The Safflower Africa Project, Promoting The Medicinal Vegetable for Africa

Safflower-( Carthamus tinctorius) is both a food and a medicinal plant with vegetables and cooking oil production potential. The Safflower magic (Kiama) variety is likely to upset the Health Industry business model in that promoting its consumption could lower the disease burden of African countries by half and growing and selling its petals and oil could raise enough money to cater for the healthcare expenses for the other half of the population. For example, 1Kg of safflower petals contains 5-7 gms of Carthamidin (Hydroxysafflor Yellow A) which is available on Amazon.com @ 8-20 US$/mg vials. 1 Hectare can produce 400 Kg of safflower petals. The demand for the safflower petals in the Chinese Traditional Medicine alone is over 1 Million Kgs per annum.
The Safflower Africa Project will deliver 10,000 Ha of safflower farms in 50 African Countries by the year 2050.