In-vitro activity of methanolic extract of stem bark of Anogeisus leiocarpus (African birch) ON Plasmodium falciparum

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the in vitro effect of methanolic extracts of stem bark of Anogeissuss leiocarpus (AL) on Plasmodium falciparum. Powdered stem bark of Anogeissus leiocarpus was subjected to cold maceration using 99.8% methanol. The crude extract was sequentially fractionated using four solvents of increasing polarity. P. falciparum field isolate was cultivated in vitro using the Trager and Jensen Candle jar method. The plant extracts were tested against the ring staged synchronous P. falciparum field isolates by incubation in 96-well micro titre plate for 48hrs. Preliminary Phytochemical screening of the crude methanolic plant extracts revealed the presence of saponins, tannins, flavonoids and cardiac glycosides Results also showed that Anogeissus leiocapus extracts had the highest activity when used singly against P. falciparum with its crude methanolic extract having IC50 of 5.00 μg/ml, ethylacetate fraction with IC50 of 5.00μg/ml and benzene fraction with IC50 of 9 μg/ml. the other extracts all showed moderate antiplasmodial acitivity with Aqueous fraction having IC50 of 17μg/ml and chloroform with IC50 of 20 μg/ml. Statistical analysis reveals increasing activity with increasing concentration which shows significant antiplasmodial activity at P value ≤ 0.01. The findings in this studies have shown that the crude methanolic extracts of AL have significant activity on the cultured field isolate of Plasmodium falciparum, Therefore the findings in this research will avert the challenges posed by parasitic resistance to the existing antimalarial drugs.