Anti-plasmodial and Radical Scavenging Activities of Croton megalobotrys

Medicinal plants are used for treatment of a variety of diseases. They are sources of modern medicine and a major source of remedy in developing countries. Even when some knowledge of traditional use of plants in Africa was lost due to lack of documentation [1], active experimentation on medicinal plants by local population continued [2]. The emergence of new diseases such as HIV/AIDS and resurgence and development of resistance of others such as malaria have encouraged medicinal plant use. Scientific research is sometimes carried out to support or refute claims of medicinal value of the plants used in traditional medicine. Some medicinal plants of Botswana have been evaluated for their antimicrobial [3,4], antimalarial [5,6] and radical scavenging [7] activities. Most of them, collected from medicinal plant vendors, have been shown to contain useful compounds with known biological activities [8].