antiplasmodial and cytotoxic properties of some medicinal plants from western Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND

Resistance of malaria parasites to existing drugs complicates treatment, but an antimalarial vaccine that could protect against this disease is not yet available. It is therefore necessary to find new effective and affordable medicines. Medicinal plants could be a potential source of antimalarial agents. Some medicinal plants from Burkina Faso were evaluated for their antiplasmodial and cytotoxic properties .

METHODS

Crude dichloromethane, methanol, water-methanol, aqueous and alkaloids extracts were prepared for 12 parts of 10 plants. Chloroquine-resistant malaria strain K1 was used for the sensibility assay. The lactacte dehydrogenase technique was used to determine the 50% inhibitory concentration of parasites activity (IC). The cytotoxic effects were determined with HepG2 cells, using the tetrazolium-based colorimetric technique, and the selectivity index (SI) was calculated.

RESULTS

Sixty crude extracts were prepared. Seven extracts from showed IC < 5 µg/mL. The IC of dichloromethane, methanol, aqueous and alkaloids extracts ranged between 1.6 µg/mL and 4.5 µg/mL. Three crude extracts from and three from had an IC ranging between 0.2 µg/mL and 2.5 µg/mL. Crude extracts from these three plants had no cytotoxic effect, with SI > 1. The other plants have mostly moderate or no antimalarial effects. Some extracts from , and showed cytotoxicity, with an SI ranging between 0.4 and 0.9.

CONCLUSION

Our study showed a good antiplasmodial activity of and . These three plants may contain antiplasmodial molecules that could be isolated by bio-guided phytochemical studies.