In vitro Anti-Plasmodial Activity of Aqueous and Ethanolic Extracts of Moringa oleifera and Phyllanthus amarus

Abstract

Many herbal medicinal products contribute to the treatment of malaria in endemic areas. In Ghana, there is documented evidence of the use of several plant species in the management of both infectious and non-infectious diseases. This study sought to validate the activity of extracts from two such plants, Phyllanthus amarus and Moringa oleifera, against Plasmodium falciparum. Anti-plasmodial activities of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of M. oleifera (whole plant and twig) and P. amarus (whole plant and stem) were assessed against the 3D7 laboratory strain of P. falciparum. Extracts were evaluated in vitro at concentrations of 12.5, 25, 50, 100 µg mLG 1 and the level of potency in each case was expressed as the concentration of the extract that inhibited 50% of the parasites (IC 50 ) relative to negative controls (100% parasitaemia). Artesunate was used as a positive standard in all assays. All extracts showed significant inhibition of parasite growth, with (IC 0 ) less than 50 µg mLG 1 , except the aqueous extract of the whole plant of P. amarus which showed a relatively high IC 50 of 115.43 µg mLG 1 . Interestingly, increasing concentration of ethanolic extract of combined twig and leaves of Moringa oleifera reduced inhibition of the parasite growth while a decreasing extract concentration resulted in increased parasite inhibition. The extracts of M. oleifera and P. amarus demonstrated potential anti-plasmodial activity which can be explored in malaria therapy. It is of interest to identify, isolate and characterize the active anti-plasmodial bioactive compounds from the plants.

In vitro antiplasmodial activity of Phyllanthus amarus against Plasmodium falciparum and evaluation of its acute toxicity effect in mouse model

“…The in vitro antiplasmodial activity of P. amarus had similarly been reported by Donkor et al . [ 21 ] who reported antimalarial activity of 80.09% at 100 μg/ml which is comparatively higher than what we obtained (76.8% at 100 μg/ml). The findings of this work also agree with Uchenna et al .…”

“…The films were fixed in methanol, stained for 10 min in 10% Giemsa, and viewed under a light microscope after washing and drying. The percentage of parasite inhibition was calculated using the following formula:[ 21 ]…”

Antiplasmodial activities of crude <I>Moringa oleifera</I> leaves extracts on chloroquine sensitive <I>Plasmodium falciparum</I> (3D7)

“…The possible mechanisms for which the biological activities observed in the leaf extract of M. oleifera, in this study, might likely be attributed to; antioxidant effect of the extract (Vergara-Jimenez et al, 2017), free radical scavenging property (Somsak et al, 2016), inhibition of protein synthesis or by other mechanism not known/reported in the literature. Although, the antiplasmodial activities of each solvent extracts reported in here are dependent on concentration, Donkor et al (2015) reported the contrary. In their work, inhibition of parasite growth by the extracts was observed to increase as the concentration of extracts decreased.…”

“…Seeding: For in vitro antimalarial activity assay, rings and trophozoites stages of synchronized P. falciparum culture (1% parasitaemia, 2% hematocrit) were used. Into duplicate wells of a sterile 96 wells flat bottom plate, an aliquot (180 µL) of sychronized culutre was added, following which, 20 µL of various concentrations (500, 250, 125, 62.5 µg/ml) respectively of crude plant extracts was added to columns 1-8 to yield a final concentration (50, 25, 12.5 and 6.25µg/mL) of each extract in the respective wells (Donkor et al, 2015). Columns 9 and 10 received 20 µL of the culture medium to serve as negative controls, while columns 11 and 12 received 20 µL different concentration (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.50, 31.25 and 15.625 nM/mL) of chloroquine diphosphate (CQdiPO 4 ; Sigma aldrich) to serve as positive control.…”

In vitro and in vivo antiplasmodial assays of selected Nigerian commercial herbal formulations

“…Chuka Trin Cleanser, with M. oleifera and water as the sole constituents and having % parasitaemia reduction of 50.5%, and 67.3% on days 4 and 7 post treatment, may show that M. oleifera has appreciable antiplasmodial property. Other researchers (19,22,45) have also proved the antimalarial property of the plant. This investigation has demonstrated that the Deep root and Ruzu bitters herbal formulations have very strong inhibitory effect against P. berghei in M. musculus.…”