Exploring Antimalarial Herbal Plants across Communities in Uganda Based on Electronic Data

Table 4

Top 17 herbal plants used locally in Uganda for malaria treatment with highest antimalarial/antiplasmodial activities (arranged alphabetically).

Plant family	Plant species	Plant part	Extracting solvent	Report on antiplasmodial, IC50 (μg/ml)/antimalarial activity (Plasmodium strain)	Active chemical constituents	Toxicity/safety information	Reference(s)
Asteraceae	Artemisia afra Jacq. Ex Willd	Leaves	Methanol	3.9 (chloroquine resistant, W2)	Acacetin, genkwanin, 7-methoxyacacetin	Cytotoxicity was observed in Vero cells	[54, 103]
	Artemisia annua L.	Leaves	Water	0.9 (chloroquine resistant, W2); 1.1 (chloroquine sensitive, D10)	Sesquiterpenes and sesquiterpene lactones including artemisinin	Generally safe and effective; nausea may occur on drinking herbal extract; artemisinin, an active compound in the extract is safe for pregnant women at least during second and third trimesters	[19, 57, 104]
	Aspilia africana (Pers.) C. D. Adams	Leaves	Ethanol	Significant chemo suppressive effect of 92.23% (400 mg/kg) on P. berghei	Saponins, terpenoids, alkaloids, resins, tannins, flavonoids, sterols	No signs of toxicity in mice even at a dose as high as 5000 mg/kg	[19, 58]
	Jatropha curcas L.	Leaves	Ethyl acetate	2.4 (chloroquine resistant, K1)	Alkaloids, saponnins, glycosides, tannins	Moderate toxicity on thrombocyte line and a protective effect on cardiovascular system; no signs of toxicity in mice following oral administration of 5000 mg/kg body weight (bw) dose	[73, 105]
	Microglossa pyrifolia (Lam.)O. Ktze	Leaves	Dichloromethane	1.5 (chloroquine sensitive, 3D7; 2.4 chloroquin resistant, W2)	E-phytol; 6e-geranylgeraniol-19-oic acid	Relatively high cytotoxicity against cells from the human foetal lung fibroblast cell line	[2, 28, 55]
	Schkuhria pinnata (lam.)	Whole plant	Methanol	1.3 (chloroquine sensitive, D6)	Schkuhrin I and schkuhrin II	Methanol extract: low cytotoxicity against human cells; aqueous extracts: no observed toxicity observed in mice	[32, 54]
	Tithonia diversifolia A. Gray	Leaves	Methanol	1.2 (chloroquine sensitive, 3D7); 1.5 (chloroquine resistant, W2)	Tagitinin C, sesquiterpene lactones	Aerial parts are cytotoxic against cells from the human foetal lung fibroblast cell line	[55]
	Vernonia amygdalina delile	Leaves	Methanol/dichloromethane	2.7 (chloroquine resistant, K1)	Coumarin, sesquiterpene lactones including vernolepin, vernolin, vernolide, vernodalin and hydroxyvernodalin, steroid glucosides	Petroleum ether extract shows strong cytotoxicity	[19, 26, 32]
Caricaceae	Carica papaya L.	Leaves	Ethyl acetate	2.96 (chloroquine sensitive, D10); 3.98 (chloroquine resistant, DD2)	Alkaloids, saponins, tannins, glycosides	No serious toxicity reported, carpaine, an active compound against P. falciparum had high selectivity and was nontoxic to normal RBCs	[65, 106]
Celastraceae	Maytenus senegalensis	Roots		1.9 (chloroquine sensitive, D6); 2.4 (chloroquine resistant, W2)	Terpenoids, pentacyclic triterpenes, e.g., pristimerin	No toxicity observed in ethanol extract	[66, 107]
Cucurbitaceae	Momordica foetida Schumach.	Shoot	Water	0.35 (chloroquine resistant, FCR3); 6.16 (chloroquine sensitive, NF54)	Saponins, alkaloid, phenolic glycosides including 5,7,4′-Trihydroxyflavanone and kaempferol	No pronounced toxicity against human hepatocellular (HepG2) and human urinary bladder carcinoma (ECV-304, derivative of T-24) cells	[26, 28, 108]
Euphorbiaceae	Alchornea cordifolia (Schumach.) Mull. Arg.	Leaves	Water	4.8 (chloroquine resistant, K1)	Phenolics including ellagic acid	No mortality in mice in acute toxicity test	[70, 109]
	Fluegea virosa (Roxb. ExWillb.)Voigt	Leaves	Water/methanol	2 (chloroquine resistant, W2)	Bergenin	Nontoxic, extracts exposed to murine macrophages did not slow or inhibit growth of cells	[72, 110]
	Phyllanthus (pseudo) niruri Mull. Arg.		Water	Ranged from 2.9 to 4.1 (both chloroquine sensitive, 3D7 and resistant, Dd2)	Coumarins including 1-O-galloyl-6-O-luteoyl-a-D-glucose	No toxicity was observed; thus, LD50 of the aqueous extract is >5000 mg/kg. b.w.	[74, 111]
Lamiaceae	Clerodendrum rotundifolium Oliv.	Leaves	Methanol	0.02 (chloroquine sensitive, CQ^S); 1.56 (chloroquine resistant, CQ^R)	Iridoid glycosides such as serratoside A, serratoside B and monomelittoside, diterpenoids including uncinatone, clerodin, and sugiol	Not explored	[28, 33]
Mimosaceae	Albizia zygia (DC.) Macbr.	Stem bark	Methanol	1.0 (chloroquine resistant, K1)	Flavonoids, mainly 3′,4′,7-trihydroxyflavone	The aqueous extract is relatively safe on subacute exposure	[87, 112]
Rubiaceae	Pentas longiflora Oliv.	Root	Methanol	0.99 (chloroquine sensitive, D6); 0.93 (chloroquine resistant, W2)	Pyranonaphthoquinones, pentalongin (1) and psychorubrin (2), naphthalene derivative mollugin (3)	Low cytotoxicity	[97]
Rutaceae	Citrus reticulata	Seeds (isolimonexic acid methyl ether)		<4.76 (both chloroquine sensitive, D6 and resistant, W2)	Limonin, isolimonexic acid methyl ether, ichangin, deacetylnomilin, obacunone	Dermal 50% lethal dose (LD50) of undiluted leaf oil is >2 g/kg in rabbits; seed extract causes respiratory distress and strong spleen contraction	[34, 113]