Page 28 - ITPS-6-2

INNOSC Theranostics

and Pharmacological Sciences

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Antimalarial potential of five Nigerian medicinal

plants: Repository versus curative activities

3
2
Funmilayo I. D. Afolayan *, Olayemi Adegbolagun , Beatrice Irungu ,
1
3
Jennifer Orwa , and Chiaka Anumudu 1
1 Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
2 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
3 Centre for Traditional Medicine and Drug Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi,
Kenya

Abstract

The conventional management of malaria in most endemic areas is based on
phytomedicine. It is commonly believed that prevention is better than cure when
it comes to disease management. Therefore, medicinal plants commonly used for
treatment in herbal medicine are also used for prevention purposes. Hence, it is
important to investigate the efficacy of medicinal plants in relation to the timing of
their use. To document the medicinal plants used for treating malaria, a structured
questionnaire-based ethnobotanical survey was conducted in Omu-Aran, Kwara State,
Nigeria. The survey revealed the use of 31 plant species from 24 families, with origin in
Omu-Aran, in herbal antimalarial recipes. Some of the identified plants were subjected
*Corresponding author: to in vivo antimalarial bioassays. The aqueous and dichloromethane: Methanol (1:1)
Funmilayo I. D. Afolayan extracts of the leaves and stem bark of Morinda lucida and Nauclea latifolia, as well as
(fidifede@gmail.com)
the leaf extracts of Chromolaena odorata, Tithonia diversifolia, and Lawsonia inermis
Citation: Afolayan AI, were tested at doses of 100, 250 and 400 mg/kg against Plasmodium berghei Anka.
Adegbolagun O, Irungu B, et al., The repository and curative tests were conducted to assess the residual and curative
2023, Antimalarial Potential of
Five Nigerian Medicinal Plants: abilities of the extracts, respectively, with chloroquine as a reference drug. The
Repository versus Curative tested extracts demonstrated better antiplasmodial activities in the repository tests,
Activities. INNOSC Theranostics particularly the aqueous extracts. Only the organic extract of T. diversifolia at 100 mg/
and Pharmacological Sciences,
6(2):0300. kg exhibited a high antiplasmodial activity with a percentage chemosuppression (PCS)
https://doi.org/10.36922/itps.0300 value of 66.13%, while other extracts showed moderate (PCS: 30 – 60%) to no activity
Received: February 28, 2023 (PCS: <0%) in curative tests. In repository tests, only N. latifolia showed high activity
with percentage chemoprophylaxis (PCP) values ranging from 61.51% to 81.69%, while
Accepted: June 30, 2023
other extracts generally showed moderate activities. Chloroquine showed strong
Published Online: July 26, 2023 chemosuppression (92.74 ≤ PCS ≤ 98.77) in curative tests but weak chemoprophylaxis
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). (PCP <30%). The efficacy tests showed that most of the investigated medicinal plants
This is an Open-Access article were more effective for prevention rather than for curative purposes.
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, Keywords: Medicinal plants; Antiplasmodial; Curative test; Repository test; Chloroquine
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with 1 Introduction
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional The global impact of malaria on human health and social well-being is detrimental,
affiliations. with particular emphasis on its effect on children under the age of five. According to

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/itps.0300