Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants of the Ipassa-Makokou Biosphere Reserve, Gabon: Plants used for treating malaria

Abstract

Malaria remains a major cause of illness and death as well as a contributing factor to poverty in tropical and subtropical regions. Ethnobotanical surveys conducted in the periphery of the Ipassa -BiosphereReserve (Gabon) allowed to identify 61 plant species used by the Baka pygmies, Fang, Kota and Kwélé ethnic groups for the treatment of malaria. These plants are distributed in 55 genera and 34 botanical families. Leaves are among the plant parts that are largely cited (62% of citations), followed by stem barks (17%) and fruits (13%) while decoction (58%) and maceration (35%) are the most cited pharmaceutical forms. These forms are often administered through the vaporation bath (41%), rectal (25%) and oral (23%) voices. Most of the recipes (73%) cited for treating malaria are made of combination of many plant species. Seven plant species that were largely cited by people living in the periphery of the Ipassa Biosphere Reserve are also known in other African countries for the same usages and are confirmed in the literature for their usage against malaria including Alstonia boonei, Carica papaya, Citrus limon, Cymbopogon citratus, Enantia chlorantha, Picralima nitida, Vernonia amygdalina. The fact that some plant species cited are well recognised for their activity against Plasmodium, is a credibility index which can be attributed to the pharmacopoeia of those people on one hand and illustrates the efficiency of the method used to identify medicinal plants of the INTRODUCTIONMalaria is a global disease that is predominant in the tropics and caused by blood parasites, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malariae, and Plasmodium vivax. The parasite is transmitted to its human hosts via various mosquito species of the genus Anopheles. The disease can cause high fever, enough to be fatal to human being. Malaria has a great morbidity than any other infectious diseases of the world (World (World Malaria Report, 2008). In tropical and subtropical regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, malaria remains a major cause of illness and death as well as a contributing factor to poverty. Each year, about 400 million people contract malaria, with 90% in Africa, and each year, the disease kills one million of them, mostly (85%) children under five years of age. Pregnant women are also among the highly vulnerable people (Saotoing et al., 2011; Tropical diseases Web Ring, 2000). Most of the current antimalarial drugs have been developed through synthesis or screening voices. These approaches have been revealed as non efficient and expensive. Due to the lack of vaccination, the chimiotherapy and chymioprophylaxy remain the best method in the struggle against malaria (Oketch-Rabah and Mwangi, 1998). P. Falciparum, the pathogenic most widespread human malaria, is becoming increasingly resistant to antimalarial drugs. This requires extra effort and continuous search for new drugs, especially with new mode of action (Saotoing et al., 2011; Oketch-Rabah and Mwangi, 1998). Ethnobotanical and ethnopharmaclogical studies ...

A systematic review of antimalarial medicinal plants in Democratic Republic of the Congo

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