Smith B Babiaka

Smith B Babiaka
University of Buea · Department of Chemistry

PhD

About

54
Publications
29,277
Reads
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918
Citations
Introduction
Smith B Babiaka holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Buea/Nairobi. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in March 2019. Smith current area of interest is Medicinal Chemistry and Microbial Natural Product Drug Discovery. He is currently a Georg Forster Alexander von Humboldt and Georg Forster-Bayer Research Fellow at the Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine, Department of Microbial Bioactive Compounds, University of Tuebingen,Tuebingen, Germany.
Additional affiliations
January 2020 - present
University of Buea
Position
  • Researcher
January 2013 - August 2017
Chemical and Bioactivity Information Centre
Position
  • Member
Description
  • Construction of natural product databases for compounds isolated from medicinal plants growing in Africa.
October 2012 - January 2018
University of Buea
Position
  • GTA
Description
  • Supervision and correction of undergraduate practicals. Teaching tutorials to undergraduate students in Chemistry.
Education
October 2012 - August 2018
University of Buea/Nairobi
Field of study
  • Natural Product Chemistry & CADD
October 2008 - August 2011
University of Buea
Field of study
  • Chemistry
October 2001 - August 2005
University of Buea
Field of study
  • Chemistry and Material Science

Publications

Publications (54)
Article
Full-text available
Computer-aided drug design (CADD) often involves virtual screening (VS) of large compound datasets and the availability of such is vital for drug discovery protocols. We assess the bioactivity and "drug-likeness" of a relatively small but structurally diverse dataset (containing >1,000 compounds) from African medicinal plants, which have been teste...
Article
Full-text available
As a whole, the African continent is highly endowed with a huge floral biodiversity. Natural products which have been isolated from plants growing in this region have shown interesting chemical structures with diverse biological activities, which could serve as starting point for drug discovery. In this study, a literature survey led to the collect...
Article
Full-text available
This review is intended to highlight the relevance of natural products in drug discovery paying particular attention on those derived from Southern African medicinal plants with diverse biological activities. In this review series, a literature survey led to the collection of 864 secondary metabolites from 101 plant species from 57 plant families....
Article
Full-text available
The people of the Bayangi tribe (Manyu Division) of Cameroon have used the leaves of Pseudopanax arboreus (Araliaceae) traditionally for decades as an aphrodisiac. In order to scientifically investigate this folk claim, we evaluated the effects of the leaf-aqueous extract of P. arboreus on the sexual behavior of normal male rats. The present study...
Article
Background: Croton oligandrus Pierre & Hutch is a tropical tree that grows in West and Central Africa, used in ethnomedicine to treat cancer, diabetes, headaches, convulsions, urinary diseases, and inflammatory diseases. As other Croton species have been observed to possess chemical compounds that target HIV latency-reversal, we hypothesized that t...
Article
Full-text available
The application of traditional medicine by humans for the treatment of ailments as well as improving the quality of life far outdates recorded history. To date, a significant percentage of humans, especially those living in developing/underprivileged communities still rely on traditional medicine for primary healthcare needs. In silico-based method...
Conference Paper
Since December 2019, the world has been under the menace of the novel Coronavirus first reported in China [1]. Since then, all continents and most nations of the world have reported significant numbers in terms of morbidity and mortality. The consequent burden on the economic, educational, psychosocial and health sectors amongst others are on a glo...
Conference Paper
We report the virtual screening, isolation, structure elucidation and in vitro evaluation of methylene chloride and methanol extract together with isolated compounds against the main protease and spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2. A preliminary virtual library of 453 natural products with tested activities against coronaviruses, was collected by sear...
Conference Paper
This project is focused on nature-based discovery of antiviral agents that target putative drug targets in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus (SARS-CoV-2) for which screening procedures have lately been established. The presenter has previously developed...
Conference Paper
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an infection that attacks the body’s immune system, specifically, the white blood cells called CD4 cells. HIV destroys these cells, weakening a person’s immunity against opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis and fungal infections, severe bacterial infections, and some cancers. If left untreated, HIV...
Conference Paper
*Presenter’s Email: metugeclovis6@gmail.com The overall goal of the study is to isolate active pure compounds from the stem bark of Croton oligandrus P. & H. species, which may serve as new hits for drug development against HIV. One therapeutic strategy, frequently termed “shock-and-kill”, proposes the treatment of latent HIV-infected cells with l...
Article
Full-text available
Background The development of digital technologies and the evolution of open innovation approaches have enabled the creation of diverse virtual organizations and enterprises coordinating their activities primarily online. The open innovation platform titled “International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce” (INPST) was established in 2018, to bring...
Preprint
