Fentahun Selamawit, Makonnen Eyasu, Awas Tesfaye, Giday Mirutse
Wollo University, P.O. Box 1145, Dessie, Ethiopia.
School of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2017 Jan 5;17(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s12906-016-1529-7.
Malaria is a major public health problem in the world which is responsible for death of millions particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, the control of malaria has become gradually more complex due to the spread of drug-resistant parasites. Medicinal plants are the unquestionable source of effective antimalarials. The present study aimed to evaluate antiplasmodial activity and acute toxicity of the plant Strychnos mitis in Plasmodium berghei infected mice.
Standard procedures were employed to investigate acute toxicity and 4-day suppressive effect of crude aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts of the leaves of Strychnos mitis against P. berghei in Swiss albino mice. Water, n-hexane and chloroform fractions, obtained from crude hydro-methanolic extract, were also tested for their suppressive effect against P. berghei.
All crude extracts revealed no obvious acute toxicity in mice up to the highest dose administered (2000 mg/kg). All crude and solvent fractions of the leaves of Strychnos mitis inhibited parasitaemia significantly (p < 0.01). At the highest dose of 600 mg/kg, both aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts demonstrated higher performance with 95.5 and 93.97% parasitaemia suppression, respectively. All doses of crude extracts and fractions of leaves of Strychnos mitis prolonged survival time of infected mice dose dependently. The highest two doses of the crude aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts, and chloroform and aqueous fractions prevented weight loss in a dose dependent manner. Whereas, all doses of n-hexane fraction prevented loss of body weight but not in a dose dependent manner. The crude aqueous extract at the doses of 400 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg and hydro-methanolic extract at all dose levels significantly (p < 0.01) prevented packed cell volume reduction. Crude aqueous extract at a dose of 600 mg/kg and hydro-methanolic extract at all dose levels significantly prevented temperature reduction. Phytochemical screening of the crude aqueous and hydro-methanolic extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, glycosides, terpenoids, saponins, tannins and phenols.
The results of this study provide support the traditional therapeutic use of Strychnos mitis for treatment of malaria. However, further in-depth study is needed to evaluate the potential of the plant towards the development of new antimalarial agent.
疟疾是全球主要的公共卫生问题，导致数百万人死亡，尤其是在撒哈拉以南非洲地区。如今，由于耐药寄生虫的传播，疟疾控制变得日益复杂。药用植物无疑是有效抗疟药物的来源。本研究旨在评估毒鼠树对感染伯氏疟原虫的小鼠的抗疟活性和急性毒性。
采用标准程序研究毒鼠树叶的粗水提取物和氢甲醇提取物对瑞士白化小鼠体内伯氏疟原虫的急性毒性和4天抑制作用。还测试了从粗氢甲醇提取物中获得的水、正己烷和氯仿馏分对伯氏疟原虫的抑制作用。
所有粗提取物在最高给药剂量（2000mg/kg）下对小鼠均未显示明显的急性毒性。毒鼠树叶的所有粗提取物和溶剂馏分均能显著抑制疟原虫血症（p<0.01）。在最高剂量600mg/kg时，水提取物和氢甲醇提取物的表现更佳，疟原虫血症抑制率分别为95.5%和93.97%。毒鼠树叶的所有粗提取物和馏分剂量依赖性地延长了感染小鼠的存活时间。粗水提取物和氢甲醇提取物的最高两个剂量以及氯仿和水馏分以剂量依赖性方式防止体重减轻。而所有剂量的正己烷馏分均可防止体重减轻，但不是剂量依赖性的。400mg/kg和600mg/kg剂量的粗水提取物以及所有剂量水平的氢甲醇提取物均能显著（p<0.01）防止红细胞压积降低。600mg/kg剂量的粗水提取物和所有剂量水平的氢甲醇提取物均能显著防止体温降低。对粗水提取物和氢甲醇提取物进行植物化学筛选，发现含有生物碱、蒽醌、糖苷、萜类、皂苷、单宁和酚类。
本研究结果支持毒鼠树在传统医学中用于治疗疟疾。然而，需要进一步深入研究以评估该植物开发新型抗疟药物的潜力。
