Antifungal activity of African medicinal plants: a review

Abstract

In Africa many plants are used as antifungals. However, journals analysing the work of antifungal activities of plants in West Africa in recent years are rare. This study is a synthesis of publications from 2006 to 2021 on plants traditionally used in the fight against antifungal diseases. A systematic search was carried out in the Pub Med and Google Scholar database using the following keywords: vaginitis; West Africa; antifungal activity; medicinal plants; plant extracts; for articles published from 2006 to 2021. These selected articles focus on ethnobotanical studies, in vitro antifungal tests and molecules isolated from these plants. A total of 46 papers were selected from 7 West African countries with 56 plants studied. Nigeria and Ivory coast did more work with 22 and 14 papers respectively and studied more plants with 23 and 17 respectively. 43% of plants show good activity in vitro on strains of Candida albicans in the laboratory with a minimum fungicide concentration and a percentage of inhibition above 50%. The most active extracts are found in Ivory coast with respectively the hexane extracts of Terminalia mantaly with a minimum fungicide concentration= 0.024 mg / mL and the hydroethanolic extract of Terminalia ivorensis with a minimum fungicide concentration of 0.097 mg / mL. It is clear that the traditional West African pharmacopoeia can make an important contribution for the management of vaginitis.