Evaluation of Parasite Density, Plasma Total Bile Acids, Alanine Transaminase, Lactate Dehydrogenase and CD4 in Plasmodium Infected Patients Treated with Morinda lucida (Oowo)

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<i>Morinda Lucida</i> has been tested to have antimalarial and antidibetic effect among other health benefits. It is commonly used for the treatment of malaria infection in Oke-Ogun and its environs. Despite the health usefulness of this extract little has been reported about its biochemical alterations. This work was therefore designed to evaluate the parasite density, plasma total bile acids, Alanine transaminase, Lactate dehydrogenase and CD4 in Plasmodium infected patients treated with <i>Morinda Lucida</i><b> (Oowo)</b>. Sixty four(64) HIV, HBsAg and anti-HCV seronagative Plasmodium infected patients visiting traditional hoimes in Oke-Ogun the Nothern part of Oyo state Nigeria for traditional malaria cure aged 5 to 73 years classified into Female (n=34) and Male (n=30) were investigated. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV tests were carried out by Enzyme Linked Immunozorbent Assay (ELIZA). HIV screening and confirmation were carried out by immuno-chromatographic and Immunobloting (Western blot) assays respectively. Fasting Plasma Total Bile Acids (TBA), Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) and Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were carried out biochemically by spectrophotometry while CD4 cell count was carried out by cytoflowmetry using Partec Cyflow machine and reagent. The tests were carried out in the control and test subjects before and after the treatment with the raw liquid extract of the leaf of <i>Morinda Lucida</i>. The result obtained showed a significantly higher mean values of falciparum parasite density and plasma ALT in the plasmodium infected test subjects than the values of the parameters obtained in plasmodium non-infected control subjects before and after treatment of the plasmodium infected subjects with the raw liquid extract of <i>Morinda lucida</i> with p<0.05. There was also a higher significant difference in the value of plasma LDH in the plasmodium infected test subjects before the administration of the extract than the result obtained in the plasmodium non-infected control subjects with p<0.05. A significantly higher value of plasma LDH was obtained in the test subjects before the treatment compared to the value of this parameter obtained in the test subjects after treatment (p<0.05). There was also a significantly higher mean value of TBA in the test subjects compared with the control after treatment (p<0.05). There was no significant alteration in the mean values of the CD4 cell count in the subjects before and after treatment and also in test compared with the control subjects. This recent work showed significant alterations in the mean values of the plasmodium parasite density, ALT, LDH, TBA in the test subjects studied due to plasmodium infection and the effectiveness of the raw liquid extract of the leaf of <i>Morinda Lucida </i>in the treatment of malaria<i>. </i>Estimation of plasmodium parasite density, plasma ALT, LDH, and TBA should be considered in the treatment of malaria using the raw liquid extract of the leaf of <i>Morinda Lucida</i>.