Senegal: Stay of two professors in Thiès for collaboration in the phytosanitary field

From Monday, December 8 to Friday, December 12, Cécile Vanhaverbeke (University of Grenoble Alpes) and Florence Souard (Free University of Brussels) visited Senegal to explore the university facilities (Faculty of Science and Pharmacy of Dakar and the Department of Pharmacy of Thiès) and hospital infrastructures in Dakar. In addition they visited places dedicated to the preservation of plant heritage such as the medicinal botanical gardens and conservatories.

This visit was also the opportunity to present untargeted metabolomics to Senegalese colleagues and offer analytical solutions tailored to their context. Emphasis was placed on the importance of proper identification of plant samples used in research, as well as on botanical limitations, which could be complemented by analytical techniques. In this context, we discussed the use of near-infrared spectroscopy and mainly the utility of Pharmelp capillary electrophoresis.