Introduction: Malaria remains a life-threatening disease, mainly in tropical and sub-tropical countries of the world. The problem caused by the disease is further compounded by the emergence and spread of multidrug resistant Plasmodium falciparum. Coupled with the poor distribution of modern health facilities, there is resurgence in the use of herbal remedies to treat malaria. In this study, we evaluated the antiplasmodial activities of six commercially available herbal formulations using in vivo and in vitro methods to assess their claimed antimalarial properties. Methods: The antiplasmodial activities of the six herbal formulations were assessed using Chloroquine sensitive P. falciparum parasite strain 3D7 using the SYBR Greenin vitro method and the in vivo curative test (established infection) in Plasmodium berghei infected Mus musculus. Results: The six herbal formulations had values of IC50 > 100 µg/mL on 3D7 strain of P. falciparum compared to controls which had IC50 values of 6.92nM (Chloroquine) and 0.75nM (Artesunate). In the curative evaluation (in vivo) the herbal formulations significantly reduced parasitaemia on day 4 (26.3%-77.3 %) and day 7 (45.54%-94.81%) post-treatments (P<0.05) when compared to the untreated group, which recorded high mortality rate. Conclusion: Findings made in this study lend support to the claim that these herbal formulations have antiplasmodial activities. Percentage inhibitions of parasitaemia of the formulations were all above 50% except M&T capsule which had lower percentage inhibition of parasitaemia.

The morbidity and mortality rates from Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections are increasing, due to the development of drug-resistant strains. This study aimed to explore the secondary metabolites of endophytic fungi of Garcinia kola for their antibacterial activities against P. aeruginosa. The endophytic fungi associated with healthy leaves of G. kola were isolated using the standard methods. These fungi were subjected to solid-state fermentation on rice media at 28 o C for 21 d. The fungal secondary metabolites were extracted using ethyl acetate, and then concentrated under vacuum. The fungal crude extracts were screened for their antibacterial activities against clinical and laboratory strains of P. aeruginosa, using the agar diffusion method. The bioactive components of the fungal extracts were identified using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detector (HPLC-DAD) analysis. Three endophytic fungi mainly; Aspergillus sp., Fusarium sp. and Colletotrichum sp. were isolated. At concentration of 1 mg/ml, extracts of the three fungi displayed antipseudomonal activities against all the isolates, except for a P. aeruginosa isolate recovered from urine. Results of the HPLC-DAD analysis revealed the presence of several active compounds such as; indole-3-acetic acid, phydroxybenzoic acid, and protocatechuic acid, among others in the fungal extracts. These compounds have been previously reported to have significant antimicrobial properties. This study reveals that endophytic fungi associated with G. kola leaves possess promising anti-pseudomonal potential.

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