Antimalarial and Hepatoprotective Effects of Crude Ethanolic Extract of Lingzhi or Reishi Medicinal Mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum (W.Curt.:Fr.)P.Karst. (Higher Basidiomycetes), in Plasmodium berghei-Infected Mice

Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating the in vivo antimalarial activity (using some biochemical indices) of crude aqueous extracts of the fruiting bodies of Ganoderma lucidum, a mushroom with well-established medicinal properties. A rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei (1 × 107), was inoculated intraperitoneally into Swiss albino mice. The test groups were administered G. lucidum extract and chloroquine (CQ, as standard drug), while the control groups were administered the same amount of distilled water by an intragastric tube once daily. The antimalarial activity of the extract was investigated from the suppressive, curative, and prophylactic effects of the extract on parasite growth. Serum aminotransferases (AST and ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and gamma glutamine transpeptidase (γ-GT) levels monitored following the 4-day suppressive test were significantly reduced, with a corresponding significant increase in the livers of mice treated with the extract compared with infected untreated mice. The results obtained from this study provide scientific justification in an animal model of malaria that an ethanolic extract of G. lucidum possesses potent antimalarial activity and also could help ameliorate the attendant Plasmodium-induced liver damage due to malarial infection.