Artemisinin

Aloe Bitters (Aloin)

The bitter yellow exudate from the leaf rind, dried to a resin and sold on aloin content. A different article from the gel with different buyers, which is why it is a separate row.

Aloe Vera

Aloe barbadensis — Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia. Gel, powder, and extract.

Aloe Vera Gel

The mucilaginous inner-leaf gel, sold to cosmetic and beverage manufacturers. No Codex standard exists: the trade runs on International Aloe Science Council certification, which is a scheme rather than a limits table.

Artemisia annua (Sweet Wormwood)

The dried leaf, grown on contract for artemisinin extraction. East Africa is the third-largest growing region in the world after China and Vietnam, with roughly 5,000 contracted smallholders across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Khat (Miraa / Qat)

Catha edulis — Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia. Significant trade to Somalia and diaspora markets.

Papain

Proteolytic enzyme from papaya latex, specified by JECFA and the Food Chemicals Codex on activity rather than composition. Pharmaceutical grade above 2,000 USP U/mg sells at USD 45-70/kg. Buyers are pharmaceutical and cosmetic manufacturers, brewers and dairies — none of them papaya buyers.

Prunus africana Bark (Pygeum)

Bark harvested for the benign prostatic hyperplasia extract, from Uganda and Cameroon. CITES Appendix II: every consignment needs an export permit, which makes provenance the thing a buyer is paying for.

Senna Extract (Sennosides)

Standardised extract of senna leaf or pod, sold on sennoside content against a pharmacopoeial monograph. The article a pharmaceutical buyer purchases; the leaf itself is the crop beside it.

Senna Leaves & Pods

Senna alexandrina — Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia. Pharmaceutical laxative export.