The World Health Organization reported that in 2025, the reduction percentage of malaria cases in Indonesia was less than 60%, indicating failure to meet the Global Technical Strategy’s target. Meanwhile, evidence of Artemisinin Combination Therapies' treatment failure has been increasing globally since 2015. As a consequence, it is necessary to identify new antimalarial candidates by exploring ethnopharmacological knowledge from people living in endemic countries. This research aims to analyse the antimalarial potency of medicinal plants used by Indonesian communities. The study was conducted in two methods: first, 142 Indonesian antimalarial medicinal plants used to treat malaria were collected from the Indonesian Ministry of Health database, followed by a systematic search for antimalarial and phytochemical studies across three databases. Second, an in vitro antimalarial assay against Plasmodium falciparum D2 Chloroquine-resistant was performed on the ten unstudied medicinal plants. The literature review summarized 41 plants exhibiting in vitro and in vivo antimalarial activities. Forty isolated compounds inhibited Plasmodium growth, mostly alkaloids and terpenoids. However, 49 plants have not been studied for antimalarial and phytochemical properties. As a result, ten medicinal plants (Elaeocarpus glandiflorus, Ficus variegata, Litsea odorifera, Falcataria moluccana, Intsia bijuga, Litsea firma, Pangium edule, Pterospermum diversifolium, Pterospermum javanicum, and Evodia suaveolens) were chosen for the in vitro antimalarial assay. Overall, the preliminary screening indicates that four species (Elaeocarpus glandiflorus, Ficus variegata, Litsea odorifera, and Falcataria moluccana) exhibit strong antimalarial activity, with IC50 values below 50 µg/mL. Therefore, Further studies are required to identify the bioactive compounds from each active species.


Keywords: antimalarial, Indonesia, medicinal plants, Plasmodium falciparum, in vitro