of Devil’s Claw (Harpagopliytum spp.), a medicinal plant which is rapidly becoming an endangered species in Namibia and vicinity, due to over-exploitation. The research project activities included exploring the possibility of growing the plant as a cash crop by resource-poor communal farmers, who are currently involved in the harvesting of the plant in the wild. This entailed conducting germination tests, as well as adopting the use of tissue culture technology, in an effort to develop better propagation methodologies for cultivating the plant. This study demonstrated that, it is possible to attain germination rates of up to 31.8%, the highest recorded in the literature, by simply treating the plant’s seeds with the ordinary commercial bleach, sodium hypochlorite. The study also generated Devil’s Claw plants through tissue culture, which offers opportunities for multiple production of healthy and disease-free seedlings for distribution to farmers.