Medicinal plants used in the treatment of Malaria: A key emphasis to Artemisia, Cinchona, Cryptolepis, and Tabebuia genera
Can medicinal plants help in the treatment of malaria?
Medicinal plants used in the treatment of Malaria: A key emphasis to Artemisia, Cinchona, Cryptolepis, and Tabebuia genera. Malaria is one of the life-threatening parasitic diseases that is endemic in tropical areas. The increased prevalence of malaria due to drug resistance leads to a high incidence of mortality.
How do traditional healers treat malaria?
Results: In total, 28 plants from 16 plant families are used by the healers who manage malaria with medicinal plants. The most cited plant is Cassia abbreviata Oliv. (Leguminosae) followed by Aristolochia albida Duch (Aristolociaceae) and Toddalia asiatica (L.) Lam. (Rutaceae). Roots (55.3%) are the most common part used.
Are there any anti-malarial plants?
Apr 12, 2017 · After testing all the selected plants for their antimalarial efficacy, we found the following six plant species to have the highest potential. *Azadirachta indica *Fagaropsis angolensis *Rhus...
Can Catharanthus roseus be used to treat malaria?
groups of constituents that contribute to the antimalarial activity.17 (see Table 1) Cinchona officinalis bark contains up to 7% alkaloid content (by dry weight), with about 48% of that being quinine and derivatives of the cinchonine group, which also contain antimalarial properties. 16,18
What plant is used for malaria?
For centuries people have used their knowledge about the environment to treat various ailments. For example, the Chinese herbalists have used extracts of the Qinghao plant; Artemisia annua also known as sweet wormwood for malaria treatment for over 1,500 years.
Why do people in Africa use medicinal plants?
Most communities heavily rely on medicinal plants to prevent and treat diseases. About 80% of people in Africa depend on traditional medicine. Traditional healers prescribe medicinal plants to treat various illnesses. These plants are an accessible and affordable form of treatment for communities across the continent.
Where does quinine come from?
For example quinine, an antimalarial, comes from the medicinal plant Cinchona succirubra. Artemisinin is derived from Artemisia annua, another medicinal plant. These previous successes underscores the importance of medicinal plants in ...
Why are medicinal plants important?
Medicinal plants have ingredients that can treat a condition or disease or can be used to manufacture useful drugs. Herbal medicines are an important part of culture and traditions all over the continent and beyond. For centuries people have used their knowledge about the environment to treat various ailments.
Why is scientific evaluation important?
Scientific evaluation for safety, efficacy and quality of medicinal plant preparations is important in safeguarding users. From our research, we found out that that medicinal plants are a potential source of new antimalarial drugs or preparations.
Is malaria a public health problem in Kenya?
Malaria is preventable and treatable. But it’s a major public health problem in Kenya: there are an estimated 6.7 million new cases and 4,000 deaths each year. It accounts for 15% of all out patient attendance in Kenya’s health facilities’ admissions. Drug resistance has led to most of the malaria drugs in the market becoming ineffective in ...
Is there a drug resistance to malaria?
Drug resistance has led to most of the malaria drugs in the market becoming ineffective in treating the disease. There is therefore an urgent and continuous call to search for new antimalarial agents. Most of the drugs used to treat malaria are either derived from plants or are products of natural sources. For example quinine, an antimalarial, ...
What is malaria treated with?
Malaria is known as tazo or tazomoka in local terminology in Madagascar. Within the context of traditional practice, malaria (and/or malaria symptoms) is commonly treated by decoctions or infusions from bitter plants. One possible approach to the identification of new antimalarial drug candidates is to search for compounds that cure or prevent malaria in plants empirically used to treat malaria. Thus, it is worth documenting the ethnobotanical data, and testing the antiplasmodial activity of the extractive from plants.
What is malaria in Madagascar?
Malaria, which was initially recognized as episodic fever, was probably introduced into Madagascar from mainland Africa by immigration. Malaria was reported as early as 1602 on the coast of Madagascar [ 1 ]. This disease remains a public health problem [ 2 ]. The Malagasy words tazo and tazomoka refer to the clinical signs suggestive of malaria: principally fever, headache, backache, shivering and fatigue. Malagasy people, particularly those living in the countryside, use traditional plants to fight infectious diseases. The current use of plants for medicinal purposes reflects the attachment of the people to their culture and a lack of access to modern medicine (associated with poverty in most cases).
Where is Ombiasy located?
We interviewed traditional healers, known locally as ombiasy, at Andasibe in the eastern, rainy part of Madagascar. We recorded details of the preparation and use of plants for medicinal purposes. We extracted five alkaloids from Z. tsihanimposa stem bark, and tested them in vitro against Plasmodium falciparum FCM29.
What are the beliefs of the Malagasy people?
The beliefs of the Malagasy people encompass not only the Christian god, but also ancestor spirits. All plants belong to God and it is, therefore, necessary to ask God's permission to use plants by means of prayers. The Malagasy believe that there is a balance between the harmful and curative powers of medicinal plants, and they pray to ancestral spirits to swing this balance towards healing and away from harm. The Malagasy people pray to the east, because they believe that there is a connection between God and the sun, both during and after collection, preparation and administration. Healers place salt at the base of the first plant of a set to be collected, because the order of collection is important. The time of day and the time of year are also relevant. It is thought best to collect material at full moon, because there is believed to be a connection between the phase of the moon and plant biology. Some plants are also preferentially collected at the beginning of the wet season, which lasts from September to April. Our survey suggested that healers classified plants as "principal" plants (which may be used alone) and "secondary" plants (which must be mixed with a principal plant). Cure duration varies from three to seven days. It was often mentioned that remedy should be given until recovery without any well defined duration. Such practice might increase toxic risk/hazard. Our survey in Andasibe showed that the ombiasy (healer, drug maker) combine the functions of diviner, traditional healer, and astrologer. Even highly educated person would not think of building a house without consulting the healer to determine the best day on which to begin the work. The survey demonstrated that traditional practice and traditional medicine are deeply rooted in Malagasy culture. Those who know about medicinal plants sometimes diagnose or treat themselves without first consulting a qualified medical practitioner or healer.
What plants are in the decoction of the leaf and bark?
A decoction of the leaf and bark is mixed with a selection of plants from the following list: Cinnamosma fragrans, Desmodium mauritianum, Ficus megapoda, Zanthoxylum tsihanimposa, Gambeya boiviniana, Peddia involucrata. This mixture is drunk (1 bowl, 3–4 times daily) to relieve malarial symptoms, tiredness, muscular aches and pains.
What are healers' practices?
A healer's practices involve exploration, exploitation and secrecy. Before they will tell someone what they really use to treat sick people, they need to feel secure and that the person concerned is sincere. A healer told us that " during the colonization period, when foreigners came to the rural village with Madagascan civil servants to ask about the use of plants to cure illness, some local people told them lies, indicating plants around their houses to which they attributed imaginary, nonsense uses".
Can you use tazo alone?
Individual plants are rarely used alone. In most cases, they are used as mixtures (see plant list). It will never be easy to determine which plants are likely to be the most useful and should be examined to isolate pure active compounds. In traditional practice, tazo (malaria) is used as a general synonym for fever, shivering, muscle and joint pain, fatigue and headache. Some antimalarial plants are used for preparing baths or for inhalations (aromatic plants). It might, therefore, be useful to test the antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities of these groups of plants.