Plant-based Therapy - How does it Work on Parasites?

Parasites remain one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in the tropical landscape. Of these, granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE), leishmaniasis and malaria are 3 common parasitic diseases which can be fatal if left untreated. The available drugs seem to be ineffective as resistant strains have emerged in recent years. It is timely for medicinal plants have been given much attention as an alternative for the available chemotherapeutic drugs. This review was conducted to evaluate the anti-parasitic effects of medicinal plants from different parts of the world. It was found that large numbers of plants showed strong anti-parasitic potential; Clerodendrum rotundifolium Oliv. leaves water fraction, Clerodendrum rotundifolium Oliv. leaves methanol fraction and Microglossa pyrifolia showed strong anti-malarial activity with IC50 of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.05 µg/ml in vitro. Limouni olive is a strong amoebicidal agent with IC50 of 5.11 µg/ml. Ethanol extracts from H. stignocarpa leaves (4.69 µg/ml), J. cuspidifolia leaves (10.96 µg/ml) and Jacaranda caroba leaves (13.22 µg/ml) showed strong activity against Leishmania spp. with IC50 values lower than 25 µg/ml. In conclusion, these promising results suggest that future research on medicinal plants needs to be done to identify its active constituents, cytotoxicity, effectivity and feasibility to be utilized against infections caused by these parasites. Furthermore, phytochemical investigations should be undertaken to achieve the effectiveness of therapeutic agents particularly in limited resource settings.