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Problem statement
While the prevalence of malaria has significantly declined in developed countries, clinical incidences of the disease have been increasing in regions of greater endemicity. Presently, malaria transmission occurs in 108 countries causing an estimated 655 000 deaths annually, most of which are in the sub-Saharan Africa (Murray et al., 2012; World Health Organization (WHO), 2013).
Despite decades of global eradication efforts coupled with the technological advances in modern medicine, malaria remains a public health problem affecting many people. The challenges encountered in malaria prevention, control and elimination programmes include differences in parasite, vector, human, economic, social as well as environmental factors (Mills et al., 2008). How each determinant modulates the risk for increased parasitaemia is rather complex and continues to be the main constraint to scaling-up malaria control and strengthening of health systems in the affected countries (Kiszewski and Teklehaimanot, 2004). Aiming at elimination and the eventual eradication of malaria further implies the need for effective surveillance strategies to monitor progress, which could be challenging for underesourced health systems found in most endemic areas.
Malaria is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, which are climatic zones characterized by warm and humid environmental conditions. The vegetation and climatic conditions of these areas provide an ideal breeding zone for the proliferation of Anopheles species and hence increased resistance to pesticides. It is estimated that 40% of the earth’s population live in malaria-endangered areas and the figure is projected to increase as a result of global climate change (Patz and Olson, 2006; Stresman, 2010). In South Africa, malaria is mainly restricted to KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces and the transmission season is from October to May (Khosa et al., 2013). Temperature is particularly critical as temperatures below 20 0C inhibit malaria parasites to complete their life cycle and can therefore interrupt the transmission between hosts (Cohen et al., 2008).
Parasites, which include Plasmodium spp., may be quicker at adapting to climatic changes than the animals they live on since they are smaller and grow more rapidly (Lefevre et al., 2013). In addition to the modifying factors associated with global warming, population migration and changes in land use may possibly increase the current transmission rate of malaria (Adimi et al., 2010).
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Problem statement
1.2. Hypotheses
1.3. Objectives
1.4. Structure of the thesis
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction.
2.2. Protozoal infections
2.3. The life cycle of Plasmodium parasites
2.4. Chemotherapy of malaria
2.5. Ethnopharmacology as an approach to bioprospect for antimalarial plant products
2.6. The potential of NMR-based metabolomics in bioprospecting for antimalarial plant products
2.7. References
CHAPTER 3: IN VITRO SCREENING OF SELECTED SOUTH AFRICAN ANTIMALARIAL PLANT SPECIES AGAINST PROTOZOAL PARASITES
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Materials and methods
3.2.1. Plant collection
3.2.2. Extraction of plant samples
3.2.3. Antiprotozoal bioassay
3.2.3.1. In vitro antitrypanosomal assay
3.2.3.2. In vitro antileishmanial assay
3.2.3.3. In vitro antiplasmodial assay
3.2.4. Cytotoxicity assa
3.3. Results and discussion
3.4. Conclusion.
3.5. References
CHAPTER 4: NMR-BASED METABOLOMICS OF SELECTED ANTIPLASMODIAL PLANT SPECIES
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Materials and methods
4.2.1. Plant material
4.2.2. Extraction of plant samples
4.2.3. 1H NMR spectroscopy of plant extract
4.2.4. Multivariate data analysis (MDA)
4.3. Results and discussion
4.4. Conclusion
4.5. References
CHAPTER 5: INDOLE ALKALOIDS FROM TABERNAEMONTANA ELEGANS (APOCYNACEAE) WITH ANTIPLASMODIAL ACTIVITY
CHAPTER 6: ANTIPLASMODIAL CONSTITUENTS ISOLATED FROM VANGUERIA INFAUSTA SUBSPECIES INFAUSTA (RUBIACEAE
CHAPTER 7: GENERAL DISCUSSION
CHAPTER 8: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
CHAPTER 9: APPENDIX
