Review of Gabonese traditional plants that have reported anti-HIV activity

Abstract

The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) reduced considerably deaths related to Human Immunodeficency Virus (HIV). However HAART is responsible for the high rate of side effects affecting the health of people living with HIV. Thus, people in developing countries revert to using plants as alternative and complementary medicine. Moreover, many studies have undertaken worldwide, aim at demonstrating the anti-HIV activity of medicinal plants both <em>in vitro</em> and <em>in</em> <em>vivo</em>. In Gabon, the prevalence of HIV infection rate is at 4.1 % and despite the encouraging results of HAART, the Gabonese population drifts towards traditional healers who pride themselves having found a remedy for Aquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) using medicinal plant mixtures. The terms “Plants with anti-HIV activity”, “Gabonese plants” and “Anti-HIV activity”, “Medicinal plants” and “AIDS” were searched on several online databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. The plants found from this search were then matched with ethnobotanical survey data and database on Gabonese plants (published and unpublished). Studies with plants not found in the Gabonese flora were excluded. The search has resulted in the inclusion of 67 plant species present in Gabon and with proven anti-HIV activity <em>in vitro</em>. These plants are widely used to treat several ailments including infectious diseases, epilepsy, cancer, inflammation, hypertension and diabetes. Several methods have been used to demonstrate the anti-HIV activity of those plants including reverse transcriptase, MTT, integrase and protease assays.<br> This review presents a non-exhaustive summary of Gabonese plants with proven anti-HIV activities. This might be a plausible explanation for the local population’s interest in medicinal plants for the treatment of AIDS related infections.