For Ethnomedical validation the centre employs a unique
methodology which consists of:

- Conducting surveys of plants used for indigenous treatments
- Subjecting the list to biological and chemical dereplication
- Using an innovation system know as COBEL
(Clinical Outcome Based Ethnomedical Leads)

Our basic approach consists of the following steps:

• Conducting surveys of plants used for indigenous treatment of diseases that have clearly identified symptoms or symptom-complexes;
• Subjecting the list to biological and chemical de-replication and selecting only those plants that are used across large communities, areas or among different ethnic groups and the plants did not belong to groups already designated undesirable by several criteria;
• The plants still in current use as traditional remedies are evaluated using the Clinical Outcome-Based Evaluation;
• The few plants that are positive in the COE study are then selected for in-dept laboratory studies. Our method has led to the identification of several plants as potential therapeutic agents.