Diversity of Medicinal Plants Used in the Treatment and Management of Viral Diseases Transmitted by Mosquitoes in the Tropics

Mosquitoes are insects with slender bodies, three pairs of jointed legs, a pair of wings, and an elongated mouthpart for sucking the blood of vertebrate animals including humans. The saliva of mosquitoes causes itchy rashes when deposited on the skin of humans during blood feeding. Many female mosquito species are capable of ingesting and/or transmitting infectious pathogens such as viruses that cause diseases like chikungunya fever, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile fever, yellow fever, Zika fever, and others to humans. These viral diseases are primarily transmitted through the bites of infected female mosquito (Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex) species in the Culicidae family. The listed viruses are endemic in the tropics and subtropics of Africa and Southeast Asia, where they cause the emergence and re-emergence of mosquito-borne viral diseases. These diseases are responsible for thousands of deaths reported annually within the affected regions. Treatment and management of mosquito-borne viral diseases with orthodox medicines are common in several parts of the world. But due to the toxicity of synthetic drugs, their alternatives (mainly from medicinal plants) are beginning to receive wider attention. Therefore, the age-long practice of using plants and herbs by herbalists in the tropics to treat different ailments with believable reports from patients and herbalists is being empirically evaluated presently. Based on verifiable reports of antiviral properties of some medicinal plants, this chapter intends to discuss medicinal plants diversity in the tropics, highlight recent updates on their use in the treatment and management of mosquito-borne viral diseases, and succinctly espouse some isolated and identified phytochemicals that are potentially active against the listed mosquito-borne viral diseases.