A review on reported phytochemicals as druggable leads with antimalarial potential

The science and practice of drug discovery and development is primarily benefitted from the natural sources. The chemistry of natural products has inspired medicinal chemists to develop and design various therapeutic molecules from the leads obtained from natural sources. This is evident from the growing number of publications on natural products derived from drug molecules. Some of the most successful bioactive natural product candidates so far are Taxol obtained from ‘Taxus Brevifolia,’ Quinine obtained from the bark of the cinchona plant, morphine obtained from the dried latex of the poppy plant, Vincristine, and Vinblastine from ‘Vinca Rosea,’ atropine from ‘Atropa Belladonna’, Digoxin and Digitoxin from ‘Digitalis Purpurea’ and Artemisinin from ‘Artemisia Annua’. Parasitic pathogens are one of the significant menaces for the world as they lead to various diseases in hosts, and for many diseases, these parasite compromises the host’s immune system. Malaria is a parasitic disease especially endemic to tropical countries and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. According to the latest data from WHO, millions of patients are suffering from malaria and its related complications on 30 th March 2022. Natural products derived leads have brought a paradigm shift in the discovery of antimalarial drugs. The first antimalarial drug, quinine, was isolated from the Cinchona species (Family: Rubiaceae) in 1820 and is still used today. This was followed by another antimalarial drug a century later, chloroquine, discovered in the 1940s. After that, Artemisinin was founded in 1972 by Tu Youyou, co-recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for her discovery. Unfortunately, the malarial parasite, mainly Plasmodium falciparum, develops resistance to these drugs, and thus there exists a need to explore other natural herbs for their role as antimalarials. The current review is therefore kept forth to congregate updated information on undergoing research in allied areas of natural product-based drug discovery, particularly for developing antimalarial agents.