Biologi Farmasi

Abstract 

The COVID-19 has awakened us, that infectious diseases remain to be primary public health problems in the world, both in developing and developed countries. Since the antibiotic discovery, the morbidity and mortality of infectious diseases can be reduced. However, the irrational uses of antibiotics have resulted problems related in the emergence of antimicrobial resistance among several microorganism. Face of the problems, the new anti-infective drugs are urgently needed. Medicinal plants have been used for thousands of years to treat and prevent diseases including infectious diseases. Literally thousands of medicinal plants have been tested against hundreds of infectious agents including bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi in vitro. Thousands active compounds belonging alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolic compounds, glucosinolates have been also isolated from these medicinal plants. In addition, these active compounds have been proven to have some biological activities as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulator agents, etc.  However, very few of these active compounds have been studied in vivo both in animal model or in human to investigate their safety and efficacy. Success story example in exploration of anti-infective drugs from medicinal plants has been demonstrated with antimalaria quinine from Cinchona officinalis L. and artemisinin from Artemisia annua L. The exploration of conventional drugs from medicinal plants remains challenges due to the complexity and difficulty in synthesis, low quantities, and sometimes found in rare medicinal plants. Moreover, this is time-consuming, costly and uncertainty to succeeds. Face these great challenges or when the absence of effective drugs or specific treatment such as for COVID-19, an alternative development to be phytomedicine is wise choice.