Antifungal activity of African medicinal plants: a review

In Africa many plants are used as antifungals. However, journals analysing the work of antifungal activities of plants in West Africa in recent years are rare. This study is a synthesis of publications from 2006 to 2021 on plants traditionally used in the fight against antifungal diseases. A systematic search was carried out in the Pub Med and Google Scholar database using the following keywords: vaginitis; West Africa; antifungal activity; medicinal plants; plant extracts; for articles published from 2006 to 2021. These selected articles focus on ethnobotanical studies, in vitro antifungal tests and molecules isolated from these plants. A total of 46 papers were selected from 7 West African countries with 56 plants studied. Nigeria and Ivory coast did more work with 22 and 14 papers respectively and studied more plants with 23 and 17 respectively. 43% of plants show good activity in vitro on strains of Candida albicans in the laboratory with a minimum fungicide concentration and a percentage of inhibition above 50%. The most active extracts are found in Ivory coast with respectively the hexane extracts of Terminalia mantaly with a minimum fungicide concentration= 0.024 mg / mL and the hydroethanolic extract of Terminalia ivorensis with a minimum fungicide concentration of 0.097 mg / mL. It is clear that the traditional West African pharmacopoeia can make an important contribution for the management of vaginitis.