Ethnopharmacology

A "Folk" Remedy for Malaria

A team of researchers has recently demonstrated the therapeutic effectiveness of a herbal tea traditionally made in French Guiana as treatment for malaria.1 Didier Stien, a research worker at the “Guiana Forest Ecology” laboratory (ECOFOG)² in French Guiana explains, “It all started with an ethnopharmacological study carried out by our colleagues at the IRD.³” They collected and tested 35 traditional remedies with anti-malarial properties used routinely by the local population of Guiana as a supplement for medicines from industrialized countries. Some of these proved to be particularly active, especially in the case of a herbal tea made from the leaves of Quassia amara, a plant that grows locally in gardens and in residential areas generally.

Once an active effect had been demonstrated, the active compound remained to be determined. With this in mind, chemists Stien and Émeline Houël, working with Valérie Jullian from the IRD, carried out an analysis of the traditional brew. After separating out and testing the various compounds present, they succeeded in isolating the one responsible for the anti-malarial action: simalikalactone D or Sk D. In further investigation, they were able to demonstrate that it is as active as Artemisinin, one of the most effective compounds currently on the market.⁴

This work opens up a new avenue for the manufacture of anti-malarial drugs using Sk D. But this is not the only benefit of the research. Stien points out that, “Malaria is the world's most widespread disease, and it often hits local populations which have no access to Western medicines such as chloroquine or Artemisinin. Scientific validation of this kind of remedy for self-medication is therefore of great interest to the people concerned, especially as Africa has a plant similar to Quassia amara. Quassia africana, which also contains Sk D.” Spurred on by these initial results, the researchers are planning to test other remedies in order to broaden the range of compounds known to be active against malaria. This will provide an armory to more effectively fight Plasmodium,⁵ along with its resistant forms, which appear on a regular basis.

Stéphanie Belaud