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Infectious diseases account for approximately one-half of all deaths in tropical countries. In industrialized nations, despite the progress made in the understanding of microbiology and their control, incidents of epidemics due to drug resistant microorganisms and the emergence of hitherto unknown disease-causing microbes, pose enormous public health concerns. Historically, plants have provided a good source of antiinfective agents; emetine, quinine, and berberine remain highly effective instruments in the fight against microbial infections. Phytomedicines derived from plants have shown great promise in the treatment of intractable infectious diseases including opportunistic AIDS infections. Plants containing protoberberines and related alkaloids, picralima-type indole alkaloids and garcinia biflavonones used in traditional African system of medicine, have been found to be active against a wide variety of micro-organisms. The profile of known drugs like Hydrastis canadensis (goldenseal), Garcinia kola (bitter kola), Polygonum sp., Aframomum melegueta (grains of paradise) will be used to illustrate the enormous potential of antiinfective agents from higher plants. Newer drugs such as Xylopia aethiopica, Araliopsis tabouensis, Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, Chasmanthera dependens and Nauclea species will be reviewed.