Preparations from the plant Celastr

Preparations from the plant Celastrus paniculatus Willd. have been used for treatment of
malaria and other febrile illness in the traditional medicine practices of Thailand. Crude solvent extracts from
the root bark and stem of C. paniculatus were screened for antimalarial activity against P. falciparum using an
in vitro culture system. A fraction of the chloroform extract of the root bark showed the highest antimalarial
activity. An active principle was isolated and characterized from the chloroform fraction and identified as a
quinonoid triterpene, pristimerin. When tested in vitro against various multidrug resistant isolates of P.
falciparum, pristimerin was less active than the conventional antimalarial drugs tested.