Abstract
Plants are reservoir for potentially useful bioactive compounds, and owing to the rising occurrences of drug resistance to malaria parasites, there is a need to discover and develop new phytochemicals in plant that can be used as antimalarial agents. In this study, we gave a detailed description of the phytochemicals present in both ethyl acetate and methanolic extracts of Callistemon citrinus (C. citrinus) using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis; both extracts were also evaluated for their in vitro antimalarial, antitrypanosomal, and cytotoxicity activities against Trypanosoma brucei brucei (T. b brucei) parasites, Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) malaria parasites 3D7 strain, and human cervix adenocarcinoma cells (HeLa cells); in addition, the antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacies were determined using standard methods. Both extracts were characterized by a high amount of fatty acids (52.88 and 62.48%). The ethyl acetate extract exhibited a greater activity with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.025 to 0.10 mg/mL while the methanol extract ranged from 0.025 to 0.15 mg/mL. Both extracts were bactericidal to Escherichia coli ATCC 35150 (E. coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ACC (P. aeruginosa). Qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screenings conducted for both extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, steroids, and triterpenoids, fat and oils, flavonoids, phenols, and tannins in varying amounts. Both crude extracts exhibited antitrypanosomal potentials with an IC50 of 6.6/9.7 μg/mL and antiplasmodial activities with an IC50 of 8.4/13.0 μg/mL. Conclusion from this study indicates that apart from the folkloric uses of this plant in traditional settings, the extracts possess a broad spectrum of antimicrobial, antitrypanosomal, and antimalarial activities and some pharmaceutically essential bioactive components with remarkable antioxidant capacities that may be used in the synthesis of novel drugs for the management of different varieties of ailments.
Highlights
Plants are used by humans to ease and treat several diseases
It has been established that both human and animal trypanosomiasis adversely affect the sum total economy of Africa via the deteriorating health recorded for human and animals [18]; in addition to this, the unavailability of vaccines that can be used against trypanosomiasis and the increasing cost of commencing and sustaining tsetse fly control have resulted to most infected areas of Africa to be dependent on the use of trypanocidal drugs [19] which has exhibited some resistance [20] coupled with record of toxicity, inefficiency, and exorbitant price [21]
Twenty and twenty-two bioactive compounds representing 98.73 and 99.98% were found in the methanol and ethyl acetate extracts of the plant after Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) examination, and their percentage yield were
Summary
Plants are used by humans to ease and treat several diseases. Nowadays, in several countries of the world, traditional medicines are used as a substitute to conventional medicine [1, 2]. C. citrinus is an aromatic and medicinal plant of the family Myrtaceae and a shrub endemic to Australia It is a potential medicinal plant used in local settings for the treatment of gastrointestinal distress, pain, and infectious diseases from bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites [11]. It is used as an herbicide [12] while its leaves are used as a tea substitute with a revitalizing pleasant flavour [13]. Extracts from this plant are used to treat bronchitis and respiratory conditions like cough. There is a drought of information as regards the comparative assessment of the antioxidant, antibacterial, antimalarial, and antitrypanosomal activities and the bioactive components of the crude extracts of C. citrinus which necessitated this present study
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