This award was given to Ameenah by five different organisations which operate in Africa: the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation financed by ACP-EU, the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), AGRA, Forum for Research in Africa (FARA), New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and RUFORUM, an association which comprises more than 12 universities in Africa.

Ameenah says: “The world food crisis, the drastic climate changes and the population in Africa which is increasing by a geometric progression through the years, all these force us to pay more attention to food production. The problems associated with food production should be tackled right now without further delay. For this, the field of agriculture must be given its right value and more recognition.”
In the continent, agriculture being more a woman's affair than a man’s, this award comes as boost to agriculture and brings it to the front line.

Ameenah is  Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Mauritius. After her studies in Chemistry, she focused on the chemistry of plants, more specifically on medicinal plants. What was at first purely an academic field of study soon became a fascinating hobby; a passion to understand the properties of medicinal plants and how they can be used to treat illnesses.

“I started working on plants and then became more interested in working on medicinal plants. Based on my experiments and conclusions, I published my first book and later on several other books focusing on medicinal plants and their uses,” she says.

Her effort in this field was largely recognised by the Government and the population at large. The winner of several awards, she is now a well-known scientist not only in Mauritius but in the continent of Africa as well.

According to Ameenah, both medicinal plants and pharmaceutical medicines are used in Mauritius. “Allopathic medicine has always existed and has often been used in Mauritius. Though most of the time people rely on drugs from pharmacies for treatment, there is a trend to adopt medicinal plants. More ayurvedic clinics are being opened in different parts of the country and people are looking for alternative ways for a better health.”

However, she warns that the use of medicinal plants as treatment on a large scale should be well regulated to avoid problems or abuses.

“There should be a legal framework to regulate the use of these plants so as to assure the quality of the medicines. Specific dose to be used, when to be used and so on should be well established and the work should be recognised by the Government. Without proper information on the medicinal plants or any authority to regulate their uses, the validity and authenticity of these plants will be questioned,” says Ameenah.

Hence, to give them more integrity, a pharmacopy of medicinal plants will be published soon by a group of 20 people and success stories on medicinal plants will follow. She says: “a pharmacopy is a manual which gives medical details. We are working on a pharmacopy of medicinal plants for the African countries whereby we will give the specific dose, the side effects and other needful information on more than 50 plants. Scientists from Mali, Kenya, Uganda and other African countries are working together on this project.”

“It is now well-known and accepted that traditional medicines have an important role to play for treatments, not only in Africa but in other countries also. My story with medicinal plants started more than 20 years ago and it is still going on,” says Ameenah.