European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A COMPENDIUM OF RECENT PHYTOCHEMICAL ANTIMALARIALS ISOLATED FROM MEDICINAL PLANTS

*Sulaiman Ayodeji Apampa, David Adeniran Adedapo and Aisha Yusuf Lawal

ABSTRACT

Malaria is a major parasitic disease in many tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and some parts of the world. It is responsible for more than 1 million deaths each year in Africa. The rapid spread of resistance encourages the search for new active compounds. Nature and particularly plants used in traditional medicine are a potential source of new antimalarial drugs as they contain molecules with great variety of potency and pharmacological activities. A large number of antimalarial compounds with different structures have been isolated from medicinal plants and can play important roles in the development of new antimalarial drugs. Ethnopharmacological approaches appear to be a promising way to find plant metabolites that could be used as templates for designing new derivatives with improved properties. This review covers twenty five phytochemically based anti-plasmodial/antimalarial agents isolated recently and sourced from medicinal plants which are used in the treatment of malaria in Africa and other parts of the world. Their activity against malaria parasites in vitro and in vivo (using experimentally infected mice) ranges from promising and excellent to moderate antiplasmodial activities. Macluraxanthone, volkensiflavone, pinocembrin, dehydrotylophorine, dehydroantofine, tylophoridicine, (—) – milonine, stephanine, crebanine, O-methylbulbocapnine, cheilanthifoline, simplicifolianine, palmatine, pseudopalmatine, 2-hydroxyatherosperminine and kuercitin which possessed interesting, promising, excellent and very significant antimalarial properties among the reported isolated phytyconstituents may present an array of potential lead compounds towards development of novel antimalarial drugs. The search for new drugs from medicinal plants is important due to the emergence and widespread of chloroquine-resistant and multiple drug-resistant malaria parasites with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) which hitherto requires the development of new antimalarials. The use of plants as antimalarials may be a springboard for new phytotherapies that could be affordable and accessible in treating malaria, especially among the less privileged people living in endemic areas of the tropics that are vulnerable and at risk of this devastating disease. It is recommended that in-vivo antiplasmodial activities of compounds 1-6 and 13-25 and in-vivo cytotoxicty activities of compounds 1–16, 20, 22, 24 and 25 which have not been carried out should investigated further in other to substantiate their anti-malarial property and safety in treating malaria infections in orthodox medicine.

Keywords: Antimalarials, Phytochemicals, Medicinal plants and Malaria.