Ngongongare Research Station
This Station dedicated for traditional medicine is located at Ngongongare village in Arusha-Meru District in Arusha Region. It was established in February 2008 through a collaborative project with the Cooperazione Italiana Nord Sud (CINS) and Associazione African Futura (AAF) titled “Conservation and Valorization of the Local Medicinal Plants Resources and Traditional Medical Knowledge in Tanzania”. The aim of the project was to valorise local natural resources and safeguarding biodiversity of Tanzania through the creation of experimental facilities designed to provide research and development and testing sites for innovative technologies, including (but not limited to) environment protection and preservation.
The Station was handed over from the CINS/AAF to the National Institute for Medical Research on 16th September 2008 and it was turned into NIMR’s research station and named NIMR –Ngongongare, after the village in which the facility. This Station deals with promotion of traditional medicine especially product development and commercialization. It was established to be become the first “Modern Phytomedicine Research Laboratory” in Tanzania.
The station is situated at an altitude of 1,380M above sea level and occupies an area of 25,906.4 square meters (about 6.4 acres). NIMR-Ngongongare is equipped with a phytochemistry laboratory with equipment for grinding, soaking, extraction and fractionation of medicinal plants. There are also three hostels with a total of seven self-contained rooms. There are four residential houses and an administrative office.
The unique location of the station (close to a game park) and its neighbourhood to the Maasai and Meru people offer it with the richness of plant-biodiversity and immense body of indigenous knowledge both of which are a vital feeder to research undertaking in traditional medicines. The self-contained scientists hostels located in a quiet wilderness is ideal for visiting researchers to read, write and utilize the laboratory facility in their research undertaking.
PICTORIAL PRESENTATION OF SOME BUILDINGS AT NIMR – NGONGONGARE
