Abstract
Malaria's global impact, fueled by resistance to several antimalarial drugs, has necessitated a quest to new antimalarial drugs from several sources with traditional medicinal plants being one of them. This study was conducted to assess the antimalarial activity of a traditionally used medicinal plant, Leonotis ocymifolia, against Plasmodium berghei. The plant has been extracted using maceration technique, and doses ranging from 100–800 mg/kg of Leonotis ocymifolia were used to test its antimalarial activity. Tween 80 (2% in water) and chloroquine 25 mg/kg were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. The antimalarial activities of the plant were determined by measuring parasitemia, survival time, packed cell volume, temperature, and weight. The plant's hydroalcoholic extract, as compared to negative control, maximally decreased parasite load by 41.4% at 800 mg/kg (p < 0.001). This parasite suppression was followed by longer survival time in the groups taking 400 mg/kg (p < 0.05) and 800 mg/kg (p < 0.05) in a four-day suppressive test and in those taking 800 mg/kg (p < 0.05) in Rane's test. The plant did not prevent weight and PCV reduction but prevented temperature reduction at 400 mg/kg (p < 0.05) and 800 mg/kg (p < 0.05) in a four-day suppressive model, and at 800 mg/kg (p < 0.05) in Rane's model. The average but consistent antimalarial activity of the plant across the test models corroborates the folkloric antimalarial use of the plant. The study recommends further pharmacological screenings, isolation, and identification of active compound(s) of the plant Leonotis ocymifolia.
Highlights
Malaria is one of the major global health problems, and despite headways, it still remains one of the deadly diseases [1]
In this study, the antimalarial effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of the plant was investigated in an effort to contribute to the discovery of new drugs with high activity and low toxicity
Two hundred grams of the course plant material was weighed by sensitive digital weighing balance (Mettler Toledo, Switzerland) and extracted by cold maceration technique. e plant material was soaked in a separate flask containing 80% methanol (1 : 5 (w/v)) and was placed on a shaker (Bibby Scientific Limited, Stone, Staffordshire, UK) tuned to 120 rpm for 72 h at room temperature. e extract was filtered using Whatman grade No 1 filter paper (Schleicher and Schuell MicroScience GmbH, Germany), and marcs were reextracted for a second and third time by adding another fresh methanol in water. e filtrates were combined and concentrated in a rotary evaporator (Buchi Rotavapor R-200, Switzerland) with temperature not exceeding 40°C
Summary
Malaria is one of the major global health problems, and despite headways, it still remains one of the deadly diseases [1]. In addition to the clinically approved drugs, different plants are traditional used to prevent, cure, and/or alleviate symptoms of malaria. Among these plants is Leonotis ocymifolia, locally called “Raskmir,” which has several ethnobotanical uses, including malaria [3], abdominal pain [4] headache [5], hypertension and asthma [6], diabetes, eczema, and purgative, [7], anthrax and wound [8], and diarrhea [9]. In vitro studies have indicated the plant to have a potential antiplasmodial effect [10, 12], it has not been as yet investigated in vivo. In this study, the antimalarial effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of the plant was investigated in an effort to contribute to the discovery of new drugs with high activity and low toxicity
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