Antibacterial, anthelmintic and anti-amoebic activity in South African medicinal plants

A large proportion of the population of developing countries usestraditional medicine alone, or in combination with Western drugs to treat awide variety of ailments. There has seldom been effective collaborationbetween the traditional and Western medical practitioners, largely due tothe perception that the use of traditional and herbal medicines has noscientific basis. With the renewed interest from Western countries in herbalremedies, and the increasingly urgent need to develop new effective drugs,traditionally used medicinal plants have recently received the attention ofthe pharmaceutical and scientific communities. This involves the isolationand identification of the secondary metabolites produced by the plants andused as the active principles in medical preparations. Research into thescientific validation of southern African medicinal plants used in thetreatment of pain and inflammation, hypertension and parasitic diseasesincluding those with anthelmintic, anti-amoebic, anti-bacterial and anti-bilharzia activity, is the current focus of studies conducted at the ResearchCentre for Plant Growth and Development.

Towards the scientific validation of traditional medicinal plants

Chemical investigation of many bacterial and fungal, as well as plant species has revealed the presence of in- teresting compounds derived from naphthalene - 1,4-naphthoquinones and rarely also 1,2-naphthoquinones. They were detected in many species of families Bignoniaceae, Droseraceae, Plumbaginace, Boraginaceae, Juglandaceae as well as in species of small families, such as Dioncophyllaceae or Acanthaceae. Naphthoquinones have very interesting spectrum of biological actions, including antibiotic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects. Because of these properties the plants containing them are used in folk medicines, mainly by natives in Asia, where espe- cially Chinese medicine uses aerial as well as subterranean parts of these plants for hundreds years, and South America. The utilizing of naphthoquinones for medicinal purposes and their occurrence in nature is reviewed and discussed. Moreover, we review analytical techniques using for their analysis.

Noteworthy Secondary Metabolites Naphthoquinones – their Occurrence, Pharmacological Properties and Analysis

Flowering plants used against snakebite.

Dorothy N. Akunyili

Papers

Antimicrobial activities of the stembark of Kigelia pinnata.

Meroterpenoids and naphthaquinones from Kigelia pinnata

Effects of Solanum melongena (garden egg) on some visual functions of visually active Igbos of Nigeria.

Schumanniofoside, the antisnake venom principle from the stem bark of Schumanniophyton magnificum Harms.