Abstract

In the past few decades, a worldwide increase in the incidence of fungal infections has been observed as well as rise in the resistance of some species of fungi to different fungicidal used in medicinal practice. Besides, fungi are the one of the most neglected pathogens as demonstrated by the fact that the amphotericin B and other sold treatments are still used as gold standard as fungi infection treatment.

The majority of used antifungal treatments have various drawbacks in terms of toxicity, efficacy as well as cost and their frequent use has also led to the emergence of resistant strains. Hence, there is a great demand for developing an antifungal belonging to a wide range of structural classes, selectively acting on new targets with least side effects.

Natural products, either as pure phytocompounds or as standardized plant extracts, provide unlimited opportunities for new drug lads because of their having normally matchless chemical diversity. Present chapter focused on the work done in the field of fungi treatment of various plant components and novel approaches which will be the future prospective for the new drug discoveries and providing better fungi infection treatments.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background information

Medicinal plant refers to various types of plant which have more than one parts and having substances that are used in herbalism or have medicinal properties and carry out medicinal activities and also supply man with food as well as used in treatment (Sofowora 1982). Medicinal plants have been practiced since the immemorial by almost all culture as a source of medicine (DaSilva and Horareau, 1999).  Medicine derived from medicinal plants is widely famous for their safety, easily availability and low cost (Iwu et al, 1999).

Medicinal plants part used may include the whole plant body or the leaves, roots, barks, seed, and flowers of the plant (Westh et al, 2004).  These plants have bioactive phytochemical substances that produce definite physiological actions on the human body (Hill 1952) and these bioactive phytochemical constituents are alkaloids, essential oils, flavonoids, tannins, terponoids, saponins, and phenolic compounds (Solecki and Shanidar, 1975). These traditional components form the foundation of the modern prescription of drugs today (Bensky and Gamble, 1993). Medicinal plants are important in the treatment of fungal infection (Olembo et al, 1995; Kokwaro, 1993).

About 80% of the world’s population and 90% of the less develop countries rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care and as a source of food and as thus are consider as the backbone of traditional medicine as the world utilizes them on daily basis. Medicinal plants have rich sources of useful ingredients that can be used in the production of drugs or curing of some diseases. Aside the role of medicinal plants being used in drug production and curing diseases, medicinal plants are also use in the development of human culture around the world. Medicinal plants are considered as an important source of nutrition and for this reason, they are recommended for their therapeutic value.

Medicinal plants include ginger, garlic, tea, orange, lemon, lime and many others. It has been estimated that about 13,000 species of plants have been employed for at least a century as traditional medicine by various cultures around the world and a list of more than 30,000 medicinal plants have being published. Flowering plants as well as algae and fungi have been used medicinally in the production of drugs and treatments of some diseases.

Medicinal plants were first used as drugs in curing ailments before the primitive man started to distinguish between useful and poisonous plants using the trial and error method. Through this method, tribal people begin collecting information from local flora which introduced a well define pharmacopoeia. This knowledge of medicinal plants was gradually developed and passed from one individual to another and from one generation to another. Although this information was handed down from one generation to the next, the develop of potential useful drugs using medicinal plants have also been impeded by poor documentation coupled with little or no scientific validation of the herbal drugs, their safety, and efficacy.

Fungal infections are one of the deadliest infections which has accounted for more than 1.5 million deaths annually worldwide. These diseases cause lots of dead and life threatening because they are being neglected by the society. Among fungal diseases, infection of the skin holds the 4th position and it is accountable for the majority of death related to fungal infection (Hay RJ, Williams HC, Bolliger, 2010).

Plant kingdom have been studied by researcher for the natural compounds of medicinal plants and results have shown that this medicinal plants are enriched with bioactive secondary metabolite such as saponins, alkaloids and terponoids and many more as listed above have antifungal properties capable of treating fungal infections and have being considered as drug for fungi infections (Arif, Bhosale, Kumar, Lavekar et al, 2009).

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, imidazole and triazoles were produced which were efficient in treating fungal diseases. However, according to Ngetich (2005), the use of ethnomedicinal lead to identify plants is a slow process because herbalist maintain the secrecy of their knowledge regarding it as a personal property. In order to realize the full potential of these medicinal plants, it is therefore necessary to identify to scientifically verify the claims by herbalist and make a reliable scientific documentation.

In Cameroon, bacterial and fungal infections are known to be prevalent because of low socio-economic empowerment, traditional beliefs and cultural barriers, the suffering people resort to use of herbal remedies in search of cure especially for rural women who rarely discuss/disclose diseases affecting secretive body parts.

A research carried out by Journal of Herb, Spices and Medicinal Plants, 10.1080/10496475.2022 discovered 67 medicinal plants that are distributed among 27 families and 51 genera used to treat fungal and bacterial infections. The highest numbers of species were from Families Lamiaceae and Asteraceae. Their analyzed data explain that the most commonly harvested plant parts were leaves (88.1%) and roots (23.9%). The most common growth form harvested were herbs (47.8%) and most of the medicinal plants used were wild species (67.2%).

Analyzed results also showed that the main methods of herbal drug preparation were by squeezing, boiling and pounding and were mainly orally administered. However, most of the steamed plant species were inserted in the birth canal besides oral administration. Some plants such as Allium sativum, Aloe vera and Ocimum gratissimum are topically applied on the affected body parts. This vital indigenous knowledge about healing secretive and discrete diseases among the marginalized population requires urgent ethnobotanical studies to sustain livelihoods.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Because of the importance of medicinal plants in treating diseases, this study was carried out to study the causes of fungal disease, bringing possible solutions in the treatment of fungal disease and prevention of these infections with the use of medicinal plants and also identify the compounds responsible for this activity

1.3 Research Question

1. What are the major causes of fungal infection?
2. How are these infections transmitted?
3. How are medical plants used to treat these infections?

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