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Many people in different African countries are suffering from different diseases many of which result in serious life threat and public health problems with high risk of infection and mortality. Due to less accessibility and high cost of modern drugs, people of this continent often depend on traditional medicine using medicinal plants to manage the diseases. Africa has large tropical rain forests, which are very rich in medicinal plants. Many of them have been scientifically proven for their medicinal values. These medicinal plants which constitute a large repertoire of endophytes have not been significantly explored for the isolation of these microorganisms and their bioactive secondary metabolites. This review summarizes the research on endophytes isolated from medicinal plants of Africa, their pharmacological potential and some of their biotechnological aspects. Novel compounds reported from endophytes from Africa with their biological activities have also been reviewed. Information documented in this review might serve as starting point for future researches on endophytes in different African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier systematic reviews estimated the epilepsy treatment gap in low- and low-middle-income countries to be above 75%. Reduction in the gap since then due to healthcare improvements and socio-economic changes is plausible but unproven. To review the epilepsy treatment gap evidence and determine if it has decreased over time. We identified articles in English reporting estimates of the treatment gap in community samples from low- and low-middle-income countries from 1980 onwards. We performed meta-proportion analyses to determine the treatment gap's pooled estimates and meta-regression analyses to determine time trends for all countries and separately for African and Asian countries. The analysis included 58 full studies and 12 abstracts covering 31 countries. We retrieved a single report for 18 countries. The pooled estimate for treatment gap for all countries was 71% (95% Confidence Intervals: 65%, 77%; I2: 98.4%), for Africa, 73% (95% CIs: 66%, 80%; I2: 97.9%) and for Asia, 69% (95% CIs: 58%, 79%; I2: 98.8%). We found wide between studies variance and observed a trend towards reduction in the pooled gap from all countries. The reduction was significant for African countries (Regression Coefficient: -0.025; 95% CI, −0.048 to −0.0005; P = 0.045) but not for Asia (Regression Coefficient: -0.0008; 95% CI, −0.023 to 0.007; P = 0.26). Despite limitations of large variances, small sizes of individual studies, limited or no data from many countries, there is progress in reduction of the epilepsy treatment gap in low- and low-middle-income countries. This progress is considerable in Africa compared to Asia. • Epilepsy treatment gap in LMICs, last systematically reviewed in 2007 and was >75%. • We undertook to estimate the treatment gap and its time trends in LMICs. • The treatment gap has reduced somewhat particularly in the last decade. • The gap has narrowed significantly in Africa but not in Asia. • Major efforts are required to bridge the epilepsy treatment gap at country levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]