Antimalarial activity of Garcinia mangostana L rind and its synergistic effect with artemisinin in vitro

Susy Tjahjani

doi:10.1186/s12906-017-1649-8

Abstract

BackgroundMalaria especially falciparum malaria still causes high morbidity and mortality in tropical countries. Several factors have been linked to this situation and the most important one is the rapid spread of parasite resistance to the currently available antimalarials, including artemisinin. Artemisinin is the main component of the currently recommended antimalarial, artemisinin based combination therapy (ACT), and it is a free radical generating antimalarial. Garcinia mangostana L (mangosteen) rind contain a lot of xanthone compounds acting as an antioxidant and exhibited antimalarial activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimalarial activity of mangosteen rind extract and its fractions and their interaction with artemisinin against the 3D7 clone of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro.MethodsDry ripe mangosteen rind was extracted with ethanol followed by fractionation with hexane, ethylacetate, buthanol, and water consecutively to get ethanol extract, hexane, athylacetate, buthanol, and water fractions. Each of these substances was diluted in DMSO and examined for antimalarial activity either singly or in combination with artemisinin in vitro against Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 clone. Synergism between these substances with artemisinin was evaluated according to certain formula to get the sum of fractional inhibitory concentration 50 (∑FIC50).ResultsAnalysis of the parasite growth in vitro indicated that IC50 of these mangosteen rind extract, hexane, ethylacetate, buthanol, and water fraction ranged from 0.41 to > 100 μg/mL. All of the ∑FIC50 were <1.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated a promising antimalarial activity of the extract and fractions of G.mangostana L rind and its synergistic effect with artemisinin. Further study using lead compound(s) isolated from extract and fractions should be performed to identify more accurately their mechanism of antimalarial activities.

Highlights

Malaria especially falciparum malaria still causes high morbidity and mortality in tropical countries
In vitro antimalarial activity of G. mangostana L extracts and its fractions against 3D7 clone of P. falciparum The parasites growth in the presence of different concentration of its extracts, hexane, ethylacetate, buthanolic, and water fractions is shown in Additional files 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively
Analysis of the parasites growth revealed that the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the extracts, hexane, ethylacetate, buthanolic, and water fractions, ranged from 0.42 μg/mL, 0.12 μg/mL, 1–10 μg/mL, 1152 μg/mL to > 100 μg/mL

Summary

Introduction

Malaria especially falciparum malaria still causes high morbidity and mortality in tropical countries. Several factors have been linked to this situation and the most important one is the rapid spread of parasite resistance to the currently available antimalarials, including artemisinin. Artemisinin is the main component of the currently recommended antimalarial, artemisinin based combination therapy (ACT), and it is a free radical generating antimalarial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimalarial activity of mangosteen rind extract and its fractions and their interaction with artemisinin against the 3D7 clone of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro. The persistently high morbidity and mortality of malaria is due to the rapid speed of drug. Artemisinin, the main component of ACT, is a free radical generating antimalarial [3] that has a short half life [4,5,6], and rapidly clear the parasite [7]. Resistance of the parasite to the partner drugs has been reported [9,10,11]

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