Malaria as one of the most recurrent infectious diseases caused by parasites of the genus
plasmodium, kills several hundred thousand people especially in the tropical and
subtropical regions of the world annually. Terpenoids have served as the lead
compounds to develop new antimalarial agents. The aromatic monoterpenoid,
cuminaldehyde, isolated from the fruits of Bunium persicum was evaluated for
antimalarial activity using cell-free β-hematin formation assay. The purified compound
showed no inhibitory performance with respect to β-hematin formation. It is
presumably due to structural differences between cuminaldehyde and other known
active terpenoids.
