Author(s):

Matur BM and Egwuonwu KC

Abstract: Malaria is a potential deadly tropical disease and the most important of infectious diseases in the tropics and sub-tropics. The search for new antimalarial drugs has been necessitated by P. falciparum resistance to virtually all antimalarial drugs. In this study, the in vitro antimalarial activities of the leaf crude aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Gongronema latifolium, a plant used by traditional healers to treat malaria and other diseases, was evaluated against P. falciparum. Six (6) malaria positive fresh blood samples obtained from infected children and adults in Specialist Hospital Sokoto were tested against the plant extracts. Standard microtest technique of schizont maturation and parasite growth assay was used to culture fresh isolates. The student t-test was used to analyze the data. There was no significant (p≤ 0.05) reduction in the number of parasitized cells relative to the control. The results of the study showed that ethanol extract of G. latifolium had parasite growth inhibition of 68.28%, IC₅₀ of 25.34μg/ml. While the aqueous extract of G. latifolium has the lowest parasite growth inhibition of 66.30% with IC₅₀ of 35.32μg/ml. Comparatively, the ethanol extract of G. latifolium has high Schizont Growth Inhibitory activity (38.94±7.10%) than aqueous extract (34.34±7.70%) but not significantly different, t (12) = 0.416, p=0.685 T-Test. The phytochemical investigation of G. latofolium indicates the presence of Saponins, carbohydrates, Tannins, Phenols, Flavonoids, Alkaloids, Triterpenoids and Cardiac Glycosides. The results of the study also show that G. latifolium possess a moderate antimalarial activity. Therefore, the extracts possess promising antimalarial activities which can be exploited for malaria therapy, and also justifies the traditional use of the plants in malaria treatment. Further work is suggested to synthesis and characterizes the active principles from these plants.

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