Exploring Antimalarial and Cytotoxic Activities of Hibiscus cannabinus and Corchorus capsularis Extracts Through In‐Vitro and In‐Silico Approaches

Abstract

Malaria disease is an infectious disease, endemic to tropical and sub‐tropical regions causing half a million people’s deaths every year. Bioactive compounds derived from medicinal plants are used to treat malaria disease. H. cannabinus and C. capsularisare two edible medicinal plants abundant in distribution in the Assam region, India. In this study, in‐vitro and in‐silico investigations were performed to explore the anti‐malarial activity of the plant extracts against Plasmodium falciparum with its validation of hemocompatibility on human RBC. We report H. cannabinus and C. capsularis extracts possess highly potent antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum with IC50 values of 3.80 ± 0.3 μg/mL and 7.90 ± 0.8 μg/mL, respectively. The plant extracts showed growth inhibition of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells, no toxicity on noncancerous Vero cells, and no hemolytic activity on human RBCs. The GC‐MS analysis detected bioactive compounds 2‐pyrazoline‐3‐carboxylic acid; 5‐hydroxy‐1‐(4‐methyl benzoyl)‐5‐phen 5‐oxo‐1‐phenyl‐4H‐pyrazole‐3‐carboxylic acid; 9‐oximino‐2,7‐diethoxyfluorene; and nonane‐diamide, n, n'‐di‐benzoyloxy in H. cannabinus; and, (+)‐sesamin; tetrahydropyran‐4‐carboxylic acid, 4‐phenyl‐, (3‐chloro‐4‐methylphenyl; and safrole in C. capsularis. In the in‐silico study, antimalarial compounds in the extracts were predicted with good binding affinities of docking score < ‐7.5 kcal/mol on Falcipain‐2, and Cyt C2 proteins that help the growth and invasion of P. falciparum.