Research article: Anti-Malarial Bioactivity of Garcinia kola and Vernonia amygdalina Ethanolic Extracts in the Treatment of Plasmodium berghei-Infected Mice

Philemon Babylon, Rebecca Salau Napthtali, Wama Binga Emmanuel, Pheela Saminaka Onyekwena Rhoda, Atimi Atinga

Abstract

Malaria is one of the world’s most serious infectious diseases caused by Plasmodium parasites. This research was aimed to determine the antimalarial bioactivity of Gacinia kola and Vernonia amygdalina ethanolic extracts in the treatment of malaria infection using an in vivo mouse model which was infected with Plasmodium berghi. The experiment was designed to assess the safety, the curative and prophylactic antimalarial activity of the individual extracts and the combined effect of the two extracts. Mice were evaluated using mean survival time, packed cell volume, rectal temperature and bodyweight. The percentage parasitemia suppression in mice treated with 200mg/kg, 400mg/kg and 600mg/kg of the G. kola nut ethanol extract demonstrated suppressive curative test was 40.14%, 45.98% and 61.82%, in four days, respectively. The statistical analysis indicates a significant difference when the mice were treated with different doses of the G. kola nut ethanolic extract. In comparison, the percentage parasitemia suppression in mice treated with 200mg/kg, 400mg/kg and 600mg/kg of the V. amygdalina leaf ethanolic extract suppressive curative test was 54.62%, 57.49% and 60.78%, in four days. However, there was no significant difference when the mice were treated with the different doses of the V. amygdalina leaf ethanolic extract. The study revealed that G. kola (nut and leaf), V. amygdalina (leaf and stem-bark) ethanolic extracts in the curative and prophylactic test group were effective in the treatment of malaria reducing the percentage parasitemia ≥30% in four days. This study observed that the extracts of V. amygdalina and G. Kola are potential sources of antimalarial compounds. Further evaluation of the clinical efficacy of these plant extracts in human volunteers is needed.

Keywords: Antimalarial activity, Efficacy, Ethanolic extracts, Garcinia kola, Vernonia amygdalina

Int. J. Bio. Lab. Sci 2025(14)2:44-57 【PDF】