• Corpus ID: 29891779

Forests as pharmacopoeia : identifying new plant-based treatments for malaria

@inproceedings{2006ForestsAP,
  title={Forests as pharmacopoeia : identifying new plant-based treatments for malaria},
  author={},
  year={2006}
}

• Published 2006
• Medicine

Jonathan Muriuki is Associate Scientist in the Trees and Markets Theme of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya. Malaria remains one of the most prevalent diseases in the tropical world. With 200 million to 450 million infections annually worldwide, it causes up to 2.7 million deaths. The disease remains endemic in more than 100 developing tropical countries, and its control is a major goal for improved worldwide health. In view of the widespread emergence of resistant strains of Plasmodium spp., the pathogen responsible for the disease, enormous efforts are being made to find alternatives to the usual treatments – quinine derivatives and synthetic antimalarials – which are still insufficient to meet the needs. Control of malaria has been based on herbal drugs – and more specifically on forest products – for centuries. Wormwood (Artemisia annua) infusions have been used in China for 2 000 years; bark of Cinchona ledgeriana was used long before its active ingredient, quinine, was isolated in 1820. Many other plants such as Warburgia ugandensis and Azadirachta indica have been used either to treat the disease or as insecticides to control the vector (mosquitoes). Herbal remedies have most often been used in traditional or natural medicine, although some have found their way into conventional pharmacies. Today, however, many medical authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have come to recognize herbal medicine as a viable treatment for various ailments. WHO has recently devoted much attention, for example, to Artemisia annua and other new herbal antimalarials. The active ingredient of Artemisia annua, artemisinin, has recently been identified. Ethnobotanical research has reported over 1 200 species as having antimalarial effects, some of which might hold enormous potential to control this devastating disease if researched further. Malaria may not be a neglected disease, given the WHO interest in its control, but since it mainly afflicts poor populations in the tropics it attracts scant rewards for bioprospecting by big pharmaceutical companies for active molecules that could lead to new drugs – although developed-country interest could rise with speculation that global warming might extend the range of the disease. While traditional methods of treatment exist throughout the tropics, little effort has been devoted to testing them as cheaper alternatives to conventional pharmaceuticals. To coordinate research and investment efforts with a view to creating a steady supply of safe, appropriate and cost-effective forms of treatment for those affected by malaria, the Centre for Development of Enterprise (an institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the European Union) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) organized the Africa Herbal Antimalaria Meeting from 20 to 22 March 2006. Botany and agronomy experts, farmers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and marketers, researchers, herbal medicine practitioners, quality assurance and regulatory specialists, public health administrators and government representatives discussed prospects for new solutions and progress made in the wake of commitments made by African governments to control the disease, particularly through the Roll Back Malaria initiative, which especially promotes the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets as a preventive measure. A research report by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) (Rukunga and Simons, 2006), launched as a working document for the meeting, shows that many chemicals with antimalarial potential can be derived by researching traditional antimalarial formulations. From more than 300 species screened in over a decade of research, 84 species in 34 families were found to have high antimalarial activity. A further 138 species in 50 families were found to have moderate activity. The Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods (RITAM) has launched activities to test the potential of traditional methods for vector control and repellents, prevention and treatment. Candidate species for further research such as Azadirachta indica and Phytolacca dodecandra were presented in the meeting. Forest trees and shrubs such as Entandrophragma angolense, Picralima nitida, Schumanniophyton magnificum and Thomandersia hensii (Bickii et al., 2007), Mammea africana (Okokon, Udokpoh and Essiet, 2006), Annona senegalensis (Ajaiyeoba et al., 2006) and others (see Willcox, Bodeker