RESUMO
Malaria kills more than 500,000 people yearly, mainly affecting Africa and Southeast Asia. The disease is caused by the protozoan parasite from the genus Plasmodium, with Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum being the main species that cause the disease in humans. Although substantial progress has been observed in malaria research in the last years, the threat of the spread of Plasmodium parasites persists. Artemisinin-resistant strains of this parasite have been reported mainly in Southeast Asia, highlighting the urgent need to develop more effective and safe antimalarial drugs. In this context, natural sources, mainly from flora, remain underexplored antimalarial spaces. The present mini-review explores this space focusing on plant extracts and some of their isolated natural products with at least in vitro antiplasmodial effects reported in the literature comprising the last five years (2018-2022).
RESUMO
Gomphrena virgata Mart. popularly known as 'Cangussu-branco', is used in Brazilian folk medicine to treat inflammations and infections. This work aimed to carry out phytochemical analysis and evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of Gomphrena virgata. In the phytochemical investigation, in addition to the presence of two ecdysteroids, 20 R-dihydroxyecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone, identified by HPLC-PDA-MS and NMR, 22 compounds were identified by GC-MS. In the cytotoxicity study, the aqueous extract of the roots of this species did not show in vitro toxicity of PBMCs in the concentrations of 250, 500 and 1000 µg/mL when analyzed by the trypan blue exclusion method. Also, it was effective in reducing lymphocyte proliferation, stimulated with the mitogen PHA, by 26.02%, 48.57% and 50.49% when compared to dexamethasone, respectively. In this work we present information about the phytochemicals of G. virgata, showing that the species is promising in obtaining compounds with medicinal potential mainly anti-inflammatory potential.