Researcher profile

Adebola Omowunmi Oyedeji

Adebola Omowunmi Oyedeji holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She is currently a Professor at Walter Sisulu University, Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, NMD Campus, Eastern Cape, South Africa, where she teaches organic chemistry at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and, lead a vibrant natural product research group with over 16 (H, M and D) students. Her work hinges on natural products chemistry with special interest in finding the medicinal values of terpenoids class of compounds in medicinal plants. Most of her work has been on inaugurating the link between chemistry and the ethnomedicinal claim of the plant being used in traditional medicine and cosmetics. She has been able to establish the connexion between types of terpenoids in plants to their uses in traditional medicine. She has isolates several compounds, some of which were further derivatized and evaluated for their potency as anticancer (breast cancer), anti-inflammatory, anti-gonorrhoea, antibacterial to mention a few. She continues to study the South African essential oil bearing plants in order to establish the various chemotypes for commercialization. She is a C2 NRF rated scientist and has over 90 SAPSE published articles and has successfully supervised 5PhDs, 10MSc and over 15Hons students in the last 4 years. Prof Oyedeji is a recipient of some awards such as DAAD (1997), TWAS (2003), NRF South Africa (2003-2004), University of Zululand Research Roll of Honor (2008), National Research Foundation Rated Scientist (2010-2015 and 2016-2021), WSU Established Female Researcher (2017), WSU Vice Chancellor Excellence in Research (2017) and Fulbright Scholar (2025). She has successfully mentored several colleagues towards NRF rating applications, Thuthuka, IKS and Postdoctoral & Student Freestanding grant proposal applications. She currently chairs the Walter Sisulu University Manuscript Writing Committee and Scientific Committee for University Conferences under the Directorate of Research and Development. She is a member of Chemical Society of Nigeria (CNS), Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS), Indigenous Plant Use Forum, South Africa, South African Chemical Institution (SACI) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). She is also an affiliated member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). She is also a member of the prestigious member of The Academy of Science South African (ASSAf) and Federation of Societies of Chemistry (FSC).