Anti-seizure activity of African medicinal plants: The identification of bioactive alkaloids from the stem bark of Rauvolfia caffra using an in vivo zebrafish model

Epilepsy is one of the major chronic diseases that does not have a cure to date. Adverse drug reactions have been reported from the use of available anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) which are also effective in only two-thirds of the patients. Accordingly, the identification of scaffolds with promising anti-seizure activity remains an important first step towards the development of new anti-epileptic therapies, with improved efficacy and reduced adverse effects. Herbal medicines are widely used in developing countries, including in the treatment of epilepsy but with little scientific evidence to validate this use. In the search for new epilepsy treatment options, the zebrafish has emerged as a chemoconvulsant-based model for epilepsy, mainly because of the many advantages that zebrafish larvae offer making them highly suitable for high-throughput drug screening.