The Potential use of a Curcumin-Piperine Combination as an Antimalarial Agent: A Systematic Review

Figure 2

Illustration of the possible mechanism of action of curcumin-piperine combination as an antimalarial. Infected Anopheles mosquito introduced sporozoites into skin. Sporozoites migrate to liver via blood circulation and initiate the liver stage. At the liver stage, sporozoites invade the hepatocyte and undergo further development into merozoites. At the blood-stage, merozoites infect RBCs and start degrading hemoglobin (Hb). Heme released is polymerized to curtail its toxicity on the parasite. For example, chloroquine (medication primarily used to prevent and treat malaria) kills the parasites by blocks heme polymerization. Curcumin, probably having a similar action with chloroquine, restricts parasite development at the early stage. Meanwhile, piperine can make morphological changes (cytoplasm condenses) at the late ring to trophozoites stages, thus becoming defective red blood cells. Piperine as a bioenhancer may potentiate the effects of curcumin. Hence, combining curcumin and piperine as an antimalarial is expected to act at an earlier stage of the blood stage.