Water Wheel Nov/Dec 2025: Indigenous Crops

Abstract

Even those unfamiliar with Pelargonium sidoides could likely have benefited from the plant’s medicinal properties. A member of the Geraniaceae family, it flourishes in its endemic habitats in the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces, as well as in Lesotho. Commercial extracts of P . sidoides’s bitter roots are sold worldwide in syrups, tablets, and lozenges. Popular brands include Linctagon Cand Umckaloabo. Yet, the tufted pelargonium, with its velvety silver leaves and near-black flowers, is still not being grown on scale to the benefit of communities that first uncovered the plant’s medicinal properties. Cultivating the plant, which is often harvested from the wild, is not straightforward. Ulrich Feiter, CEO of Parceval Pharmaceuticals, which grows the plant locally for export, points out that it took years of experimentation before they were able to do so successfully on a large scale.

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