Antifungal Activity Validation of Wild Plants used in Argentine Ethnomedicine

Abstract

The discovery of new antifungal compounds is an urgent need due to the increase of immunocompromised patients and the ineffectiveness/toxicity of existing drugs in clinical use. The plant kingdom represents a huge source of novel molecules and particularly the Argentine Republic has great plant diversity and only a small percentage of which has been investigated phytochemically and for its antifungal properties. However, the great diversity of species makes it difficult to select them with probabilities of success. In this chapter we demonstrated that selecting plants based on ethnopharmacological use related to antifungal activity, offers a greater probability to find antifungal plants than when they are randomly selected. Furthermore, a revision regarding to ethnopharmacological uses, bioactive compounds isolated and biological activities displayed by Polygonum genus (one of the most important wild plants that grows in Argentina) was analyzed. Finally, chemotaxonomic importance of sesquiterpenes and flavonoids as well as their relationships with the antifungal activity of the Persicaria section within Polygonum genus was reviewed.