In vitro antiplasmodial activity of selected Luo and Kuria medicinal plants.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Drug resistance in malaria is a recurring subject that threatens public health globally. There is an urgent need to seek new antimalarial agents. This study seeking new antimalarials from medicinal plants is guided by ethnobotany.

Anti-giardial activity of gastrointestinal remedies of the Luo of east Africa.

Activity in an in vitro assay with Giardia lamblia provided a test of the validity of a quantitative methodology used in an ethnobotanical survey of the Luo people of the Lake Victoria basin of Kenya and Tanzania. Forty-five taxa of remedies for gastrointestinal problems were reported by four or more independent informants and a log-linear model was used to calculate a statistical measure of informant consensus. Methanolic extracts of 21 of 36 taxa assayed were lethal or inhibited growth of Giardia trophozoites at 1000 ppm; 7 species were lethal at 500 ppm.

Ethnobotany of Apocynaceae species in Kenya.

The study of Apocynaceae species used in traditional medicine reveals that 25 species in 16 genera are of ethnobotanical interest. Nineteen species are medicinal, sixteen of which fall under the subfamily Plumerioideae which usually has indole alkaloids. The most common category of diseases treated is skin and ectoparasitic diseases followed by abdominal diseases, diseases of the head, female conditions and venereal diseases.

Ethnomedicinal study of major species in the family Labiatae from Kenya.

The family Labiatae, commonly called the mint family, is one of the flowering group of plants that has been found to have great medicinal potential. In this study, at least twenty-eight (28) indigenous species which are popular among Kenyan herbalists have been collected from the Rift Valley and central parts of Kenya. Preliminary chemical analysis of the Ocimum genus has revealed several different components of essential oils.

Chinese and African Euphorbiaceae plant extracts: markedly enhancing effect on Epstein-Barr virus-induced transformation.

Chinese and African Euphorbiaceae plant extracts were shown to have a markedly enhancing effect on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-induced transformation of human lymphocytes. When 5 X 10(5) cord blood lymphocytes were seeded into the semisolid agar medium immediately after EBV exposure, 3-10 times more colonies developed in the presence of the plant extracts at their optimal doses. When a smaller number of 5 X 10(4) cells were seeded, transformed colonies were also observed in the presence of the plant extracts but not in their absence.