Abstract:
Malaria continues to be a major global public health problem with 3.3 billion people at risk in 106 endemic
countries. Globally, over 1000 plants have been used as potential antimalarials in resource-poor settings due to
fragile health-care systems and lack of accessibility and affordability of artemisinin-based combination therapies
(ACTs). Although many believe that the use of medicinal plants that have folklore reputations for antimalarial
properties is relatively safe, many herbs may be potentially toxic due to their intrinsic adverse side effects.
Therefore, herbal-derived remedies require powerful and deep assessment of their pharmacological qualities to
establish their mode of action, safety, quality, and efficacy. In addition, the evolution of drug resistance also
demands new antimalarial agents. This can be achieved by forming a vibrant antimalarial discovery pipeline
among all stakeholders, including traditional healers, ethnobotanists, scientists, entomologists, pharmacists, and
research institutions, for the isolation and characterization of the bioactive compounds with the ultimate objective of finding novel modes of action antimalarial compounds that can be used to fight against drug-resistant
malarial parasites
