Laboratorio de Malaria, Centro de Pesquisas Rene Rachou, FIOCRUZ, Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2011 Jan 27;133(2):289-302. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2010.11.024. Epub 2010 Nov 18.
Malaria, caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium, is one of the leading infectious diseases in many tropical regions, including Nigeria, a West African country where transmission occurs all year round. Many of the inhabitants use plants as remedies against fever and other symptoms of acute malaria, as reported herein. Some of these plants have their antimalarial efficacies scientifically demonstrated and the active compounds isolated with their probable mechanisms of action studied. Medicinal plants are used to treat diseases also where the biodiversity of plants occur in parallel with endemic transmission of malaria. This review focuses on medicinal plants which are used to treat malaria in Nigeria, and on antimalarial testing of extracts and purified compounds from plants. Some show intense activity against malaria parasites in vitro and in experimentally infected mice. The search for new drugs based on plants is important due to the emergence and widespread of chloroquine-resistant and multiple drug-resistant malaria parasites, which require the development of new antimalarials. An acquaintance with antimalarial plants may be a springboard for new phytotherapies that could be affordable to treat malaria, especially among the less privileged native people living in endemic areas of the tropics, mostly at risk of this devastating disease.
疟疾是由疟原虫属寄生虫引起的疾病，是包括尼日利亚在内的许多热带地区主要的传染病之一。尼日利亚是西非国家，全年都有疟原虫传播。正如本文所报道的，许多居民使用植物作为治疗发烧和其他急性疟疾症状的药物。这些植物中的一些具有抗疟疗效，并已通过科学证明，其活性化合物也已被分离出来，并研究了其可能的作用机制。在植物多样性与疟疾地方性传播并存的地方，药用植物也被用于治疗疾病。本文重点介绍了尼日利亚用于治疗疟疾的药用植物，以及植物提取物和纯化化合物的抗疟活性测试。一些植物在体外和实验性感染的小鼠中对疟原虫表现出强烈的活性。由于出现了抗氯喹和多药耐药性疟原虫，需要开发新的抗疟药物，因此基于植物寻找新药非常重要。了解抗疟植物可能成为新植物疗法的起点，这些疗法可能负担得起治疗疟疾的费用，特别是在热带地区地方性流行地区生活的贫困土著人民中，他们面临这种破坏性疾病的风险最大。
