Potential Antimalarial Activity from Alcoholic Extracts of Wild <em>Salvia palaestina</em> Leaves

Abstract

Malaria threatens the lives of more than one third of the world's population; it is a major cause of human deaths. As a result of the emergence of resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum to common antimalarial drugs, the search for new antimalarial drugs is urgently needed. Hemozoin synthesis is an indispensable process for the parasite survival and is the target of action for several known antimalarial drugs. Sage, Salvia palaestina, is an aromatic Mediterranean plant. Its leaves have been used over centuries in Palestinian traditional medicine and are now being investigated for potential antimalarial activity. This study reveals the antimalarial activity of crude and HPLC separated fractions tested using two methods; the inhibition of ferriprotoporphyrin IX (FP) biomineralization: semi-quantitative micro-assay used by Deharo and a previously self-developed quantitative in vitro method. Reversed phase preparative liquid chromatography coupled to Photo Diode Array (PDA) detector was used to isolate and enrich eight fractions. Three fractions showed promising antimalarial activity. The crude alcoholic extract of sage leaves seems to have the potential of an antimalarial drug; it prevents β-hematin formation with an efficiency of about 72% when compared to the standard Chloroquine which gave 93% at comparable concentrations of chloroquine and extract.

Phytochemical screening of Pomegranate juice, peels, leaves and membranes water extracts and their effect on β- hematin formation, a comparative study

“…The method of choice for extracting phytochemicals from food or natural herbs in our laboratory is infusion. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Since different preparations may exert different actions and safety profiles, we opt to use it the most popular and simple method. Infusion crude water extracts of pomegranate leaves, juice, peels and membranes were freshly prepared and directly analyzed using HPLC-PDA and the UV absorption was high at 350nm ( Figure 1).…”

“…During the past ten years, an extensive in-vitro β-hematin inhibition screening on edible food, wild natural plant extracts and/or pure isolates have been engaged in our laboratory. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The mechanism that links antimalarial effects with the ability to inhibit β-hematin formation has been thoroughly discussed. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Preparative chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer (LC-MS) were used to isolate and identify active phytochemicals present in these foods and/or natural herbs.…”

“…[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The mechanism that links antimalarial effects with the ability to inhibit β-hematin formation has been thoroughly discussed. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Preparative chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer (LC-MS) were used to isolate and identify active phytochemicals present in these foods and/or natural herbs. Although encouraging results were achieved, the ability of the above-mentioned tests to predict activity against in-vivo human malaria has not yet been established.…”

Pure Isolates and Preparative HPLC Fractions or Crude Extract of Inula viscosa: Effect on β-hematin Inhibition in vitro

“…Unfortunately, the parasite has a solution to this problem by dimerizing this ferric heme into an insoluble more stable form called hemozoin or malaria pigment [7][8][9]. Purified hemozoin was found to be identical to the synthetic analogue, β-hematin, an insoluble form of ferric protoporphyrin IX (FP) [10], produced in the presence of acetic acid [11,12] which can be used as tool to test new potential antimalarials [13,14]. Due to indiscriminate use of drugs, an alarming increase in drug resistance emerges [15], which has become a global concern.…”

Cinnamon bark water-infusion as an in-vitro inhibitor of -hematin formation

“…Numerous natural plants that are known in folk medicine were tested for β-hematin formation inhibition to develop effective antimalarial drugs. We had previously investigated active extracts from Salvia officinalis (Akkawi et al, 2012), wild Salvia palaestina leaves (Jaber et al, 2013), Artemisia annua herb in comparison to Palestinian Artemisia sieberi (Akkawi et al, 2014).…”