Piranhea trifoliata an Amazonian Plant with Therapeutic Action: A Review

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants reflects the reality of a part of human history. The Brazilian population with limited access to public health programs led to the development and conservation of ethnobotanical knowledge-rich information regarding medicinal plants. However, popular wisdom lacks systematization so that it can correctly use it. Herein we present the Piranhea trifoliata (family Picrondendraceae), an Amazonian plant with a wide variety of molecules with biological effects. The antimalarial effect was the dominant description observed in the studies used for this review, followed by antifungal and antioxidant actions. This review provides a synopsis of the recent literature exploring the extracts from P. trifoliata that could efficiently prevent pathologies associated with cellular maintenance mechanisms during malaria or fungal infection and oxidative stress.