Bioprospecting of Phytochemicals as Antimalarial Agents

Abstract

Malaria is caused by single celled protozoan parasites called plasmodium and transmitted to man through the anopheles mosquito. It is one of the major fatal diseases in the world, especially in the tropics, and is endemic in some 102 countries, with more than half of the world populations at risk with fatality rates being extremely high among young children below five years age. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that there are between 300 and 500 million new cases of malaria worldwide, every year, mostly in Africa, Asia, South pacific islands and South America, which causes at least 1 million deaths annually. newlineIn 2017, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria in 87 countries. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 43,500 in 2017. African region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2017, the region was home to 92% of malaria cases and 93% of malaria deaths. From 1990s to date the reported malaria incidence in India has been around 1.5 to 2.6 million cases and 666-1000 deaths per annum, whereas estimated incidence by WHO was 15 million malaria cases with 19500 to 20000 deaths per annum. newlineSynthetic compounds are worldwide used for their wide biological potential for treating majority of diseases including malaria. Studies in the field of synthesis of new effective agents have become especially important in the recent years as a result of increasing spread of various diseases. The discipline of medical chemistry is dedicated to the discovery and development of new agents for treating malaria. The wide occurrence of the heterocycles in bioactive natural products made them essentials synthetic targets. Heterocyclic compounds are very extensively distributed in nature and are particularly important because of the broad variety of physiological activities associated with this class. newlineP. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi are the five plasmodium species that cause malaria disease. P. falciparum is the deadlist strain that causes mal