The indiscriminate use of non-regulated skin lighteners among African populations has raised health concerns due to the negative effects associated with skin lightener toxicity. For this reason, there is a growing interest in the cosmetic development of plants and their metabolites as alternatives to available chemical-derived skin lightening formulations. Approximately 90% of Africa’s population depends on traditional medicine, and the continent’s biodiversity holds plant material with various biological activities, thus attracting considerable research interest. This study aimed to review existing evidence and document indigenous African plant species capable of inhibiting the enzyme tyrosinase and melanogenesis for potential incorporation into skin lightening products. Literature search on melanin biosynthesis, skin lightening, and tyrosinase inhibitors resulted in the identification of 35 plant species were distributed among 31 genera and 21 families across 15 African countries and 9 South African provinces. All plants identified in this study showed competent tyrosinase and melanogenesis inhibitory capabilities. These results indicate that African plants have the potential to serve as alternatives to current chemically-derived skin lighteners.

This chapter highlight the outcomes of four important surveys designed to monitor South Africans’ experiences during the COVID-19 motivated countrywide hard lockdown, implemented from March 2020 to November 2020 and their views on the South African government efforts to tackle COVID-19. Based on the outcomes observed, during this time majority of vulnerable populations did not only experience food insecurity as a result in job loses; they also became aware of their deteriorating financial and health statuses. Hence, they devised innovative strategies to replenish their household food pantries, by stocking up on available staple foods from shops, and learning to cook food from scratch at home, instead of their usual way of relying on take-away foods. They acknowledged the South African government’s leadership during this time and together with it they coproduced policies that enforced the scale-up of food and financial security initiatives. Among these initiatives are: i) the introduction and the distribution of 350 South African Rand Social Relief of Distress grant to support vulnerable South Africans who do not get social security grants, ii) affording food handouts to the distressed populations, and iii) supporting sustainable livelihoods by promoting subsistence-focused smallholder and household farming. Vulnerable South African children were not left out, such that those who were eligible to be on school nutrition program could still access a healthy and nutritious meal each day throughout school closures. While those eligible to receive the National Student Financial Aid Scheme still got their share to motivate them to remain registered at tertiary institutions.

This chapter draws on secondary data to explore the drivers and the consequences of food and nutrition insecurity in South Africa. The General Household Surveys, Quarterly Employment Surveys, Labour Force Surveys, COVID-19 National Income and Dynamic Study and the Old Mutual Survey are employed to determine current South African trends in food security, access to food, employment, financial freedom and food affordability. The findings indicate that the majority of South Africans became food insecure 3 to 5 months within the COVID-19 pandemic. Many South African workers lost their jobs and some reported earning less than usual. Consequently, a large proportion were unable to purchase groceries that would afford them nutritionally balanced diets. This might have contributed to the already entrenched occurrence of two or more nutritional disorders (double burden of malnutrition or malnutrition syndemic) that are often visible among the poorer and some middle-income South African households. It is against this background that practical interventions to address drivers of food insecurity must be examined, so as to draw lessons for improving current and future interventions to mitigate future similar pandemics.