Abstract
BackgroundMalaria is a major public health problem in the world which is responsible for death of millions particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, the control of malaria has become gradually more complex due to the spread of drug-resistant parasites. Medicinal plants are the unquestionable source of effective antimalarials. The present study aimed to evaluate antiplasmodial activity and acute toxicity of the plant Strychnos mitis in Plasmodium berghei infected mice.MethodsStandard procedures were employed to investigate acute toxicity and 4-day suppressive effect of crude aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts of the leaves of Strychnos mitis against P. berghei in Swiss albino mice. Water, n-hexane and chloroform fractions, obtained from crude hydro-methanolic extract, were also tested for their suppressive effect against P. berghei.ResultsAll crude extracts revealed no obvious acute toxicity in mice up to the highest dose administered (2000 mg/kg). All crude and solvent fractions of the leaves of Strychnos mitis inhibited parasitaemia significantly (p < 0.01). At the highest dose of 600 mg/kg, both aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts demonstrated higher performance with 95.5 and 93.97% parasitaemia suppression, respectively. All doses of crude extracts and fractions of leaves of Strychnos mitis prolonged survival time of infected mice dose dependently. The highest two doses of the crude aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts, and chloroform and aqueous fractions prevented weight loss in a dose dependent manner. Whereas, all doses of n-hexane fraction prevented loss of body weight but not in a dose dependent manner. The crude aqueous extract at the doses of 400 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg and hydro-methanolic extract at all dose levels significantly (p < 0.01) prevented packed cell volume reduction. Crude aqueous extract at a dose of 600 mg/kg and hydro-methanolic extract at all dose levels significantly prevented temperature reduction. Phytochemical screening of the crude aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, glycosides, terpenoids, saponins, tannins and phenols.ConclusionThe results of this study provide support the traditional therapeutic use of Strychnos mitis for treatment of malaria. However, further in-depth study is needed to evaluate the potential of the plant towards the development of new antimalarial agent.
Highlights
Malaria is a major public health problem in the world which is responsible for death of millions in sub-Saharan Africa
Acute toxicity The in vivo acute toxicity test indicated that both hydromethanolic and aqueous extracts of leaves of S. mitis did not cause mortality and body weight reduction up to 2000 mg/kg oral doses within the first 24 h as well as for Extract yield The leaves of S. mitis yielded a total of 56.8 g (18.8%) of dried hydro-methanolic crude extract and 43.3 g (14.4%) of dried aqueous crude extract
In vivo antiplasmodial activity of crude extracts on parasitaemia and survival time The 4-day suppressive test results indicated that both hydro-methanolic and aqueous extract of the leaves of S. mitis had prominent antiplasmodial activity against chloroquine sensitive P. berghei infected Swiss albino mice (Table 2)
Summary
Malaria control program has been jeopardized by lack of access to effective malaria control tools, emergence of resistance to antimalarial drugs and insecticides [7]. This calls for more effort to develop new antimalarial compounds with novel mechanisms of action. Artemisinin and quinine are drugs that have been developed from the herbaceous plants Artemisia annua L. and bark of Cinchona pubescens Vahl., respectively, based on ethnobotanical leads [9]. Such discoveries have inspired many researchers to look for new antimalarial drugs from plants
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