Department of Pharmacognosy & Quality Assurance, SVKM's Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Pharmacy, Mumbai, India.
Curr Drug Discov Technol. 2022;19(3):e040322201773. doi: 10.2174/1570163819666220304203504.
The tropical parasitic infections account for more than 2 billion infections and cause substantial morbidity and mortality, and account for several million deaths every year. Majorly parasitic infections in humans and animals are caused by protozoa and helminths. Chronic infections in the host can cause retardation, impairment of cognitive skills, development in young children and weaken the immune system. The burden is felt to a greater extent in developing countries due to poverty, inaccessibility to medicines and resistance observed to drugs. Thus, human health continues to be severely harmed by parasitic infections. Medicinal plants have received much attention as alternative sources of drugs. Zanthoxylum genus has been used ethnobotanically as an antiparasitic agent and the phytoconstituents in Zanthoxylum, show a wide variety of chemical substances with proven pharmacological actions such as alkaloids (isoquinolines and quinolines responsible for antitumor activity, antimalarial, antioxidant and antimicrobial actions), lignans, coumarins (antibacterial, antitumour, vasodilatory and anticoagulant activities), alkamide (strong insecticidal properties, anthelminthic, antitussive and analgesic anti antimalarial property). Therefore, this article is an attempt to review the existing literature that emphasizes on potential of genus Zanthoxylum as a source of lead compounds for the treatment of parasitic diseases.
热带寄生虫感染导致超过 20 亿人次感染，并造成大量发病和死亡，每年导致数百万人死亡。人类和动物的主要寄生虫感染是由原生动物和蠕虫引起的。宿主的慢性感染会导致发育迟缓、认知能力受损、幼儿发育不良和免疫系统减弱。由于贫困、药物不可及以及药物耐药性等原因，发展中国家的负担更为严重。因此，寄生虫感染继续严重危害人类健康。药用植物作为替代药物来源受到了广泛关注。花椒属植物在民族植物学上被用作驱虫剂，花椒中的植物成分显示出广泛的化学物质，具有已证明的药理学作用，如生物碱（异喹啉和喹啉负责抗肿瘤、抗疟、抗氧化和抗菌作用）、木脂素、香豆素（具有抗菌、抗肿瘤、血管扩张和抗凝活性）、酰胺（具有强烈的杀虫特性、驱虫、镇咳和抗疟作用）。因此，本文试图综述现有文献，强调花椒属作为治疗寄生虫病的潜在先导化合物来源。
