The Chemistry and Biological Activities of Natural Products from Northern African Plant Families: From Taccaceae to Zygophyllaceae.

Traditional medicinal practices have a profound influence on the daily lives of people living in developing countries, particularly in Africa, since the populations cannot generally afford the cost of Western medicines. We have undertaken to investigate the correlation between the uses of plants in Traditional African medicine and the biological activities of the derived natural products, with the aim to validate the use of traditional medicine in Northern African communities. The literature is covered for the period 1959-2015 and part III of this review series focuses on plant families with names beginning with letters T to Z. The authors have focused on curating data from journals in natural products and phytomedicine. Within each journal home page, a query search based on country name was conducted. All articles "hits" were then verified, one at a time, that the species was harvested within the Northern African geographical regions. The current data partly constitutes the bases for the development of the Northern African natural compounds database. The review discusses 284 plant-based natural compounds from 34 species and 11 families. It was observed that the ethnobotanical uses of less than 40 % of the plant species surveyed correlated with the bioactivities of compounds identified.

Antiplasmodial activities of some products from Turreanthus africanus (Meliaceae).

We investigated the antiplasmodial activity of some pure compounds of Turreanthus africanus (Meliaceae), a plant that is used in traditional medicine to treat malaria in Southwest Cameroon. A phytochemical analysis of the methylene chloride: methanol (1:1) extract of the seeds of the plant yielded seven compounds. Four of them, which were oils, were subjected to in vitro bioassays on Plasmodium falciparum F 32, chloroquine sensitive strain. Compound 1 (16-oxolabda-8 (17), 12(E)-dien-15-oic acid), showed the highest antiplasmodial activity, two others (methyl-14,15-epoxylabda-8 (17), 12(E)-diene-16-oate, and turreanin A), had moderate activity and one was inactive. These findings are consistent with the use of T. africanus in the traditional treatment of P. falciparum malaria.