Medicinal Plants Used in Mali for the Treatment of Malaria and Liver Diseases

Today, ethno-pharmacology is a very important resource in order to discover new therapies for the current diseases. Moreover, another good justification for the ethno-pharmacological approach is to obtain new, effective, less expensive and simple therapies, limiting at the same time the cost of pharmaceutical research. Two major anti-malarial drugs widely used today, i.e. quinine and artemisinin, came respectively from Peruvian and Chinese ancestral treatments reported in the traditional medicines. In this contest, there is an urgent need for the discovery of new drugs, due to the critical epidemiological situation of this disease and to the growth of resistances to news drugs. In Mali, malaria and liver diseases remain one of the leading public health problems. Many medicinal plants are often used, in local traditional medicine, for the treatment at the same time of malaria and liver diseases, including hepatic syndromes, jaundice, hepatitis and other hepatic disorders. Moreover, in the local language Bamanan, the word “Sumaya” is used both for malaria and some liver diseases. In addition, we noted that some of the improved traditional phytomedicines produced by the Department of Traditional Medicine are prescribed by modern doctors both for malaria and liver diseases. Thus, thanks to their efficacy, these drugs of the Traditional Herbal Pharmacopoeia have found their way into conventional pharmacies. Preclinical and clinical studies have confirmed the safety, efficacy and quality of many of these medicinal plants and their effectiveness in liver protection and in the treatment of malaria. In this review, pharmacological, toxicological and phytochemical data on Argemone mexicana L. (Papaveraceae), Cochlospermum tinctorium Perr.ex A. Rich (Cochlospermaceae), Combretum micranthum G.Don (Combretaceae), Entada africana Guillet Perr. (Mimosaceae), Erythrina senegalensis A. DC (Fabaceae), Mitragyna inermis (Willd) Kuntze (Rubiaceae), Nauclea latifolia Smith syn. Sarcocephalus latifolius (Smith) Bruce (Rubiaceae), Securidaca longepedunculata Fresen (Polygalaceae), Trichilia emetica Vahl. (Meliaceae), and Vernonia colorata (Willd) Drake (Asteraceae) are reported.The lead extracts such as those from A. mexicana, C. tinctorium, C. micranthum and E. africana are highlighted. Some of the collected data could be used to improve the actual herbal drugs and to propose new phytomedicines for the management of malaria and liver diseases. Other data will be promising for the isolation and characterization of new derivatives with improved properties, to be further analysed and discussed