ABSTRACT
Herbal remedies for malaria are already in popular use in developing countries, and many have been shown to have antiplasmodial activities in experimental studies. However, few attempts appear to have been made to determine the safety of medicinal plants used traditionally to treat malaria, with the aim of bringing them into clinical trials and general use. Most work has been directed by academic interests, emphasising the evaluation of in vitro and in vivo activity in experimental models. Presently, the scanty data available indicate that preclinical safety testing in Africa, and probably in other developing countries, follows a pattern of “What can we do?” instead of “What ought to be done?” and “How should it be done?”
