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25 June 2025 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Andre Damons
Prof Matlalepula Matsabisa
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, renowned African Traditional Medicine expert and pharmacology researcher from the University of the Free State (UFS) will co-chair the World Health Organisation Global Traditional Medicine Summit steering committee.

Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, renowned African Traditional Medicine expert and pharmacology researcher from the University of the Free State (UFS) has recently been elected a co-chairperson of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Traditional Medicine Summit steering committee. The other co-chairperson is Dr Goh Cheng Soon from Malaysia. 

The steering committee, which is appointed for one year, will help the WHO to organise the WHO Traditional Medicines Global Summit taking place later this year in New Delhi, India. The steering committee is also an advisory body to the WHO and the Global Traditional Medicine Centre to provide reviews and recommendations for the WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit coordination, propose summit sessions and session speakers. This committee has 15 members from South Africa, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, India, China, Bhutan, Germany, Brazil, Egypt, New Zealand, US, Netherlands, Switzerland and Bolivia.

Prof Matsabisa, Research Director of the African Medicines Innovations and Technologies Development (AMITD) platform at the UFS, is also the chairperson of the WHO Africa Regional Expert Advisory Committee on Traditional Medicine (REACT). 

 

Responsibility of the committee 

“Once more this is an honour for me to take this task and lead a group of experts – not just from the African continent where I am currently the chairperson of the WHO Afro REACT committee, but now I chair experts from all the continents and all six WHO geographical regions – namely Africa (Afro), the Americas (AMRO), the eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), Europe (EURO), South East Asia (SEARO) and the Western Pacific (WPRO). I chair a worldwide group of experts,” says Prof Matsabisa. 

According to him, the committee will work with WHO to design the summit programme, identify summit sessions and session speakers, as well as recommend ministers to be in the round-table discussions. The committee will also be responsible for the design of the exhibitions that will showcase traditional medicine products and practices across all six WHO regions. The identification of the sessions will be around action and delivery on the priority agenda from the past 2023 WHO Global summit as well as from the deliverables of the WHO 2025-2034 Traditional Medicines strategy. 

The theme for the WHO Traditional Medicines Global Summit is “Restoring balance for people and planet. The science and practice of health and well-being”. They anticipate attracting 6 000 people, from all over, to attend the summit with at least 1 000 in-person attendees and another 5 000 online participants. 

The committee will look at the first WHO 2023 Traditional Medicines Global summit and its Gujarat Declaration where the Traditional Medicine (TM) priority agenda was set – this priority agenda included global leadership, research and evidence, universal health coverage (UHC), primary health care (PHC) health systems, data and routine information systems, biodiversity and sustainability.

 

Market the UFS 

When a call for applications to serve on the steering committee went out, Prof Matsabisa applied and was later approached by the WHO to chair the steering and advisory committee. “I see this as an opportunity to serve the WHO and use my knowledge and skills to serve the world. I felt very honoured to have been approached for such an important job and role to undertake. As a chairperson, I will guide the committee, take responsibility for the planning and implementation of the summit. I will market the summit. I shall be the direct link between the WHO in Geneva and the committee.”

Prof Matsabisa indicated that he will use the chairmanship to market and internationalise the UFS AMITD programme and give it a further global outlook. He will also find new collaborators and potential funders and investors for projects and activities of the UFS and secure activities that will help find and fund global postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars. This will be good for the AMITD platform.

“The steering committee shall set the 2nd WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit theme for scale up learning, collaboration and action,” says Prof Matsabisa. “Therefore, the committee will design the summit programme to address these and take themes and discussions from high-level political commitments, building on UNGA, WHA, G20, BRICS, and AU etc. Launches of the WHO Global TM Library on Traditional Medicine; WHO Bulletin special issue on Traditional Medicine; TM Innovation and Investment Initiative; Global TM Research Roadmap; Global TM Data Network; and Learnings from Indigenous Knowledge will also take place.”

Furthermore, advancements of healthy ecosystems and TM integration and encouraging indigenous people's knowledge exchange; and AI and TM governance course/ brief as well as the advancing of cross-cutting frameworks for TM-related ethics, rights, IP, equitable access and benefits are on the agenda. 

News Archive

Research into surrogate milk important to wildlife conservation
2017-05-08

Description: Prof Garry Osthoff Tags: Prof Garry Osthoff

Prof Gary Osthoff from the UFS Department of
Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology,
will soon work on a milk formula for elephants.
Photo: Supplied

Research is being done at the University of the Free State (UFS) to analyse and synthetically imitate the unique milk of various wildlife species. This research is not only of scientific value, but also serves the conservation of South Africa’s wildlife species. At the forefront of this research is Prof Garry Osthoff from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology.

Orphaned rhino calf pulled through with surrogate milk
“There is still a lot of research to be done. Naturally the research is of scientific importance, but with surrogate milk having the same composition as the mother’s milk of a specific species, orphaned calves or cubs of that species could be pulled through during a difficult time of weaning. Bearing in mind that exotic animals fetch thousands and even millions of rands at auctions, it goes without saying a game farmer will do everything possible to provide only the best nourishment to such an orphaned animal. In such a case, synthetically-manufactured milk would be the right choice,” says Prof Osthoff.

The fruits of his research were recently demonstrated in Germany when a rhino calf was left orphaned in the Leipzig Zoo. Prof Osthoff’s article: “Milk composition of a free-ranging white rhinoceros during late lactation” was used as a directive for applying surrogate milk for horse foals (which is already commercially available), since the composition of horse and rhino milk largely corresponds. The surrogate milk was used with great success and the rhino calf is flourishing. He mentions that such an orphan is often given the wrong nourishment with the best intentions, resulting in the starvation of the animal despite the amount of cow’s milk it devours.

With surrogate milk having the same
composition as the mother’s milk of a
specific species, orphaned calves or
cubs of that species could be pulled
through during the difficult time
of weaning.

Milk formula for baby elephants in the pipeline
With baby elephants left orphaned due to the increase in elephant poaching for their ivory, several attempts have been made to create a milk formula in order to feed these elephants. To date, many elephants have died in captivity from side effects such as diarrhoea as a result of the surrogate formula which they were fed.

Prof Osthoff recently received a consignment of frozen milk which he, together with researchers from Zimbabwe, will use to work on a milk formula for elephants. They are studying the milk in a full lactation period of two years. During lactation, the composition of the milk changes to such an extent that a single surrogate formula will not be sufficient. Four different formulas should probably be designed.

Prof Osthoff says that of the different species he has researched, elephants are the most interesting and deviate most from the known species.

Although his research to develop surrogate milk is adding much value to the wildlife industry, and although he finds this part of his work very exciting, his research focus is on food science and nutrition. “What is currently authentic in milk research is the study of the fat globules with content, the structure and composition of the casein micelle, and the prebiotic sugars. The knowledge which is gained helps to improve the processing, development of new food products, and development of food products for health purposes,” says Prof Osthoff.

 

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