Medicinal Plants Used for the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Erectile dysfunction has remained as one of the major global health issues. Since the discovery of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, a significant portion of the patients has solved the issue of erectile dysfunction. However, the wide distribution of phosphodiesterase type 5 enzymes at various sites of the body led phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors to cause various unnecessary outcomes. Hence, it is vital to look for and find optional agents that could solve these limitations. The people of Ethiopia depend heavily on medicinal plants to ease their ailments, including erectile dysfunction. Aim of the study. The current study was carried out to systematically review the traditional medicinal plants used for the management of erectile dysfunction in Ethiopia. METHOD: A systematic and manual search was conducted to retrieve relevant articles published from 2000 to August 2020. Electronic databases of PubMed (Medline), Google Scholar, and grey literature were employed to access the studies. Accordingly, fifty-four published articles and thesis papers were finally included in this study. RESULT: Seventy plant species have been reported for the management of erectile dysfunction in Ethiopia. The commonly recorded family was Fabaceae, followed by Asteraceae, Malvaceae, Convolvulaceae, and Solanaceae. The plant species that represented the highest number of citations were Asparagus africanus, succeeded by Ricinus communis and Carissa spinarum. The commonest plant part used was roots. Majority of the medicinal plants were administered orally. The growth forms of the reported species were primarily herbs followed by shrubs. CONCLUSION: The present review compiled medicinal plants utilized by the Ethiopian community to manage erectile dysfunction. The findings will serve as a reference for the selection of plants for further pharmacological, toxicological, and phytochemical investigations in developing new plant-based drugs used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of the Leaf Exudate of Aloe megalacantha Baker.

Infectious diseases caused by fungi and bacteria are among the major causes of illness and death worldwide. This is mainly implicated by the antimicrobial resistance of the current treatment regimens. Since plant products are house stores of bioactive compounds, it is essential to screen plant-based antimicrobials to come up with novel medicines that counter the grave consequences of antimicrobial resistance. In the folk medicine of Ethiopia, Aloe megalacantha is used for the treatment of wound, dandruff, malaria, diabetes, impotence, colon cleansing, amoeba, ascariasis, abdominal pain, urine retention, snake bite, and evil eye. Hence, the present study was aimed to evaluate the antibacterial and antifungal effects of the leaf exudate of Aloe megalacantha. Agar well diffusion was employed to determine the antibacterial and antifungal effects. Six bacterial strains, namely, S. aureus (standard), S. aureus (clinical isolate), E. coli ATCC 25922 (standard), E. coli (clinical isolate), K. pneumoniae (standard), and P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 (standard), and four fungal strains such as C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. tropicalis, and C. krusei were studied. The leaf exudate showed the highest activity against C. krusei with an average zone diameter of 22.49 ± 0.47 mm at 400 mg/mL. Among the bacterial species, S. aureus ATCC 29213 (standard) was the most sensitive with an average zone of diameter of 16.63 ± 0.12 mm at 200 mg/mL. Thus, the present findings support the folklore use of Aloe megalacantha for the treatment of different microbial infections.