Background: The development of digital technologies and the evolution of open innovation approaches have enabled the creation of diverse virtual organizations and enterprises coordinating their activities primarily online. The open innovation platform titled "International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce" (INPST) was established in 2018, to brin...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The development of digital technologies and the evolution of open innovation approaches have enabled the creation of diverse virtual organizations and enterprises coordinating their activities primarily online. The open innovation platform titled “International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce” (INPST) was established in 2018, to brin...
Article
Full-text available
The development of digital technologies and the evolution of open innovation approaches have enabled the creation of diverse virtual organizations and enterprises coordinating their activities primarily online. The open innovation platform titled “International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce” (INPST) was established in 2018, to bring together i...
Article
Full-text available
Developing new methods for quantifying low levels of radioactivity on geological samples is important especially where complex laboratory set up is not available. Digital autoradiography was used to obtain correlation plots for intensity against activity for 90 Sr and 137 Cs, taking gamma and beta emitters in consideration using quartz as the geolo...
Article
Full-text available
The treatment of Salmonella infections is threatened by multidrug resistance necessitating the search for alternative treatments, such as from medicinal plants. There are several reports on the antibacterial activity of Annona muricata. This study assessed the activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella and also the toxicity of the leaves...
Article
Full-text available
For the past two years, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 infection has become a world pandemic, ruining the lives and economies of several nations in the world. This has scaled up research on the virus and the resulting infection with the goal of developing new vaccines and therapies. Natural products are known to be a rich source of le...
Article
Full-text available
We report the major conclusions of the online open-access workshop "Computational Applications in Secondary Metabolite Discovery (CAiSMD)" that took place from 08 to 10 March 2021. Invited speakers from academia and industry and about 200 registered participants from five continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America) took part...
Article
Full-text available
Background Drugs currently used for controlling onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis (LF) are mainly microfilaricidal, with minimal or no effect on the adult worms. For efficient management of these diseases, it is necessary to search for new drugs with macrofilaricidal activities that can be used singly or in combination with existing ones. Dan...
Article
Full-text available
The open innovation hub Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform (DHPSP) was recently established with the purpose to invigorate collaborative scientific research and the development of new digital products and personalized solutions aiming to improve human health and patient safety. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a Twitter-base...
Article
Full-text available
Cyperus rotundus L. (Nutgrass, family Cyperaceae) is a notorious weed which is widespread in temperate tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Owing to its richness and potent pharmacological activities, efforts have been devoted to identify its bioactive constituents. Since 1965, a total of about 192 compounds including terpenoids, flavonoi...
Article
Full-text available
A new iboga-vobasine-type isomeric bisindole alkaloid named voacamine A (1), along with eight known compounds—voacangine (2), voacristine (3), coronaridine (4), tabernanthine (5), iboxygaine (6), voacamine (7), voacorine (8) and conoduramine (9)—were isolated from the stem bark of Voacangaafricana. The structures of the compounds were determined by...
Article
Full-text available
A new iboga-vobasine-with eight known compounds, voacangine (iboxygaine (6), voacamine (7), voacorine (bark of Voacanga africana. The structures of the compounds were determined by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses. Compounds the microfilariae (Mf) and adult male worms of but were only moderately active on the adult female worms upon biochemical...
Article
Full-text available
Antimicrobial resistance is an emerging global health threat necessitating the rapid development of novel antimicrobials. Remarkably, the vast majority of currently available antibiotics are natural products (NPs) isolated from streptomycetes, soil-dwelling bacteria of the genus Streptomyces. However, there is still a huge reservoir of streptomycet...
Article
Full-text available
Chemical investigation of the leaves of Manniophyton fulvum led to the isolation of seven flavonoid glycosides: quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucoside (1), kaempferol-3-O-β-D-rhamnoside (2), myricetin-3-O-β-D-rhamnoside(3), quercetin (4), quercetin-3-O-β-D-galactoside (5), quercetin-3-O-β-D-rhamnoside (6) and rutin (7). The structures of the compounds were es...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Traditional medicine remedies are commonly used for treatment of diverse ailments including bacterial infections. The activity against resistant bacteria and safety of some remedies sold as anti-infective treatments in market places in Buea, Southwest Cameroon were investigated as potential alternative treatment to counter increasing a...
Presentation
Full-text available
No matter how great an idea you may have, if you can't present a convincing case, you can't sell it . If customers, investors don't buy your story, they won't buy what you are selling rather. If panel members, managers, investors are not energized by your pitch, they won't follow your lead. Make sure you really know what you selling or presenting n...
Article
Full-text available
Natural products remain a promising source of new efficacious antimicrobials to counter increasing resistance and prevent emergence of multidrug and extensively resistant bacteria phenotypes which hinder successful chemotherapy. Lichens have been shown to possess significant antimicrobial activity. This study investigated the antibacterial properti...
