Cancer remains one of the most devastating diseases, ranking second globally as the leading
cause of death within the human population, with approximately 10 million deaths reported in
2020. Despite the enormous efforts and progress made in the field of cancer research, this burden
is expected to even increase to 30 million incident cases and 16 million cancer-related deaths per
year by 2040. Therefore, there is an urgent need to search for new efficacious anticancer drugs.
Natural products from the different genera found in various African regions have previously
been explored for their cytotoxic activities with promising results being reported. The project
aims to discover new and/or novel natural products with cytotoxic activity against HeLa S3,
MCF-7, and PC-3 cancer cell lines from medicinal plants of Botswana that have received little to
no attention in phytochemical research, wherein a bioassay-guided fractionation approach will be
used. Furthermore, the bioactive natural compounds isolated will be modified synthetically with
the aim of improving their cytotoxic activity and drug-like properties. For its contribution to the
development of human capital in the nation of Botswana, the project intends to recruit, train, and
mentor 4 masters of science in chemistry students.