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A study of chemicals produced by leaves and peels of a trio of citrus fruits has earned one WSU analytical chemistry lecturer her Masters degree from the institution’s natural sciences faculty.
Lecturer at the Buffalo City Campus’ Potsdam Site, Vuyokazi Mazwi’s has become the first-ever BCC academic to graduate from the university’s natural sciences faculty following a study that seeks to evaluate the Citrus limon and Citrus unshiu peels and leaf essential oils grown in South Africa for the purpose of understanding their chemical constituents so as to mitigate the negative effects.
“Indeed I’m the first chemistry Masters graduate from BCC to obtain her qualification within the university. I feel proud to have been part of the such an innovative research group led by one of the University’s most distinguished academics, Prof Adebola Oyedeji.”
“Also, I commend the WSU council and management for providing a bursary to study Masters and PhD by research. This indeed is what is called human capital development. This is also an opportunity to make our accredited postgraduate programmes to be competitive and attractive in order to make our institution a University of Choice,” said a gleeful Mazwi.
Dubbed the ‘Natural Products Research Group’, the ensemble, led by Prof Oyedeji, comprised of Honours, Masters and PhD-candidates from within WSU as well as internationally to specifically look at investigating different types of plants’ essential oil and how these can be of benefit to broader society.
Mazwi said with regards to her research, the essential oils were extracted from the three fruits using hydro-distillation, which were then analysed with a gas chromatography equipped with a mass spectrometer for detection.
She said this process revealed, amongst other things, d-Limonene (chemical found in the rind of citrus fruits) as a major compound in most of the peel samples recording an amount of over 70% whilst g-terpinene (a group of isomeric hydrocarbons) was observed to be the major compound in leaf samples.
“The results further reveals variation between same species that are cultivated in different farms, which suggests that these samples would find wide applicability in different sectors. For example, literature reveals that these identified bioactive compounds can be used for the synthesis of new drugs due to their health benefits,” said Mazwi.
For Mazwi, obtaining the Masters degree is a giant step towards her ultimate goal of obtaining a doctoral degree in chemistry which would drastically improve the quality of the teaching and learning experience for her students through research-intense pedagogy.
She said she intends registering for her PhD studies within WSU as this will ensure the institution increases its postgraduate throughput rate in the science stream.
By Thando Cezula
