Sitta Kamara, Malik Dawood Kamara, Abdulai Turay, Ishmael Abdulrahman Kamara, Denis Conteh and Aliya Issa Bangura

Background: Malaria remains a major public health burden, and declining efficacy of existing therapies underscores the need for new antiplasmodial leads. Tamarindus indica is widely used in traditional medicine and is rich in secondary metabolites with potential bioactivity.

Objective: To compare the qualitative phytochemical profiles and in vitro antiplasmodial activity of ethanol and aqueous leaf extracts of T. indica, and to document extraction yields.

Methods: Mature leaves of T. indica were authenticated, dried, pulverized, and extracted by Soxhlet using 95% ethanol and distilled water. Crude extracts were concentrated and stored at 4 °C. Standard qualitative tests screened for carbohydrates, glycosides, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids, and phenols. Antiplasmodial activity was evaluated against Plasmodium falciparum of positive human blood. After 24 h incubation at 37 °C with each extract, Giemsa-stained thin smears were examined (×100 oil immersion) and parasitemia (%) calculated as infected RBCs/total RBCs × 100. Artemether-lumefantrine served as positive control; solvent served as negative control. Descriptive comparisons were made between extracts.

Results: From 400 g powdered leaves, extraction yields were 4.75% (ethanol) and 2.27% (aqueous). Both extracts contained glycosides, saponins, tannins, terpenoids, steroids, and phenols. Alkaloids and flavonoids were detected only in the ethanol extract, whereas carbohydrates were detected only in the aqueous extract. Parasitemia was reduced to 1.5% with the ethanol extract and 2.5% with the aqueous extract, compared with 0.0% (positive control) and 15.0% (negative control), indicating superior activity of the ethanolic extract.

Conclusion: Leaf extracts of Tamarindus indica demonstrated in vitro inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum, with ethanol extraction yielding more phytochemicals associated with antiplasmodial activity and greater suppression of parasitemia than the aqueous extract. These findings support the ethnomedicinal use of T. indica and justify further work on compound isolation, dose-response characterization, cytotoxicity, and in vivo efficacy.

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