It sounds like a fairy story when Professor Lars Skjeldal, from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) in Ås, tells it. A story that takes us from Africa to Göteborg via Norway. It was during the war years at the beginning of the 1960s that the Norwegian doctor Lorents Gran found himself in the Belgian Congo on behalf of the Red Cross. He noticed that women who had problems in giving birth would be given a drink by the “witchdoctor". The drink made the labour easier, says Lars Skjeldal.

It was not until 10 years later that Lorents Gran got to discover the secret of the drink. Then a “witchdoctor" revealed that it contained the leaves of Oldenlandia affini, an insignificant plant, almost a weed, which grows freely in equatorial regions. The Norwegian doctor took some plants home with him and began to study what substance it was that had such a pronounced effect on labour pains. He succeeded in isolating a kind of protein, a cyclic peptide. Trials were conducted on rats, which show clearly that this peptide stimulates the uterus to work. When the woman became tired, the contractions could be started directly, says Lars Skjeldal. Sometimes, however, the medicine seemed to act too effectively and the child had to be delivered by C section. The strength seemed to vary depending on the time of year that the plant was picked, and it was difficult to get the dosage right, says Lars Skjeldal.

According to Skjeldal, this was at a time when there was no money for research affecting women, maternity care or naturopathic medicaments. Since then a number of scientific articles have been published.

African knowledge and Western medicine is a successful combination for the future, believes Lars Skjeldal. He is currently in Göteborg. With the aid of the advanced magnetic instrument at the Swedish NMR Centre at the University of Gothenburg he can observe the plant´s peptide at the atomic level. New technology provides researchers with the opportunity of isolating the active substance, and in the future possibly introducing it as a pharmaceutical preparation.

This research is taking place within MedCoast Scandinavia, a collaboration between industry, municipalities and universities in the region of Lund , Göteborg, Ås and Oslo. Together these bodies contribute to shared research activities and the efficient use of expensive research equipment.
 
The active substance in Oldenlandia affini acts primarily on the work of muscles, but can, according to Skjeldal, also have effects both on viruses and bacteria. And on killer slugs (the Spanish slug, Arion Lusinaticus) which are a problem both inNorwayand Sweden. As regards the effect on killer slugs, nothing has as yet been published.