Antimalarial agents from medicinal plant and fungal sources

Malaria is the fourth major parasitic infectious disease for humans, causing severe symptoms and life-threatening complications, which, if untreated within 24–48 h may evolve in the fatality. In the past five decades, major initiatives in the treatment and prevention of this devastating disease have been implemented in endemic areas, leading to significant progress and declining trends. The majority of the reports presented here are focused on the activity of the extracts and fractions of plant or fungal origin: this approach has its rationale in the observation that crude materials are often more active than isolated compounds, due to the manifestation of beneficial synergistic and additional effects and/or pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic interactions. Consideration has been given to the antiplasmodial activities in relation to the different herbal part and nature of extracting solvents and to safety studies; whenever available, phytochemical fingerprint has been reported, disclosing a variety of unique molecular scaffolds with a potential as new pharmacophores. Despite the general lack of mechanistic information for the curative effects of the reported plants and fungi, these studies may undoubtedly pave the way to a new generation of antimalarial agents.