ABSTRACT

The number of publications containing chemical and pharmacotoxicological data is constantly on the increase and the research emphasis in Pharmacognosy is increasingly directed towards pharmacochemistry of natural substances. Among the natural compounds, saponins seem to play a more and more important role because these biologically active compounds benefit from new structural elucidation techniques. The treatment of tropical diseases continues to overwhelm the health care services of developing countries. Although diseases such as malaria affect millions of people of these countries, they are considered as non-profitable by the pharmaceutical industries. A survey of ethnobotanical knowledge in traditional pharmacopoeia was carried out in the areas where malaria is endemic. Volumes of increasing doses of compounds were randomly administered by subcutaneous injections to groups of ten Swiss mice. Analogous biological considerations can be observed with the roots of another Caribbean plant, Sideroxylon cubense, used externally for the treatment of fractures.