In vivo antimalarial and acute toxicity properties of hexane and chloroform extracts from Clausena anisata (Willd.) Benth

Abstract

Background: Drugs are an important tool for control of malaria. However, drug resistance is likely to compromise available antimalarial drugs with time. As a result, efforts are being directed towards discovery and development of novel and affordable malaria drug molecules including those from medicinal plants. Objectives: To investigate suppressive, curative, prophylactic and acute toxicity properties of hexane and chloroform extracts of Clausena anisata against murine malaria. Method: Activity of the extracts was tested against Plasmodium berghei ANKA strain. Extracts were administered orally to mice (n=5) at 500, 250 and 100 mg/kg/day. Median lethal dose was evaluated after oral administration of the extracts in doses ranging from 500 to 5000 mg/kg. Results: 500 mg/kg/day of the chloroform extract exhibited 66.1% and 73.4% parasite reduction in the prophylactic and suppressive tests, respectively, while the same dose of the hexane extract comparatively lower suppressive and prophylactic properties (56.7% and 30.7 %, respectively). In the curative test, 500 mg/kg/day of the chloroform and the hexane extracts resulted in mean survival times (MST) of 12.3 days and 9.3 days, respectively. No mortality was observed in mice that received the hexane extract, whereas the LD50 of mice that received the chloroform extract was 4166.7 mg/kg. These results suggest that the chloroform extract at 500 mg/kg/day had notable in vivo antimalarial activity and partly explain therapeutic efficacy claimed for this plant in traditional medicine.