In VivoAntimalarial Activity of Essential Oils fromCymbopogon citratusandOcimum gratissimumon Mice Infected withPlasmodium berghei

Abstract

The essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from fresh leaves of Cymbopogon citratus and Ocimum gratissimum growing in Cameroon were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The main constituents of the oil of Ocimum gratissimum were gamma-terpinene (21.9 %), beta-phellandrene (21.1 %), limonene (11.4 %) and thymol (11.2 %), while the oil of Cymbopogon citratus contained geranial (32.8 %), neral (29.0 %), myrcene (16.2 %) and beta-pinene (10.5 %). The effects of these oils on the growth of Plasmodium berghei were investigated. Both oils showed significant antimalarial activities in the four-day suppressive in vivo test in mice. At concentrations of 200, 300 and 500 mg/kg of mouse per day, the essential oil of C. citratus produced the highest activity with the respective percentages of suppression of parasitaemia: 62.1 %, 81.7 % and 86.6 %. The corresponding values for the oil of O. gratissimum at the same concentrations were 55.0 %, 75.2 % and 77.8 %, respectively. Chloroquine (10 mg/kg of mouse, positive control) had a suppressive activity of 100 %.

In vitroantiplasmodial activity and toxicity assessment of some plants from Nigerian ethnomedicine

“…& Thonn. (Euphorbiaceae) (Adjobimey et al, 2004), Euphorbia hirta Linn (Euphorbiaceae) (Tona et al, 1999;Liu et al, 2007) and Ocimum gratissimum L. Labiatae (Tchoumbougnang et al, 2005). In contrast, some of the plants evaluated in this study have previously been reported to lack antiplasmodial activity, but activity was detected in this study.…”

The essential oil of turpentine and its major volatile fraction (α- and β-pinenes): a review

“…When acting on yeast, they were found to inhibit mitochondrial respiration, the proton pump activity and K+ transport, and to increase membrane fluidity [69]. They also exhibit pest-destroying properties against the protozoon Plasmodium berghei (malaria vector [70]), insecticidal properties against lice [71] and the mosquito Aedes aegypti [51] as well as an antiseptic effect on oral bacterial flora [50]. In general, they exert a considerable antibacterial effect, especially on a methicilline-resistant S. aureus and other Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria [43].…”

Evaluación in vitro de la actividad anti Trypanosoma cruzi de aceites esenciales de diez plantas medicinales

“…Además, los aceites esenciales de Achillea millefolium L (milenrama), Syzygium aromaticum L (clavo) y Ocimun basilicum L (albahaca) también han demostrado su actividad inhibitoria del desarrollo de epimastigotes y tripomastigotes de T. cruzi (30) . Es probable que la actividad tripanocida de los aceites esenciales de Cimbopogon citratus y Aloysia triphylla se encuentre relacionada con su componente principal: el citral (una mezcla de geranial y neral), dado que esta es una reconocida sustancia con propiedades antibacterianas y antiparasitarias (antimalárica) (31) .…”