Abstract
Discovering and developing the desired antimalarials continue to be a necessity especially due to treatment failures, drug resistance, limited availability and affordability of antimalarial drugs and costs especially in poor malarial endemic countries. This study investigated the efficacies of two plant cocktails; CtA and CtB, selected based on their traditional usage. Efficacies of the cocktail extracts, chloroquine and pyrimethamine against Plasmodium berghei berghei were evaluated in mice using the suppressive, curative and prophylactic test models, after oral and intraperitoneal acute toxicity determination of the plant cocktails in accordance with Lorke's method. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 23.0 with level of significance set at P < 0.05. The median lethal dose was determined to be higher than 5000mg/kg body weight orally for both CtA and CtB; and 316.23mg/kg body weight intraperitoneally for CtA. Each cocktail exhibited high dose dependent Plasmodium berghei berghei inhibition which was 96.95%and 99.13% in the CtA800 mg/kgand CtB800 mg/kg doses in the curative groups respectively, 96.46%and 78.62% for CtA800mg/kgand CtB800mg/kg doses in the suppressive groups respectively, as well as 65.05%and 88.80% for CtA800mg/kg andCtB800mg/kg doses in the prophylactic groups respectively. Throughout the observation periods, the standard drugs, chloroquine phosphate and pyrimethamine maintained higher inhibitions up to 100%. These findings demonstrate that CtA and CtB possess good antimalarial abilities and calls for their development and standardization as effective and readily available antimalarial options. The acute toxicity results obtained underscore the importance of obtaining information on toxicities of medicinal plant remedies before their administration in both humans and animals.
Highlights
Malaria remains a major health problem and continues to impact enormously on man’s health and economy (WHOWMR 2016)
Within 24h, 100% mortality was recorded for Cocktail treatment B (CtB) and 33% for Cocktail treatment A (CtA), though mortality for CtA reached 100% within 7days observation period
No further exposure was done for the group receiving CtA following a 100% mortality observed at 1000mg/kg in phase 1
Summary
Malaria remains a major health problem and continues to impact enormously on man’s health and economy (WHOWMR 2016). Treatment with efficacious antimalarial drugs is crucial at all stages including the early control or ‘‘attack’’ phase to driving down transmission and the later stages of maintaining interruption of transmission, preventing reintroduction of malaria, and eliminating the last residual foci of infection (Bhatt et al, 2015; WHO 2007; 2014; 2016). Plants may well prove to be the source of new antimalarial drugs in view of the success with the two important chemotherapeutic agents, quinine and artemisinin (the mainstay of malaria treatment), both of which are derived from plants (Ojurongbe et al, 2015). The use of Quinine and Artemisinin as antimalarials has been limited by incidences of Plasmodium strains developing resistance against them (WHO-WMR 2011; Ménard et al, 2013; Ashley et al, 2014). Medicinal plants traditionally used to treat malaria continues to be increasingly investigated for ideal antimalarial drugs discovery and development
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