Article
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Urogenital tract infections remain a serious global treat especially in women. The control of these infections is increasingly complicated due to development of resistance against available drugs. Therefore a perpetual search of new antimicrobial molecules is needed to face the challenge of microbial resistance. This study was initiated to screen t...
Article
Full-text available
Background Onchocerciasis is the world’s second leading infectious cause of blindness. Its control is currently hampered by the lack of a macrofilaricidal drug and by severe adverse events observed when the lone recommended microfilaricide, ivermectin is administered to individuals co-infected with Loa loa. Therefore, there is the need for a safe a...
Presentation
Full-text available
Introduction Subcutaneous filariasis, otherwise known as onchocerciasis or river blindness is a debilitating disease of the poor. It is caused by the filarial nematode, Onchocerca volvulus and transmitted by the bite of the blackfly, Simulium damnosum (Winthrop et al., 2011). Approximately 37 million people globally suffer from onchocerciasis, the...
Presentation
Full-text available
Introduction Subcutaneous filariasis, otherwise known as onchocerciasis or river blindness is a debilitating disease of the poor. It is caused by the filarial nematode, Onchocerca volvulus and transmitted by the bite of the blackfly, Simulium damnosum (Winthrop et al., 2011). Approximately 37 million people globally suffer from onchocerciasis, the...
Presentation
Introduction Subcutaneous filariasis, otherwise known as onchocerciasis or river blindness is a debilitating disease of the poor. It is caused by the filarial nematode, Onchocerca volvulus and transmitted by the bite of the blackfly, Simulium damnosum (Winthrop et al., 2011). Approximately 37 million people globally suffer from onchocerciasis, the...
Presentation
Full-text available
Introduction Subcutaneous filariasis, otherwise known as onchocerciasis or river blindness is a debilitating disease of the poor. It is caused by the filarial nematode, Onchocerca volvulus and transmitted by the bite of the blackfly, Simulium damnosum (Winthrop et al., 2011). Approximately 37 million people globally suffer from onchocerciasis, the...
Article
Full-text available
This study was carried out to isolate active ingredients from Voacanga africana Stapf (Apocynaceae) used as herbal medicine in Cameroon, and also to assess the efficacy of the compounds on Onchocerca ochengi and Loa loa worms. The compounds were isolated using solvent partitioning, column chromatography and fractional crystallization. The O. ocheng...
Article
Full-text available
Onchocerciasis or river blindness is a parasitic disease of man, caused by the filarial worm Onchocerca volvulus and affects an estimated 37 million people, among whom 300000 are blind and an additional 500,000 are visually impaired. The only class of drug targets whose X-ray crystal structure has been solved is the glutathione transferases, co-cry...
Article
Full-text available
Aims: This study investigated the antiplasmodial activity of crude extracts, fractions and pure isolates of P. vulcanica and P. fernandopoioana (Piperaceae). Toxicity and interaction between the most active natural products were also assessed. Study Design: Bioassay-guided approach was used to identify and further investigate the most active compon...
Article
Full-text available
In this review, a continuation of our in depth coverage of natural products derived from West African medicinal plants with diverse biological activities has been given. In the previous parts of this review series, the most abundant bioactive compounds classes; terpenoids, flavonoids and alkaloids from West Africa were thoroughly investigated. We n...
Article
Full-text available
In this review series, an attempt has been made to give indepth coverage of natural products derived from West African medicinal plants with diverse biological activities. In part II of this series, emphasis has been laid on terpenoids from West African flora having remarkable biological activities, as well as a correlation between biological activ...
Article
Full-text available
Background The lack of a safe and effective adult worm drug and the emergence of resistant animal parasite strains to the only recommended drug, the microfilaricide, ivermectin put many at risk of the devastating effects of the onchocerciasis. The present study was undertaken to investigate the acclaimed anti-Onchocerca activity of the roots/rhizom...
Article
Full-text available
The aims of this investigation were to isolate active ingredients from the roots/rhizomes of Cyperus articulatus used as herbal medicine in Cameroon for the treatment of human onchocerciasis and to assess the efficacy of the metabolites on the Onchocerca worm. The antifilarial activity was evaluated in vitro on microfilariae (Mfs) and adult worms o...
Article
Full-text available
This review gives in depth coverage of natural products derived from West African medicinal plants with diverse biological activities. Unique compound classes from West African flora having remarkable biological activities have been highlighted, as well as a correlation between biological activities of the derived compounds and the uses of the plan...
Article
Full-text available
Traditional medicinal practices play a key role in health care systems in countries with developing economies. The aim of this survey was to validate the use of traditional medicine within local Nigerian communities. In this review, we examine the ethnobotanical uses of selected plant species from the Nigerian flora and attempt to correlate the act...
Article
Full-text available
The global burden of bacterial infections is high and has been further aggravated by increasing resistance to antibiotics. In the search for novel antibacterials, three medicinal plants: Peperomia vulcanica, Peperomia fernandopoioana (Piperaceae) and Scleria striatinux (Cyperaceae), were investigated for antibacterial activity and toxicity. Crude e...

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