Malaria Parasites, Traditional Medicinal Plants and Artediffusin (Tehranolide) as a New Candidate of Antimalaria Agent

Abstract

Malaria is a disease of poverty, three- quarters of the population in rural Africa lives in extreme poverty, as defined by the family only having the income to buy enough food to ward off starvation. The absence of vaccine and the emergence of drug resistant strain render the eradication and control of this disease nearly impossible. Studies in a number of African countries have shown that the emergence of the chloroquine resistant Malaria parasites is associated with a two-fold increase in Malaria deaths, but in one study in Mlomp Senegal, it was shown that Malaria mortality in children under the age of four increased 11-fold within six years of the emergence of the chloroquine-resistance. This fact provides the reasons for research for new anti malarial drugs.