ReviewInvestigating South African plants as a source of new antimalarial drugs
Section snippets
Malaria and the situation in South Africa
Malaria, caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium, is one of the leading public health problems in Sub-Saharan Africa responsible for over a million deaths annually (WHO, 2005). This is due to the majority of infections in Africa being caused by Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous of the human malaria parasites as well as the most effective and difficult to control malaria vector, the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, which is the most widespread in Africa. Climatic conditions over a large
The role of ethnopharmacology in the fight against malaria
The main goal of ethnopharmacology is to discover novel plant-derived compounds, based on the indigenous use of medicinal plants, which can be developed into new pharmaceuticals. Historically, plants have proven to be a major source of drugs (Newman et al., 2003), with two of the most widely used antimalarials originating from plants—the quinoline-based antimalarials are modelled on quinine, derived from the bark of the Peruvian Cinchona L. tree; and the endoperoxide-based antimalarials
Methodology
In order to source information on studies, other than that of the authors, a Pubmed and Google Scholar search was conducted using key words (malaria, South Africa, antimalarial/antiplasmodial, medicinal plants, traditional medicine, plant extract). Articles and relevant references were selected based on ethnobotany, in vitro or in vivo antimalarial activity and toxicity of South African plants, focusing on endemic species and studies conducted by local researchers.
All publications cited use
Results and discussion
Overall three ethnobotanical screening programmes were conducted on South African plants (Prozesky et al., 2001, Nundkumar and Ojewale, 2002, Clarkson et al., 2004). There were four further studies where a more direct approach was adopted and plants within a particular genus were screened for antimalarial activity (Tetyana et al., 2002, Van Zyl and Viljoen, 2002, Kamatou et al., 2005, Kamatou et al., 2008). In addition some plants were evaluated in individual studies (Campbell et al., 1997,
Conclusions
Overall the results of the screening programmes supported a rational rather than random approach to the selection of antiplasmodial screening candidates and identified a number of promising taxa for further investigation as plant-based antimalarial agents.
The identification of compounds with antiplasmodial properties from South African medicinal plants implicated in the treatment of malaria suggests that they may play a role in the medicinal properties of the plant, but their potential for the
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2021, Phytochemistry, the Military and Health: Phytotoxins and Natural DefensesA review of the traditional use of southern African medicinal plants for the treatment of malaria
2019, Journal of EthnopharmacologyCitation Excerpt :This study aimed to identify southern African plants used in situ for the treatment of malaria in humans and to analyse and review the published literature for scientific evidence to support their use in southern African traditional healing systems. Information presented in this review was sourced from a variety of ethnobotanical books (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962; Hutchings et al., 1996; Von Koenen, 1996; Van Wyk et al., 2009) and ethnobotanical reviews (Gerstner, 1941; Mabogo, 1990; Prozesky et al., 2001; Nundkumar and Ojewale, 2002; Pillay et al., 2008; Chinsembu and Hedimbi, 2010; Philander, 2011; De Beer and van Wyk, 2011; Kose et al., 2015; Ngarivhume et al., 2015; Asowata-Ayodele et al., 2016 etc.). The analysed papers were selected from three electronic databases (Pubmed, Science-Direct and Scopus) during the periods of 2017–March 2019.
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2018, Journal of EthnopharmacologyPhytochemical and antioxidant properties of different solvent extracts of Kirkia wilmsii tubers
2016, Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical BiomedicineCitation Excerpt :Thus it is important to investigate the antioxidant potential of K. wilmsii. A considerable number of publications have been reported on the phytochemistry of leaves and the bark of K. wilmsii [5,7–9,14]. Limited studies on the tuber have been directed at the evaluation of its traditional medicinal applications [4,10].