Chukwuocha Uchechukwu M, Fernández-Rivera Omar, Legorreta-Herrera Martha
Laboratorio de Inmunología Molecular, FES Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Batalla 5 de Mayo esq. Fuerte de Loreto, Iztapalapa 09230, Ciudad de México, Mexico; Department of Public Health Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri PMB 1526, Imo State, Nigeria.
Laboratorio de Inmunología Molecular, FES Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Batalla 5 de Mayo esq. Fuerte de Loreto, Iztapalapa 09230, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2016 Dec 4;193:517-523. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2016.09.056. Epub 2016 Sep 29.
Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass) has been used in traditional medicine as an herbal infusion to treat fever and malaria. Generally, whole plant extracts possess higher biological activity than purified compounds. However, the antimalarial activity of the whole C. citratus plant has not been experimentally tested.
To evaluate the antimalarial activity of an herbal infusion and the whole Cymbopogon citratus plant in two experimental models of malaria.
The plant was dried for 10 days at room temperature and was then milled and passed through brass sieves to obtain a powder, which was administered to CBA/Ca mice with a patent Plasmodium chabaudi AS or P. berghei ANKA infection. We analysed the effects of two different doses (1600 and 3200mg/kg) compared with those of the herbal infusion and chloroquine, used as a positive control. We also assessed the prophylactic antimalarial activities of the whole C. citratus plant and the combination of the whole plant and chloroquine.
The C. citratus whole plant exhibited prolonged antimalarial activity against both P. chabaudi AS and P. berghei ANKA. The low dose of the whole C. citratus plant displayed higher antimalarial activity than the high dose against P. berghei ANKA. As a prophylactic treatment, the whole plant exhibited higher antimalarial activity than either the herbal infusion or chloroquine. In addition, the combination of the whole C. citratus plant and chloroquine displayed higher activity than chloroquine alone against P. berghei ANKA patent infection.
We demonstrated the antimalarial activity of the whole C. citratus plant in two experimental models. The whole C. citratus plant elicited higher anti-malarial activity than the herbal infusion or chloroquine when used as a prophylactic treatment. The antimalarial activity of the whole C. citratus plant supports continued efforts towards developing whole plant therapies for the management of malaria and other infectious diseases prevalent in resource-poor communities.
柠檬香茅在传统医学中一直被用作草药浸剂来治疗发烧和疟疾。一般来说，全株提取物比纯化的化合物具有更高的生物活性。然而，柠檬香茅全株的抗疟活性尚未经过实验测试。
在两种疟疾实验模型中评估草药浸剂和柠檬香茅全株的抗疟活性。
将植物在室温下干燥10天，然后研磨并通过黄铜筛以获得粉末，将其给予感染了查巴迪疟原虫AS或伯氏疟原虫ANKA的CBA/Ca小鼠。我们分析了两种不同剂量（1600和3200mg/kg）与用作阳性对照的草药浸剂和氯喹相比的效果。我们还评估了柠檬香茅全株以及全株与氯喹组合的预防性抗疟活性。
柠檬香茅全株对查巴迪疟原虫AS和伯氏疟原虫ANKA均表现出持久的抗疟活性。低剂量的柠檬香茅全株对伯氏疟原虫ANKA的抗疟活性高于高剂量。作为预防性治疗，全株表现出比草药浸剂或氯喹更高的抗疟活性。此外，柠檬香茅全株与氯喹的组合对伯氏疟原虫ANKA显性感染的活性高于单独使用氯喹。
我们在两种实验模型中证明了柠檬香茅全株的抗疟活性。当用作预防性治疗时，柠檬香茅全株产生的抗疟活性高于草药浸剂或氯喹。柠檬香茅全株的抗疟活性支持继续努力开发用于管理疟疾和资源匮乏社区中流行的其他传染病的全株疗法。
