In Vivo Antimalarial Activity of Solvent Fractions of the Leaf of Justicia Schimperiana Hochst. Ex Nees (Acanthaceae) Against Plasmodium Berghei in Mice
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Date
2014-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In spite of tremendous reduction in malaria-associated morbidity and mortality achieved during the last decade, malaria still remains a major global public health problem accounting for about 219 million infections and 0.66 million deaths in 106 malaria-endemic countries in the year 2010. Increasing resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to almost all the available antimalarial drugs urged a search for newer antimalarial drugs. Justicia schimperiana is traditionally used for the treatment of malaria and a study conducted previously on the crude extract confirmed that the plant is endowed with antimalarial activity. The present study was therefore aimed to evaluate antimalarial activities of chloroform, methanol and aqueous fractions of the leaves of Justicia schimperiana against Plasmodium berghei in mice. To this effect, following successive soxhlet extraction and maceration, the resulting fractions were evaluated at doses of 200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg using the 4-day suppressive, curative and prophylactic tests. All the three fractions had shown significant suppression of parasitemia in the 4-day suppressive test, of which the methanol fraction exerted the highest chemosuppression (65.2%, p<0.001) at 600 mg/kg followed by the aqueous fraction (40.93%, p<0.001) at
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the same dose. The methanol fraction also showed significant suppression of parasitemia in both curative (67.44%, p< 0.001) and prophylactic (35.02%, p<0.01) tests at 600 mg/kg. Furthermore, all doses of the methanol fraction significantly (p<0.05) prevented the reduction in rectal temperature in the 4-day suppressive, curative and repository tests. Therefore, the high antimalarial activity observed in methanol and aqueous fraction indicates the active constituents of the plant are semi-polar and polar in nature.
Key words: Justicia schimperiana, in vivo, anti-malarial activity, Plasmodium berghe
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Keywords
Justicia schimperiana; in vivo, anti-malarial activity; Plasmodium berghe