Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Ethnopharmacology 114 (2007) 377–386 Traditional antimalarial phytotherapy remedies used by the Kwale community of the Kenyan Coast C.N. Muthaura a,∗ , G.M. Rukunga a , S.C. Chhabra b , G.M. Mungai c , E.N.M. Njagi d a Centre for Traditional Medicine and Drug Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, P.O. Box 54840, Nairobi 00200, Kenya b Department of Chemistry, Kenyatta University, P.O. Box 43844, Nairobi 00100, Kenya c East Africa Herbarium, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya d Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University, P.O. Box. 43844, Nairobi 00100, Kenya Received 16 January 2007; received in revised form 8 June 2007; accepted 13 August 2007 Available online 25 August 2007 Abstract In Kenya, most people especially in rural areas use traditional medicine and medicinal plants to treat many diseases including malaria. Malaria is of national concern in Kenya, in view of development of resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum to drugs especially chloroquine, which had been effective and affordable. There is need for alternative and affordable therapy. Many antimalarial drugs have been derived from medicinal plants and this is evident from the reported antiplasmodial activity. The aim of the study was to document medicinal plants traditionally used to treat malaria by the Digo community of Kwale district. Traditional health practitioners were interviewed with standardized questionnaires in order to obtain information on medicinal plants traditionally used for management of malaria. Twenty-five species in 21 genera and 16 families were encountered during the study. Celestraceae, Leguminosae and Rubiaceae families represented the species most commonly cited. Three plant species, namely; Maytenus putterlickioides, Warburgia stuhlmannii and Pentas bussei are documented for the first time for the treatment of malaria. © 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Traditional remedies; Antimalarial plants; Kwale district 1. Introduction Plants have been an integral part of life in many indige- nous communities, and Africa is no exception (Sidigia et al., 1995). Most of Africa’s biodiversity play major specific roles in the cultural evolution of human societies (Mugabe and Clark, 1998). Apart from other ethnobotanical uses, plants are espe- cially important in their ethnomedical uses and among the many diseases traditionally treated with medicinal plants, malaria ranks as the single most important condition treated with herbal remedies. Due to either limited availability or affordability of pharmaceutical medicines in many tropical countries, about 80% of the rural population in Africa depends on traditional herbal remedies (WHO, 2002; Zirihi et al., 2005). Although there is widespread use of traditional herbal remedies in the manage- ment of malaria (Gessler et al., 1995), scientific understanding ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +254 020 2722541; fax: +254 020 2720030. E-mail address: cmuthaura@kemri.org (C.N. Muthaura). of the plants is, however, largely unexplored (WHO, 2002) and therefore, there is a need to collect ethnobotanical information on antimalarial plants which is essential for further evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the plants as antimalarial remedies. Historically, majority of antimalarial drugs have been derived from medicinal plants or from structures modeled on plant lead compounds (Klayman, 1985). Quinine and artemisinin, the drugs of choice for treatment of malaria, were either obtained directly from plants or developed using chemical structures of plant derived compounds as templates (Basco et al., 1994; Kayser et al., 2003). Research on medicinal plant extracts used in folk medicine represents a suitable approach for the devel- opment of new drugs (Calixto, 1996). To meet the criteria of efficacy, safety and quality control like synthetic drug prod- ucts (Wagner, 1997); the pharmacological, toxicological and phytochemical profiles of the extracts have to be scientifically evaluated. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) rec- ognizes that the centuries-old use of certain plants as therapeutic resources should be taken into account of their efficacy (Gilbert et al., 1997). Thus, it considers phytotherapy in its health pro- 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2007.08.033