Antimalaria And Antioxidant Effects Of Methanol And Flavonoid-rich Extracts Of Adansonia Digitata Stem Bark On Plasmodium Berghei-infected Mice

ABSTRACT

Adansonia digitata has popular ethnomedicinal application in the treatment of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. The present study sought to investigate the antimalarial and antioxidant effects of methanol and flavonoid-rich extracts of the stem bark on Plasmodium berghei-infected mice in vivo. Thirty-five male mice, weighing 18-20 g and randomly allocated into seven groups of five animals each were used. Group 1, which served as the positive control, was pretreated with 1 ml/kg of the vehicle (5% v/v tween 80), mice in groups 2 and 3 were pretreated with 5mg/kg b.wt of the standard drugs: chloroquine and arthemter/lumfantrine respectively, groups 4 and 5 were pretreated with 200mg/kg and 400 mg/kg methanol extract of A. digitata (ADME) respectively while groups 6 and 7 were administered 200mg/kg and 400 mg/kg flavonoid-rich extract of A. digitata (ADFE)respectively. Drugs were administered by oral gavage once daily for five consecutive days before intraperitonial transfection of mice with an inoculum size of 1x107of P.berghei. Blood was withdrawn from animals for the quantification of packed cell volume (PCV) and parasitemia. Animals were anaesthetized with ether 72 h after transfection, dissected and the livers quickly excised to prepare the homogenate used to evaluate the extent of membrane lipid peroxidation and level of reduced glutathione (GSH). ADME and ADFE treatment caused significant (P<0.001), dose-dependent chemosuppresive activity and decreased parasitemia when compared with the infected, untreated mice. Higher effective doses (400 mg/kg b.wt) of ADME and ADFE produced 68% and 82% clearance of the parasites at day 5 after transfection compared with 100% clearance by both standard drugs (chloroquine and arthemter/lumfantrine) at 5 mg/kg b.wt dosage. ADME and ADFE at 400 mg/kg b.wt also reversed the malaria-dependent reduction in the PCV to pre infection level and compared well with the reference drugs in this regard. ADME and ADFE at the evaluated concentrations significantly (P<0.001) reversed the elevated hepatic membrane peroxidation caused by P. berghei infection but produced no significant effect on GSH when

compared with the infected, untreated mice. The results of the present study revealed the antioxidant and prophylactic effects of methanol and flavonoid-rich extracts of A. digitata on P. berghei-induced malaria in mice. It can thus be concluded that the plant could be harnessed as source of antimalarial agents and further justifies the folkloric use of the plant in the treatment of malaria.

Register/Login to Access Full Work

CITE THIS WORK

• APA
• MLA
• MLA 7
• Chicago