Dr Mahwahwatse Johanna Bapela is a Lecturer at the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Pretoria. Her field of interest is Ethnobotany with a specific focus on Ethnopharmacology of parasitic infections, especially malaria.
Through her postgraduate studies, she acquired many skills including conducting ethnobotanical surveys on indigenous locals, testing the bioactivity of plant extracts, isolation and purification of compounds. Dr Bapela has also acquired skills for applying metabolomics when bioprospecting plant species for novel compounds.
Her current and future projects are aimed at bioprospecting indigenous plant species for antiprotozoal phytotherapeutics and the isolation as well as identification of compounds responsible for the bioactivity. Metabolomics, mathematical modeling of bioactivity and other related interdisciplinary approaches will be explored.
Dr Bapela is collaborating with international researchers at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute; University of Clermont, Auvergne, France. Additionally, she is collaborating with local researchers who focus on ethnopharmacology of other pathogens.
She is currently a Member of the South African Association of Botanists (SAAB) and the University of Pretoria Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control (UP ISMC) and MRC Collaborating Centre for Malaria Research.
