Alebie et al. Malar J (2017) 16:307 DOI 10.1186/s12936-017-1953-2 REVIEW Systematic review on traditional medicinal plants used for the treatment of malaria in Ethiopia: trends and perspectives Getachew Alebie 1* , Befikadu Urga 2 and Amha Worku 1 Abstract Background: Ethiopia is endowed with abundant medicinal plant resources and traditional medicinal practices. However, available research evidence on indigenous anti-malarial plants is highly fragmented in the country. The present systematic review attempted to explore, synthesize and compile ethno-medicinal research evidence on anti- malarial medicinal plants in Ethiopia. Methods: A systematic web search analysis and review was conducted on research literature pertaining to medici- nal plants used for traditional malaria treatment in Ethiopia. Data were collected from a total of 82 Ethiopian studies meeting specific inclusion criteria including published research articles and unpublished thesis reports. SPSS Version 16 was used to summarize relevant ethno-botanical/medicinal information using descriptive statistics, frequency, percentage, tables, and bar graphs. Results: A total of 200 different plant species (from 71 families) used for traditional malaria treatment were identi- fied in different parts of Ethiopia. Distribution and usage pattern of anti-malarial plants showed substantial variability across different geographic settings. A higher diversity of anti-malarial plants was reported from western and south- western parts of the country. Analysis of ethno-medicinal recipes indicated that mainly fresh leaves were used for preparation of remedies. Decoction, concoction and eating/chewing were found to be the most frequently employed herbal remedy preparation methods. Notably, anti-malarial herbal remedies were administered by oral route. Informa- tion on potential side effects of anti-malarial herbal preparations was patchy. However, some anti-malarial plants were reported to have potentially serious side effects using different local antidotes and some specific contra-indications. Conclusion: The study highlighted a rich diversity of indigenous anti-malarial medicinal plants with equally diver- gent herbal remedy preparation and use pattern in Ethiopia. Baseline information gaps were observed in key geo- graphic settings. Likewise, herbal remedy toxicity risks and countermeasures generally entailed more exhaustive investigation. Experimental research and advanced chemical analysis are also required to validate the therapeutic potential of anti-malarial compounds from promising plant species. Keywords: Medicinal plants, Malaria, Ethiopia © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Background Malaria remains one of the world’s leading health prob- lems, causing about 429,000 deaths in 2015, the vast majority of deaths (99%) were due to Plasmodium falci- parum malaria [1]. In that year, most (92%) of the deaths were estimated to have occurred in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Children were particularly afected by the disease with 70% of malaria-caused deaths occurring among the under fve-year age group [1, 2]. In Ethiopia, the majority (around 68%) of populations live in areas deemed malarious or potentially malarious [3]. Despite recent improvements in malaria control strategies, the disease remains a major public health problem and a Open Access Malaria Journal *Correspondence: gechalebie@gmail.com 1 Department of Biology, Jigjiga University, P.O. Box-1020, Jijiga, Ethiopia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article