Antiplasmodial Activity of Medicinal Plants

The search for novel antimalarial agents has increasingly turned to medicinal plants, drawing on centuries of ethnobotanical knowledge and modern phytochemical investigation. Plants rich in diverse secondary metabolites—such as alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids and limonoids—have yielded compounds that inhibit the growth or survival of Plasmodium species, the protozoan parasites responsible for malaria. This body of work spans field surveys of traditional remedies, extraction and fractionation of crude plant materials, in vitro assays against laboratory strains of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax, in vivo efficacy studies in rodent models, and mechanistic exploration using computational approaches. The global significance of this research lies in the potential to overcome emerging resistance to established drugs and to provide affordable, locally sourced therapies. Advances in analytical chemistry and high-throughput screening have accelerated the identification of lead compounds with submicromolar potency, while molecular docking and dynamics simulations clarify their interactions with parasite targets such as proteasomes, kinases and choline pathways. Despite promising bioactivity, challenges remain in standardising extract composition, ensuring selectivity over human cells and advancing candidates through preclinical toxicity and pharmacokinetic studies. Integration of traditional knowledge with rigorous scientific validation continues to broaden the pipeline of plant-derived antiplasmodial leads and may inform the development of next-generation antimalarial treatments.

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Antiplasmodial Activity of Medicinal Plants publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in antiplasmodial activity of medicinal plants across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Antiplasmodial activity: The capability of a substance to inhibit the growth or survival of Plasmodium parasites.

In vitro: Experimental procedures conducted in a controlled environment outside a living organism, typically in cell culture or microplate assays.

In silico: Computational modelling and simulation methods used to predict molecular interactions and biological activities.

IC50: The concentration of a compound required to inhibit 50 % of parasite growth in a bioassay.

Molecular docking: A computational technique that predicts the preferred orientation and binding affinity of a small molecule when bound to a protein target.

Limonoids: A class of triterpenoid compounds commonly found in the Meliaceae and Rutaceae plant families, often exhibiting antimalarial properties.

References

1. Antiplasmodial potential of phytochemicals from Citrus aurantifolia peels: a comprehensive in vitro and in silico study. BMC Chemistry (2024).
2. In silico identification of potential PvFKBP35 inhibitors from Entadrophragma angolense Limonoids extracts as antimalarial agents. Informatics in Medicine Unlocked (2023).
3. Antiplasmodial natural products: an update. Malaria Journal (2019).