A Review on Herbal Treatments of Malaria

Abstract

Introduction: Malaria is one of the most common chief health problems all over the world and pharmacotherapy is the common treatment for this disease. Additionally, mankind is blessed with varied range of herbal plants for several ailments which are useful for malaria treatment. The purpose of this investigation is to review the existing studies on the effectiveness of herbal plants in treatment of malaria. Material and Methods: In this study, related articles were reviewed based on keywords and phrases such as antimalarial drugs, herbal plants, treatment in PubMed, Google Scholar, IranDoc and SID (Scientific Information Database) databases from 2003 to 2022. Results: The findings revealed that the main problem associated with medical treatment is emergence of drug resistance which leads to treatment failure in significant cases and results in the antimalarials’ ineffective drugs. Therefore, the chief available alternative since ancient times is medicinal plants all over the world. The review revealed that more than 2000 medicinal plant species from different families were traditionally used in the treatment of malaria and most of them confirmed antimalarial activities. Conclusion: It looks critical to take an effective action for developing a perfect malaria vaccine which would work properly by activating the immune system to destroy all the parasites. The current investigation is useful for researchers and pharmaco-therapists.