Undoubtedly medicinal plants are relevant in both developing and developed nations of the world as sources of drugs or herbal extracts for various chemotherapeutic purposes Also the use of plantderived natural compounds as part of herbal preparations as alternative sources of medicaments continues to play major roles in the general wellness of people all over the world The African continent contains some of the richest biodiversity in the world, and abounds in plants of economic importance and plants of medicinal importance which when developed would reduce our expenditure on imported drugs to meet our health needs Herbal-based and plant-derived products can be exploited with sustainable comparative and competitive advantage This review presents some indigenous African plants with chemotherapeutic properties and possible ways of developing them into potent pharmacological agents using biotechnological approaches

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajb/article/view/14899/58643

African indigenous plants with chemotherapeutic potentials and biotechnological approach to the production of bioactive prophylactic agents

Xanthones from guttiferae

The guttiferones, HIV-inhibitory benzophenones from Symphonia globulifera, Garcinia livingstonei, Garcinia ovalifolia and Clusia rosea

Recently, considerable attention has been focused on dietary and medicinal phytochemicals that inhibit, reverse or retard diseases caused by oxidative and inflammatory processes. Vernonia amygdalina is a perennial herb belonging to the Asteraceae family. Extracts of the plant have been used in various folk medicines as remedies against helminthic, protozoal and bacterial infections with scientific support for these claims. Phytochemicals such as saponins and alkaloids, terpenes, steroids, coumarins, flavonoids, phenolic acids, lignans, xanthones, anthraquinones, edotides and sesquiterpenes have been extracted and isolated from Vernonia amygdalina. These compounds elicit various biological effects including cancer chemoprevention. Garcinia kola (Guttiferae) seed, known as “bitter kola”, plays an important role in African ethnomedicine and traditional hospitality. It is used locally to treat illnesses like colds, bronchitis, bacterial and viral infections and liver diseases. A number of useful phytochemicals have been isolated from the seed and the most prominent of them is the Garcinia bioflavonoids mixture called kolaviron. It has well-defined structure and an array of biological activities including antioxidant, antidiabetic, antigenotoxic and hepatoprotective properties. The chemopreventive properties of Vernonia amygdalina and Garcinia biflavonoids have been attributed to their abilities to scavenge free radicals, induce detoxification, inhibit stress response proteins and interfere with DNA binding activities of some transcription factors.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/6/2533/pdf

Antioxidative and Chemopreventive Properties of Vernonia amygdalina and Garcinia biflavonoid

Antimalarial activity of 20 crude extracts from nine African medicinal plants used in Kinshasa, Congo.

Kolanone, a novel polyisoprenyl benzophenone, has been isolated from the fruit pulp of GARCINIA KOLA H EKKEL. A tentative structure for kolanone has been proposed based on a comparison of its spectral data with that published for other compounds of this class. Kolanone has been shown to exhibit significant antimicrobial activity against a range of organisms.

R A Hussain

Papers

Kolanone, a novel polyisoprenylated benzophenone with antimicrobial properties from the fruit of Garcinia kola.