Artemisia Afra - Revues d’études et méta-analyses

2009

N.Q.LiuF, Van der Kooy, R. Verpoorte
.Artemisia afra : A potential flagship for African medicinal plants ?
South African Journal of Botany, Volume 75, Issue 2, April 2009, Pages 185-195

Artemisia afra : A potential flagship for African medicinal plants ?

Abstract :

The genus Artemisia consists of about 500 species, occurring throughout the world. Some very important drug leads have been discovered from this genus, notably artemisinin, the well known anti-malarial drug isolated from the Chinese herb Artemisia annua. The genus is also known for its aromatic nature and hence research has been focussed on the chemical compositions of the volatile secondary metabolites obtained from various Artemisia species. In the southern African region, A. afra is one of the most popular and commonly used herbal medicines. It is used to treat various ailments ranging from coughs and colds to malaria and diabetes. Although it is one of the most popular local herbal medicines, only limited scientific research, mainly focussing on the volatile secondary metabolites content, has been conducted on this species. The aim of this review was therefore to collect all available scientific literature published on A. afra and combine it into this paper. In this review, a general overview will be given on the morphology, taxonomy and geographical distribution of A. afra. The major focus will however be on the secondary metabolites, mainly the volatile secondary metabolites, which have been identified from this species. In addition all of the reported biological activities of the extracts derived from this species have been included as well as the literature on the pharmacology and toxicology. We aim at bringing together most of the available scientific research conducted on this species, which is currently scattered across various publications, into this review paper.

2011

Gayathri V. Patil, Sujata K. Dass and Ramesh Chandra
.Artemisia afra and Modern Diseases
Journal of Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacoproteomics, 2011, 2:3

Artemisia afra} and Modern Diseases

Abstract :

Herb Artemisia afra has recently attracted worldwide attention of researchers for its possible use in the modern diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases etc. This review is exhaustive and systematic organization of the available literature on Artemisia afra (A. afra) from January 1922 to July 2011. The literature survey presents the number of publications with respect to time. Patents are briefly described ; the traditional uses are classified and summarized. Some emphasis is given to the data and projections of modern diseases and the ongoing research in this area in the context of title of this review. The pharmacognostic aspects, chemical constituents and factors affecting it, the activity, analysis & quality control, pharmaceutical dosage form etc. is dealt in this review.

Keywords : Artemisia afra ; Patents ; Traditional uses ; Chemical constituents ; Activity ; Toxicity ; Dosage form

***

Kundan Singh Bora & Anupam Sharma
The Genus Artemisia : A Comprehensive Review
Pharmaceutical Biology (2011), 49:1, 101-109

The Genus Artemisia : A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Context : Medicinal plants are nature′s gift to human beings to make disease free healthy life, and play a vital role to preserve our health. They are believed to be much safer and proven elixir in the treatment of various ailments. The genus Artemisia (Astraceae) consists of about 500 species, occurring throughout the world. The present review comprises the ethnopharmacological, phytochemical and therapeutic potential of various species of Artemisia.

Objective : The aim of this this review is to bring together most of the available scientific research conducted on the genus Artemisia, which is currently scattered across various publications. Through this review the authors hope to attract the attention of natural product researchers throughout the world to focus on the unexplored potential of Artemisia species.

Methods : This review has been compiled using references from major databases such as Chemical Abstracts, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Abstracts, ScienceDirect, SciFinder, PubMed, King′s American Dispensatory, Henriette′s Herbal Homepage, Dr. Duke′s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases.

Results : An exhaustive survey of literature revealed that the different species of Artemisia have a vast range of biological activities including antimalarial, cytotoxic, antihepatotoxic, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activity. Some very important drug leads have been discovered from this genus, notably artemisinin, the well known antimalarial drug isolated from the Chinese herb Artemisia annua. Terpenoids, flavonoids, coumarins, caffeoylquinic acids, sterols and acetylenes constitute major classes of phytoconstituents of the genus.

Conclusion : Various species of Artemisia seems to hold great potential for in-depth investigation for various biological activities, especially their effects on the central nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Keywords : Antimalarial, antimicrobial, Artemisia, cytotoxic, flavonoids, terpenoids.

2016

Pierre Lutgen
.Artemisia afra will save Africa
5th Annual European Pharma Congress, July 18-20, 2016 Berlin, Germany

Artemisia afra will save Africa

Abstract :

A team of medical doctors in R D Congo, Jerome Munyangi and Michel Idumbo, have run randomized clinical trials in Maniema province with the participation of some 1000 malaria infected patients. The trials were run in conformity with the WHO procedures. For all the parameters tested herbal treatment was significantly better than ACTs. The efficiency was equivalent for Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra. More important even is the observation for the total absence of gametocytes after 7 days treatment with the herb, a tremendous hope for malaria eradication. The results have been communicated to the local health authorities, and to the Ministries of Health and Research in the RD Congo who were supportive of these trials. The draft of a paper is almost ready and will be submitted to a peer reviewed scientific journal. The large scale trials confirm those of Dr Constant Kansango in Katanga who had found in a trial with 44 Plasmodium falciparum infected patients that after 7 days of treatment with 20gr of capsules containing A afra powder the gametocytes had completely disappeared, except for one patient. Artemisia afra does not contain artemisinin. The best explanation available is the high arginine content of Artemisia plants (see "Arginine, a deadly weapon against gametocytes" on malariaworld.org). In 2012 already Dr Saint-Hillier worked with capsules containing powdered leaves from the French Artemisia annua genotype with a content of 0.1 % artemisinin only. A total of 40 000 capsules containing one gram was administered, to adults, children, but also to neonates and pregnant women. The therapeutic effect of the capsules against fever and other clinical signs of malaria are always very fast. These results confirm results obtained by the association IFBV-Belherb and her partners in many small scale trials in several African countries. Therapeutic efficiency always was > 95% and prophylaxy was noticed and documented. The abstracts or peer reviewed papers of all these trials are available on request.

