Abstract:
The East African region is highly endowed with plant biodiversity,
and it is estimated that there are over 21 000 higher plant
species in the region. This provides ethnopharmacologists with
a wide range of plant species for phytochemical and pharmacological
studies. In addition, the region is home to one of the
ecological hotspots of plant species, the Eastern Arc Mountains,
along the eastern coast of Tanzania.
Much of the ethnopharmacological work conducted using
plant samples from East Africa has involved higher plants, most
of which are endemic. As a result, novel natural products with
intriguing chemical structures and pharmacological properties
have been elucidated. This review presents the anticancer, antimalarial,
antimicrobial, anti-HIV and antileishmanial natural
products isolated from medicinal plants growing in East Africa
(Table 1). It aims to coherently document the valuable but
scattered reports on the ethnopharmacology of medicinal plants
collected from three East African countries, namely Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda
