Investigation of Anti-malarial Substances from Tropical Medicinal Plants

该研究项目使用了印度尼西亚的药用植物，这些植物在该国被用作民间药物，旨在从中发现抗疟疾物质。结果，我们发现了以下有趣的发现。1)从马鞭草科（Peronema canescens）的叶片中分离到一种新的克罗丹型二萜，命名为peronemin A2，在体外具有抗疟疾活性。2)从芦花科（Fagara rhetza）树皮中分离得到的新型酸酰胺hazaleamide和从樟科（Beilschmiedia madang）木材中分离得到的苯基异喹啉生物碱dehatrine具有相同的活性。此外，对印尼40种药用植物的初步筛选表明，长叶Eurycoma longifolia （simaroubacae）根水煎液对恶性疟原虫具有较强的抗疟活性。

This research project used Indonesian medicinal plants which has been used as folk medicines in the country, and aimed at finding ant-malarial substances from them.As the result, we found interesting findings as following. 1)It had been found that a new clerodane-type diterpene named peronemin A2 isolated from the leaves of Peronema canescens (Verbenaceae) exhibits anti-malarial activity in vitro. 2)A new acid-amide named hazaleamide isolated from the bark of Fagara rhetza (Rutaceae) and a benzylisoquinoline alkaloid named dehatrine isolated from the wood of Beilschmiedia madang (Lauraceae) exhibit the same activity.Furthermore, the preliminary screening for forty kinds of Indonesian medicinal plants revealed the water decoction of the root of Eurycoma longifolia (Simaroubaceae) shows strongly the antimalarial activity against the pathogen Plasmodium falciparum.