A review of antimalarial plants used in traditional medicine in communities in Portuguese-speaking countries: Brazil, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola

• Published in: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Vol. 106 Suppl 1; no. suppl 1; pp. 142 - 158
• Main Authors: Silva, Jefferson Rocha de A, Ramos, Aline de S, Machado, Marta, de Moura, Dominique F, Neto, Zoraima, Canto-Cavalheiro, Marilene M, Figueiredo, Paula, do Rosário, Virgilio E, Amaral, Ana Claudia F, Lopes, Dinora
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brazil Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 01-08-2011; Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ)
• Subjects: Angola; antimalarial; Antimalarials - classification; Antimalarials - isolation & purification; Antimalarials - therapeutic use; Atlantic Islands; Brazil; Cabo Verde; extracts; folk medicine; Guinea-Bissau; Humans; Language; malaria; Malaria - drug therapy; medicinal plants; Medicine, Traditional; Mozambique; PARASITOLOGY; Phytotherapy - methods; Plants, Medicinal - classification; TROPICAL MEDICINE; extracts; antimalarial; medicinal plants; malaria; folk medicine
• ISSN: 0074-0276; 1678-8060; 1678-8060; 0074-0276
• DOI: 10.1590/S0074-02762011000900019

The isolation of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants, based on traditional use or ethnomedical data, is a highly promising potential approach for identifying new and effective antimalarial drug candidates. The purpose of this review was to create a compilation of the phytochemical studies on medicinal plants used to treat malaria in traditional medicine from the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPSC): Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. In addition, this review aimed to show that there are several medicinal plants popularly used in these countries for which few scientific studies are available. The primary approach compared the antimalarial activity of native species used in each country with its extracts, fractions and isolated substances. In this context, data shown here could be a tool to help researchers from these regions establish a scientific and technical network on the subject for the CPSC where malaria is a public health problem.