Antifungal activity of African medicinal plants: a review

Alognon A, Poli S, Montant MES, Hoinsou Y, Gbati L, Gbekley EH, Djeri B

Abstract

In Africa many plants are used as antifungals. However, journals analysing the work of
antifungal activities of plants in West Africa in recent years are rare. This study is a synthesis
of publications from 2006 to 2021 on plants traditionally used in the fight against antifungal
diseases. A systematic search was carried out in the Pub Med and Google Scholar database
using the following keywords: vaginitis; West Africa; antifungal activity; medicinal plants;
plant extracts; for articles published from 2006 to 2021. These selected articles focus on
ethnobotanical studies, in vitro antifungal tests and molecules isolated from these plants.
A total of 46 papers were selected from 7 West African countries with 56 plants studied.
Nigeria and Ivory coast did more work with 22 and 14 papers respectively and studied
more plants with 23 and 17 respectively. 43% of plants show good activity in vitro on
strains of Candida albicans in the laboratory with a minimum fungicide concentration and
a percentage of inhibition above 50%. the most active extracts are found in Ivory coast
with respectively the hexane extracts of Terminalia mantaly with a minimum fungicide
concentration= 0.024 mg / mL and the hydroethanolic extract of Terminalia ivorensis
with a minimum fungicide concentration of 0.097 mg / mL. it is clear that the traditional
West African pharmacopoeia can make an important contribution for the management of
vaginitis.

Keywords: vaginitis, West Africa, antifungal activity, plants extracts, medicinal plants