Various nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to reduce pain and inflammation by blocking the metabolism of arachidonic acid by isoform of cyclooxygenase enzyme, thereby reducing the production of prostaglandin. Sadly, there are many side effects associated with the administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. However, there are medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory therapeutic effects with low or no side effects. The Afri-can continent is richly endowed with diverse medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory activities that have been shown to be effective in the treatment of inflammatory conditions in traditional medicine. Interestingly, scientists have examined some of these African medicinal plants and documented their biological and therapeutic activities. Unfortunately, medicinal plants from different countries in Africa with anti-inflammatory properties have not been documented in a single review paper. It is important to document the ethnobotanical knowledge and applications of anti-inflammatory medicinal plants from selected countries representing different regions of the African continent. This paper therefore documents anti-inflammatory activities of various medicinal plants from different geographical regions of Africa with the aim of presenting the diversity of medicinal plants that are of traditional or therapeutic use in Africa.
Keywords: inflammation; inflammatory conditions; local plants; plant potentials.