Phyto-Molecules used for the Treatment of Malaria: A Review
Author(s): Dharmesh Kumar*, Sanjeev Mittal, Kapil Hazarika, Ashish Kumar Singh, Amar P Garg
Abstract
Malaria is one of the most fatal of the tropical diseases known to man which has now become worse due to rising incidence of drug resistance in the malarial causing protozoan towards conventional medications. There are many species of the protozoan falciparum which causes various types of malaria. Several, synthetic, semisynthetic and natural origin compounds having anti-malarial property has been commercialized. Some of them are as follows: chloroquine is a quinine derivative whereas artesunate having sesquiterpene lactone core is derived from artemisinin that is isolated from Artemisia annua L. Though the Artemesinin-Based Combination Therapy (ACT) has showed excellent results however, the rising cases of drug resistance is now making the researchers to search for more novel therapies. In this review paper, the life cycle of a malarial protozoan, the current artemesinin combination therapy and the other phyto-molecules having anti-malarial activity has been briefed upon. One can believe that the discovery of novel phyto-molecules having would lead to a much safer, effective and cheaper mode of treatment of malaria.