1. J Pharm Pharmacol. 2009 Nov;61(11):1401-33.

Antimalarial compounds isolated from plants used in traditional medicine.

Bero J, Frédérich M, Quetin-Leclercq J.

Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Drug Research Institute, Analytical
Chemistry, Drug Analysis and Pharmacognosy Unit, Brussels, Belgium.
joanne.bero@uclouvain.be

OBJECTIVES: This review covers the compounds with antiplasmodial activity
isolated from plants published from 2005 to the end of 2008, organized according 
to their phytochemical classes. Details are given for substances with IC50 values
< or = 11 microm. KEY FINDINGS: Malaria is a major parasitic disease in many
tropical and subtropical regions and 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 a great variety of structures and pharmacological activities.
SUMMARY: A large number of antimalarial compounds with a wide variety of
structures have been isolated from plants and can play a role 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.

PMID: 19903367 [PubMed - in process]