Abstract:
Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are a worldwide critical concern accounting for 17% of the estimated global
burden of all infectious diseases in 2020. Despite the various medicines available for the management, the
deadliest VBD malaria, caused by Plasmodium sp., has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in sub-
Saharan Africa only. This finding may be explained by the progressive loss of antimalarial medication
efficacy, inherent toxicity, the rise of drug resistance, or a lack of treatment adherence. As a result, new
drug discoveries from uncommon sources are desperately needed, especially against multi-drug
resistant strains. Marine organisms have been investigated, including sponges, soft corals, algae, and
cyanobacteria. They have been shown to produce many bioactive compounds that potentially affect the
causative organism at different stages of its life cycle, including the chloroquine (CQ)-resistant strains of
P. falciparum. These compounds also showed diverse chemical structures belonging to various
phytochemical classes, including alkaloids, terpenoids, polyketides, macrolides, and others. The current
article presents a comprehensive review of marine-derived natural products with antimalarial activity as
potential candidates for targeting different stages and species of Plasmodium in both in vitro and in vivo
and in comparison with the commercially available and terrestrial plant-derived products, i.e., quinine
and artemisini
