The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences  at the University of Pretoria in South Africa  is at the forefront of biodiscovery research. It boasts state of the art equipment funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), comprising of a one of its kind library of natural products.The Biodiscovery centre has an extensive collection of natural products comprising thousands of plant extracts and 10 000 dry plants. This collection has spanned over numerous years and was deposited in the SANBI herbarium.

These plant extracts are processed to into semi-purified fractions and natural compounds stored in microtiter plates ready for high-throughput (HTS) purposes.

South Africa is reported to be the third most diverse country of plant species globally. Approximately 10% of the world’s known species and 15% of known coastal and marine species are found in South Africa. This presents a unique opportunity for discovering novel natural active ingredients for the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries.  Our vision is to discover new drugs that have the potential to change the future of human health.