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Traditional remedies have been a source of important antimalarial drugs and continue to provide novel and effective treatments, both where pharmaceuticals are not available and where the disease is increasingly resistant to commonly prescribed drugs. The Kenyah of the Apo Kayan, a remote forested plateau in Indonesian Borneo, use 17 malaria remedies derived from natural sources. A quantitative analysis of the relationship between a 'local importance value' index for each malaria remedy (IVmal) and inhibition of cultured Plasmodium falciparum by ethanolic extracts supports the hypothesis that the degree of local consensus about a given remedy is a good indicator of its potential biological efficacy. Our results confirm the rational selection and use of traditional remedies for malaria by the Kenyah. We have identified target species for further research directed toward safe and effective treatments for malaria.

Selligueain A, a novel sweet trimeric proanthocyanidin with a doubly linked A unit, has been isolated from the rhizomes of Selliguea feei collected in Indonesia. The structure of this substance was established as epiafzelechin-(4 beta-->8, 2 beta-->O-->7)-epiafzelechin-(4 beta-->8)-afzelechin [1], on the basis of a combination of spectral and chemical methods. The compound was not acutely toxic for mice and not mutagenic in a forward mutation assay utilizing Salmonella typhimurium strain TM677. Selligueain A [1] was rated by a taste panel as exhibiting about 35 times the sweetness intensity of a 2% w/v aqueous sucrose solution, and at a concentration of 0.5% w/v in H2O was perceived as pleasant-tasting rather than astringent.