Scholarship on the research and commercialization of medicinal plants, or bioprospecting, has often focused on the aftermath of the practice by exploring its social, and to a lesser extent ecological, impacts. Scholarship on the practice itself is rare but significant, particularly since some critics of bioprospecting have used oversimplified caricatures of the complex and lengthy process of turning a plant into a commercial product. Abena Dove Osseo-Asare's book makes an important contribution to this literature, exploring historical bioprospecting in African countries in the colonial and the postcolonial eras.
The author structures the book around the history of uses of and research upon six different African plants. Four of these plants are from the Apocynaceae family, including periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus, Chapter One), arrow poison plant (Strophanthus hispidus, Chapter Three), bitter anti-malaria roots (Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, Chapter Four), and hoodia (Hoodia gordonii, Chapter Five). The other two plants are Indian pennywort (Centella asiatica, Chapter One) and grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta, Chapter Two). Each chapter explores the research and commercialization of a single plant, except for periwinkle and pennywort, which are (somewhat confusingly) combined into a single chapter.
The author raises four questions. First, who initially used a plant for particular medical applications? Second, was such medical use localized to one place or dispersed in larger regions? Third, how are African medicinal plants transformed into commercial products such as patented pharmaceuticals or processed products for local markets? And fourth, who has benefited from this commercial transformation? Other scholars in the past decade have already argued that medicinal plants have multiple claims to priority and locality, that the process of plant commercialization is complex and lengthy, and that bioprospecting benefits are often skewed rather than distributed equitably. Osseo-Asare's contribution is to support these arguments through detailed historical evidence, including plant collection records in herbaria around the world, colonial archives, and oral histories with African scientists and traditional healers.
Osseo-Asare divides the history of medicinal plant research and commercialization in Africa into three main eras. In the early modern period (1450–1800s), we begin to see evidence for healing ‘diasporas’ as people move throughout the continent and bring with them plants and knowledge of their use. In the colonial era (1800s–1950s) Europeans adapted and appropriated indigenous plant knowledge to their own needs while also restricting how Africans could trade and use the same plants. Finally, the postcolonial era (1950s onward) is characterized by African researchers taking over the bioprospecting process from their European predecessors, often in cooperation with North American or European scientists. Unlike the colonial model of open access to natural resources for scientists, the contemporary, postcolonial era often has taken on a nationalist tone of restricting access to plants and knowledge of their medicinal uses for the benefit of individual countries.
Bitter Roots fills in several important gaps in the literature on bioprospecting. One of the most interesting arguments of the book is that African scientists have ignored the contributions of healers and communities just as colonial bioprospectors did. This unsettles a common narrative in the bioprospecting debate that pits indigenous Davids against pharmaceutical Goliaths, thereby glossing over other involved parties. Second, the book focuses not only on plants that have formed the basis for patented blockbuster drugs, but also explores the history of several lesser-known plants. These plants were the focus of colonial or postcolonial bioprospecting efforts that led to the development of processed goods for local markets, or that were unsuccessful in securing patents or reaching international markets. Third, Osseo-Asare shows the difficulties of sharing bioprospecting benefits based on ethnicity or indigeneity in the African context.
Despite the book's strengths, it does suffer from a few shortcomings. The author's expertise and interest in Ghana and West Africa more generally is evident, but this means that the case studies from other areas of Africa seem thinly covered. Moreover, the description of Madagascar's ethnic groups in Chapter One is erroneous. While the author rightly argues that African healers, past and present, have not received adequate attention for the role they have played in discovering medical uses of plants, their voices do not seem to be given as much attention in Osseo-Asare's own research compared to the voices of African scientists. The author seems torn between offering purely academic analyses and contributing solutions to policy debates. The author proposes the term ‘bioprosperity’ to capture her vision for what equitable bioprospecting would look like and to offer an alternative to the concept of ‘biopiracy’. But it is unclear how another neologism helps advance a debate already full of specialized jargon.
This book will appeal to those interested in the topic of medicinal plants and bioprospecting and more generally the history of science and technology studies.
