Toxicology of some important medicinal plants in southern Africa

Abstract

Africa is home to two major floral kingdoms: the Paleotropical kingdom of central Africa and the Capensis kingdom of the Western Cape province of South Africa, the latter of which consists of approximately 10,000 species, representing about 20% of Africa's floral 'gold mine', better known as the Cape herbal medicine. Needless to say, such rich flora comes with numerous plants with a potential to cause poisoning to humans. This review document reports important toxic medicinal plants and their toxic ingredients for plant species resident in the southern African region. These include important medicinal uses and pharmacological properties ranging from antimicrobial, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory as well as those that are used as aphrodisiacs and for maternal health care.

Keywords: Alkaloids; CNS; Cancer remedies; Cardiac glycosides; DNA; GABA; GAP; GI; Good Agricultural Practice; HIV; HIV 1 RDDP; HIV-1 RNA-dependent DNA polymerase; ISO/TC249; International Organization for Standardization of Traditional Medicine; LD; Phytotherapy; RNA; SABS; South African Bureau of Standards; Toxic plants; Traditional natural medicines; WHO; World Health Organization; central nervous system; deoxyribonucleic acid; gamma-aminobutyric acid; gastrointestinal; human immune deficiency virus; lethal dose; ribonucleic acid.