Potential antimalarials from African natural products: a review

Abstract

Malaria remains an overwhelming infectious disease with significant health challenges in African and other endemic countries globally. Resistance to antimalarial drugs has become one of the most momentous challenges to human health, and thus has necessitated the hunt for new and effective drugs. Consequently, few decades have witnessed a surfeit of research geared to validate the effectiveness of commonly used traditionally medicines against malaria fever. The present review work focuses on documenting natural products from African whose activity has been reported in vivo or in vitro against malaria parasite. Literature was collected using electronic search of published articles (Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, Sciencedirect, and Science domain) that report on antiplasmodial activity of natural products from differernts Africa region. A total of 652 plant taxa from 146 families, 134 isolated antimalarial compounds from 39 plants species, 2 herbal formulations and 4 insect/products were found to be reported in literature from 1996 to 2015. Plants species from family Asteraceae (11.04%), Fababceae (8.128%), Euphorbiaceae (5.52%), Rubiaceas (5.52%), and Apocyanaceae (5.214%), have received more scientific validation than others. African natural products possess remarkable healing properties as revealed in the various citations as promising antimalarial agents. Some of these natural products from Africa demonstrate high, promising or low activities against Plasmodium parasite. This study also shows that natural products from Africa have a huge amount of novel antimalarial compounds that could serve as a leads for the development of new and effective antiplasmodial drugs. However, in a view of bridging the gap in knowledge, clinical validation of these natural products are of paramount importance.

African natural products with potential antioxidants and hepatoprotectives properties: a review

“…To identify natural products from African flora and fauna with antioxidant and hepatoprotective potentials, a review was compiled based on scientific literature from various sources including; Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, Medline, Science domain [19,22,26,27]. The keywords used for identification of relevant data included the following terms; antioxidant, radical scavenging activities, anti-aging principles, reactive oxygen species, free radicals, African medicinal plants, natural product, 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay (DPPH), reducing properties and lipid peroxidations.…”

“…The methanol extract of the flowering aerial parts of Echinops galalensis (Asteraceae), its fractions and the isolated compounds (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33) have been reported for their hepatoprotective effects agaisnt CCl 4 induced cell damage in an in vitro assay on human hepatoma cell line (Huh7). The extract and isolated compounds (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33) at 100 μg/mL prior to CCl 4 challenge protected against cell injury by decreasing the level of AST, ALT, MDA and increasing the activities of SOD [102].…”

Protective effects of crude and alkaloidal extracts of Tamarindus indica against acute inflammation and nociception in rats

“…However, these drugs are allied with undesired adverse effects. Thus, the search for natural products from plants having protective and therapeutic values with minimal side effects is largely becoming the final hope for mankind [4].…”

Investigation of Phytochemical and Proximate Components in Different Parts of <i>Boerhavia diffusa</i> L. and <i>B. erecta</i> L.

“…Meanwhile, the root of B. diffusa had the higher flavonoid. Alkaloids, flavonoids, quinines, terpenes, triterpenoids, polyphenols, and to a lesser extend sterols are the most common phytochemicals from extracts of West African plants, which were reported for antiplasmodial activities [24]. The leaves and stem of B. diffusa contained the greater values of tannin.…”