Prof. Bonaventure T. Ngadjui has mainly been involved in the study of the active components of plants used in indigenous medicine in Cameroon. His research approach has progressively been directed to the bioassay-guided isolation, leading to the isolation of several compounds from plants.

He has investigated, among others, the constituents of the Cameroonian medicinal plants Alchornea cordifolia, Dorstenia mannii, Dorstenia poinsettifolia, Dorstenia involuta, Dorstenia zenkeri, Dorstenia prorepen, Bridelia micrantha Harungana madagascariensis, Vismia laurentii, Eriosema glomerata. Several new secondary metabolites were isolated from the active extracts, from which he was able to identify several promising antiinflammatory, antimicrobial and alpha-glucosidase inhibitor compounds, using the untapped potential Cameroonian medicinal plants.

These compounds are of high interest for the pharmaceutical industry. The results were reported in journals of high international repute (more than 130 publications).

His research interests have also expanded to the isolation of several bioactive compounds including plumericin and isoplumericin, two carcinogenic compounds, from the Cameroonian medicinal plant Plumeria rubra. These two compounds showed strong antifungal activities with radii of zones of inhibition of 28 and 25 mm, respectively, compared to the potent commercialized antifungal compound Nystatin (zone of inhibition 20 mm). Fractions containing these compounds were also very active and cannot be recommended for healing a cold or related disease by the local population due to their carcinogenic properties.

Most of these scientific results were obtained in collaboration with foreign scientists such as Prof. Abegaz Berhanu at the University of Botswana, Prof. H. Laatsch at the Department of Chemistry, University of Goettingen, Prof. K. Krohn at the Department of Chemistry, University of Paderborn, Germany, Prof. J.D. Connolly at the Department of Chemistry, University of Glasgow and Prof. M. Iqbal Choudhary at the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi, Pakistan. Prof. Ngadjui has been appointed as head of the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Traditional Pharmacopoeia in the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaounde 1.