Plasmodium Active Compounds from Endophytic Fungi

Malaria is a parasitic disease that involves high fevers, shaking chills, flu-like symptoms, and anemia. It is caused by a parasite plasmodium spp that is passed from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. Pregnant women, patients with HIV/AIDS, nonimmune travelers, and in high transmission areas children under five years of age are in high risk of contracting malaria. Thus there is a need to identify novel drug classes since the malaria virus is continuously becoming more and more resistant to drugs. A bioassay-guided fractionation of extracts from the fungi supplied by Mycosynthetix inc., has yielded fractions that significantly inhibited the replication of malaria parasite some of which demonstrated low cytotoxicity. The active fractions were purified using high performance liquid chromatography and further examined by spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques.