Journal of Ethnopharmacology 106 (2006) 390–402 Identification and evaluation of Peruvian plants used to treat malaria and leishmaniasis L.P. Kvist a,∗ , S.B. Christensen b , H.B. Rasmussen b , K. Mejia c , A. Gonzalez c a Department of Systematic Botany, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade 540, DK-8000 ˚ Arhus C., Denmark b Department of Medicinal Chemistry, The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universitetsparken 2, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark c Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana-IIAP, Av. J. A. Qui˜ n´ onez km. 2,5 Iquitos, Peru Received 1 June 2005; received in revised form 13 January 2006; accepted 24 January 2006 Available online 3 March 2006 Abstract Households in eleven geographically and ethnically distinct areas in Loreto, Peru, were interviewed about their knowledge and use of plants, for the treatment of malaria and leishmaniasis. The survey resulted in 988 use records representing 118 plant-taxa for malaria and 289 use-records representing 85 plant-taxa for leishmaniasis. In both cases the 10 most frequently reported taxa accounted for about half of all the use-records. Plant material was collected and extracts were screened for in vitro inhibition of Plasmodium and Leishmania parasites. In the case of Plasmodium, extracts of 11 of the 13 most frequently reported plants showed significant growth inhibitory activity, while only a few plant extracts inhibited the growth of Leishmania parasites. © 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: In vitro screening; Leishmaniasis; Loreto; Malaria; Peru; Use-records 1. Introduction The global extent and consequences of diseases such as malaria and leishmaniasis are alarming. With a rising number of clinical cases malaria is, at present, among the world’s most devastating infectious diseases, infecting hundreds of millions of people and causing up to 3 million deaths annually (Sachs and Malaney, 2002). The increasing resistance of malaria caus- ing Plasmodium parasites towards the drugs of first choice adds to the severity of the problem. In the case of leishmaniasis only one new drug (miltefosine) (Croft et al., 2005) has been regis- tered for decades. Antiparasitic compounds found in plants used in tribal medicine can be valuable as templates for new drugs. In fact most of the drugs that have been used against malaria are directly or indirectly derived from natural products (Christensen and Kharazmi, 2001). In this study the emphasis has been put on malaria because the different populations in the Loreto depart- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 89424710; fax: +45 89422722/86139326. E-mail addresses: lars.kvist@biology.au.dk (L.P. Kvist), sbc@dfuni.dk (S.B. Christensen), kmejia@iiap.org.pe (K. Mejia), allpahuayo@iiap.org.pe (A. Gonzalez). ment of Peru use more herbal medicines to treat malaria than leishmaniasis. Also the literature on malaria is more extensive and the impact of malaria on society is far more severe than that of leishmaniasis. Malaria was introduced to the Americas by the Europeans. The introduction led to a dramatic reduction of indigenous pop- ulations during the first centuries after the European arrival (Denewan, 1976). Malaria has since been one of the principal health hazards in tropical America (Newman, 1976). Conse- quently indigenous people and descendants of Europeans have experimented with local plants in order to find efficient treat- ments for the disease. Due to limited exchange of knowledge and because of lower levels of infection, relatively isolated groups of indigenous people typically use fewer medicinal plants than groups with more outside contact. The Waorani of the Ecuado- rian Amazon presently use far more medicinal plants than they did before the first peaceful contact in the 1970s (David and Yost, 1983; C´ eron and Montalvo, 1998). The Yanomami along the Venezuela-Brazil border were first exposed to malaria in the early 1930s and obviously had no need for drugs against the disease before that time. A recent study has demonstrated, that they currently use at least 10 medicinal plants specifically against malaria (Milliken and Albert, 1996). 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2006.01.020