Dengue infection is a major public health challenge around the world particularly in tropical areas. It has been reported that nearly 50-100 million infections and 22,000 deaths occur every year. Presently, there is no specific therapeutics available in the main stream medical practices to treat dengue infection; however, possible treatment procedures are explained in the Traditional Medical Systems (TMS) such as Sri Lankan TMS, Indian Ayurvedic, Unani and Siddha TMS. In these TMSs, medicinal plants have been used in several ways against dengue infection such as virocides, larvicides and mosquito repellents. Therefore, medicinal plants inherit biologically active compounds/lead compounds which are yet to be identified chemically and physiologically. Herein, we discuss the possible applications of crude plant extracts and isolated phytochemicals from medicinal plants such as quercetin, sulphated galactomonas, flavanoids glabranine in controlling dengue infection. Moreover, medicinal plant based therapeutics can be safer, cost effective and non-toxic. Therefore, this paper reviews the medicinal plants that are used in TMSs to manage dengue infection, the phytochemicals they contain and mode of action of these phytochemicals as virocides, larvicides and mosquito repellents.
Key words: Dengue, phytochemicals, virocides, larvicides, in-silico
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