Ethnopharmacological Study of Medicinal Plants Used for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases and Their Associated Risk Factors in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of global mortality, including deaths arising from non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Consequently, this study aimed to provide details of medicinal plants (MPs) employed in SSA for the treatment of CVDs and their related risk factors to open new avenues for the discovery of novel drugs. The extensive ethnopharmacological literature survey of these MPs in 41 SSA countries was based on studies from 1982 to 2021. It revealed 1,085 MPs belonging to 218 botanical families, with Fabaceae (9.61%), Asteraceae (6.77%), Apocynaceae (3.93%), Lamiaceae (3.75%), and Rubiaceae (3.66%) being the most represented. Meanwhile, Allium sativum L., Persea americana Mill., Moringa oleifera Lam., Mangifera indica L., and Allium cepa L. are the five most utilised plant species. The preferred plant parts include the leaves (36%), roots (21%), barks (14%), fruits (7%), and seeds (5%), which are mostly prepared by decoction. Benin, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, and Togo had the highest reported use while most of the investigations were on diabetes and hypertension. Despite the nutraceutical advantages of some of these MPs, their general toxicity potential calls for caution in their human long-term use. Overall, the study established the need for governments of SSA countries to validate the efficacy/safety of these MPs as well as provide affordable, accessible, and improved modern healthcare services.

An Inventory of wetland plants with medicinal properties in Kenya

“…Apart from the high diversity of these families where they can be readily available (Ruto et al, 2012;Moges et al, 2017) [51,29] , there could also be high species utilization for medicinal purpose among the wetland dwellers. Among the screening test done on medicinal plants these plants have also recorded the highest number of phytochemicals that are useful for treatment of various diseases (Obakiro et al, 2020; Van Wyk, 2020; Odukoya et al, 2022) [42,58,44] . Reliance on high numbers of medicinal plants in Sub-Saharan African countries is common due to high cost of conventional medicine among resource poor citizens (Sofowora, 1996; Kakooza-Mwesige, 2015) [53,21] .…”

Research on Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) in Africa

“…Further 134 documents were excluded after the analysis of abstracts as they did not meet at least one of the eligibility/inclusion criteria: 53 did not deal with Africa; 69 dealt with other species of moringa, e.g., Moringa stenopetala , Moringa peregrina , or Moringa ovalifolia (articles dealing with Moringa pterygosperma , which is considered erroneously a synonym of M. oleifera , were considered eligible); and 12 were editorial materials. Finally, the analysis of full texts led to the exclusion of 103 documents, including 47 reviews [ 35 , 37 , 38 , 41 , 42 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 63 , 64 , 67 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 ].…”

“…Furthermore, different parts of the plant (cf. bark, sap, roots, leaves, seeds, and flowers) have been used in traditional, folk medicine [ 28 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ]. In this regard, Xiao et al [ 63 ] argued that “ Moringa can not only eliminate pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites, but also inhibit chronic inflammation, such as asthma, ulcerative colitis, and metabolic diseases ”.…”

Phytochemical analysis in conjunction with in vitro a-glucosidase inhibitory and antioxidant activities of three Diospyros species from East Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…Humans have always depended on plants as their primary source of nutrition; the use of plants for medicinal purposes dates back to ancient civilizations (Paudel et al 2014). Medicinal plants are well-known repositories of a variety of bioactive secondary metabolites, including phenolics, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenes, and tannins, which have therapeutic effects, including antidiabetic, antioxidant, antiinflammation, wound-healing, and antibacterial (Bibi et al 2014;Odukoya et al 2022). The tropical rainforests of East Kalimantan, Indonesia, are rich in medicinal plant species.…”