Area of Specialisation: Evaluation, Standardisation and Phytochemistry of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicines
Brief Biosketch
Professor Olukemi Abiodun Odukoya FAS is an accomplished academic Pharmacist of extraordinary insight and has leadership qualities that attract followers. She is the first Nigerian female Pharmacist to be Professor in Pharmacognosy and the first Professor in that field produced by the University of Lagos. Professor Odukoya has an elegant neat outlook and behaviour, selflessness, benevolence, brilliance and diligence qualities. She successfully matched the town with the gown by delivering her inaugural lecture in 2010. Thus, contributed to scholarship in the University of Lagos as first to deliver an inaugural lecture in Pharmacognosy at the University of Lagos and first female to deliver an inaugural lecture on that specialty in Nigeria. She has a fulfilled career demonstrating consistent success in the Pharmaceutical specialty of Pharmacognosy, Natural drug product Chemistry, Herbal research expert and educator; and to the advancement of the frontiers of knowledge in the area of biologically active natural products. This is a subject of great importance to tropical countries such as Nigeria because of the need to develop the potential of the local biodiversity, especially the contribution that could be made in the area of products for improvement of health. Thus she has helped to solve both social and economic problems in her field. The achievement of Professor Odukoya’s scholarly research has been communicated to others in form of publications, in reputable journals, seminars and conferences both nationally and internationally. Some of these publications established Pharmacopeia standards, some unraveled the chemical constituents of biologically active medicinal plants while others evaluated and assessed some medicinal plants and herbal medicinal products for biological activity.
Professor Odukoya is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science, Merit award winner of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Fellow Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Fellow West Africa Post graduate College of Pharmacists, Fellow Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy and Fellow Academy of Medicine Specialties. Through excellence in research, her team emerged as the University of Lagos best researcher in Science and Medicine for the year 2007 and 2008. She was awarded a Gold Medal as the highest honour for excellence and innovation in Research by the University of Lagos in 2011. As a leader with vision, she pioneered the first Herbal Therapeutics Laboratory in the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos. She is a recipient of various research grants: NAFDAC TetFund COVID-19 Research Grant Award, Lagos State Research Council Grant Award, Winner 12th May & Baker Award for Excellence in Pharmacy.
Professor Odukoya is an enterprenor and has been able to translate her research results with the successful registration of Two (2) Patents, One (1) Copyright, Eight (8) products as herbal teas with NAFDAC and full registration of One (1) herbal mixture formulated and clinically tested as an immune Booster and Antioxidant under the NAFDAC TetFund COVID-19 Research Grant Award. She is also a philanthropist as the founder of Olukemi Abiodun Odukoya Cancer Solutions Initiative in celebration of her life as a cancer survivor.
