Review of Gabonese traditional plants that have reported anti-HIV activity

Title: Review of Gabonese traditional plants that have reported anti-HIV activity Authors: Mounanga, Boukandou MM; Traore, AN; Venter, Van de M; Potgieter, N Abstract: The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) reduced considerably deaths related to Human Immunodeficency Virus (HIV). However HAART is responsible for the high rate of side effects affecting the health of people living with HIV. Thus, people in developing countries revert to using plants as alternative and complementary medicine. Moreover, many studies have undertaken worldwide, aim at demonstrating the anti-HIV activity of medicinal plants bothin vitro andinvivo. In Gabon, the prevalence of HIV infection rate is at 4.1 % and despite the encouraging results of HAART, the Gabonese population drifts towards traditional healers who pride themselves having found a remedy for Aquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) using medicinal plant mixtures. The terms “Plants with anti-HIV activity”, “Gabonese plants” and “Anti-HIV activity”, “Medicinal plants” and “AIDS” were searched on several online databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. The plants found from this search were then matched with ethnobotanical survey d ata and database on Gabonese plants (published and unpublished). Studies with plants not found in the Gabonese flora were excluded. The search has resulted in the inclusion of 67 plant species present in Gabon and with proven anti-HIV activityin vitro. T...
Source: Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge - Category: Science Source Type: research