***

Pierre Lutgen
Artesunate enhances malaria transmission, Artemisia afra blocks it
malariaworld.org, November 22, 2016

Online Article

2019

Pierre Lutgen
.Artemisia afra and hypertension
Pharmacy & Pharmacology International Journal, Volume 7 Issue 6 - 2019

Artemisia afra and hypertension

Abstract :

Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra have shown a high efficacy in many in vivo and in vitro trials against tropical diseases. The plants also have a hypotensive effect. This paper proposes several hypotheses to explain this property.
Keywords : hypertension, scopoletin, Artemisia afra, nitric oxide, potassium, blood pressure, malaria

***

Anneke du Toit, Frank van der Kooy
.Artemisia afra, a controversial herbal remedy or a treasure trove of new drugs ?
Journal of Ethnopharmacology Volume 244, 15 November 2019, 112127

Full text submitted to request

Abstract

Ethnoparmacological relevance : Artemisia afra is one of the most widely used herbal remedies in South Africa. This highly aromatic shrub is used to treat various disorders including coughs, colds, influenza, and malaria. Due to the long tradition of use and popularity of A. afra, it has been successfully commercialised and can currently be bought from various internet stores and pharmacies. The most notable indication is for the prophylaxis and treatment of Plasmodium falciparum infections. In 2013, the Medicine Control Council (MCC) of South Africa banned the sale of A. afra for the treatment of malaria because it lacks scientific evidence of efficacy. This resulted in a lawsuit being filed in 2017 against the MCC by an herbal company which claimed that artemisinin was responsible for A. afra’s antiplasmodial activity. At the time, no scientific literature reported that A. afra contained artemisinin.
Materials and Methods : This review aims to collate all available scientific literature regarding the phytochemistry and biological activity, focusing on antimalarial activity, of A. afra published from 2009 to 2019 and follows on our earlier review, which covered all literature until 2009. All scientific literature in English published between 2009 and June 2019 were retrieved from scientific databases (Scifinder scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Google scholar) and a number of books regarding medicinal plants in South Africa were also consulted.

Results : In the last decade very few compounds have been identified in A. afra, none of which were novel compounds. Based on all the tests that have been conducted using extracts and compounds of A. afra in a disparate variety of in vitro and in vivo bioassays, the results indicate only weak biological activity. The activity of extracts, and in some cases pure compounds, exhibited IC50 or MIC values of 1 000 – 10 000 fold less active than the positive controls. In contrast, and quite surprisingly, two randomised controlled trials were recently conducted (Schistosoma mansoni and Plasmodium falciparum infected patients) and although criticised based on design, execution, statistical analysis and ethical concerns, showed remarkably positive results.

Conclusions : Pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo animal experiments failed to yield any promising drug leads. However, if the recent randomised controlled trials can be independently replicated in well-designed and executed clinical trials it might indicate that A. afra contain powerful ‘prodrugs’. Future research on A. afra should therefore focus on reproducing the randomised controlled trials and on artificially metabolising A. afra extracts/compounds in order to identify the presence of any ‘prodrugs’.
Keywords : Artemisia afra, Plasmodium falciparum, malaria, artemisinin, randomised controlled trial, prodrugs

***

Manisha Nigam, Maria Atanassova, Abhay P. Mishra, Raffaele Pezzani, Hari Prasad Devkota, Sergey Plygun, Bahare Salehi, William N. Setzer, Javad Sharifi-Rad
Bioactive Compounds and Health Benefits of Artemisia Species
Natural Product Communications, Volume : 14 issue : 7, July 2019

Abstract

Artemisia L. is a genus of small herbs and shrubs found in northern temperate regions. It belongs to the important family Asteraceae, one of the most numerous plant groupings, which comprises about 1000 genera and over 20000 species. Artemisia has a broad spectrum of bioactivity, owing to the presence of several active ingredients or secondary metabolites, which work through various modes of action. It has widespread pharmacological activities and has been used as traditional medicine since ancient times as an anthelmintic, antispasmodic, antirheumatic, and antibacterial agent and for the treatment of malaria, hepatitis, cancer, inflammation, and menstrual-related disorders. This review comprises the updated information about the ethnomedical uses and health benefits of various Artemisia spp. and general information about bioactive compounds and free radicals.

Keywords : Artemisia, bioactive compounds, artemisinin, essential oils

Mis en ligne par La vie re-belle
 5/04/2020
 https://www.lavierebelle.org/artemisia-afra-revues-d-etudes

 Documents

 Artemisia afra : A potential flagship for African medicinal plants ?
PDF 
 South African Journal of Botany, Volume 75, Issue 2
 Artemisia afra and Modern Diseases
PDF Journal of Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacoproteomics
 Artemisia afra} and Modern Diseases
PDF 
 Journal of Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacoproteomics
 Artemisia afra will save Africa
PDF 
 Pierre Lutgen

Revues d’études et méta-analyses

Ce dossier recense les revues d’études et méta-analyses concernant Artemisia afra Jacq.

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