Investigation into the anti-malarial activity of the aqueous leaf extract of Nauclea latifolia(Rubiaceae) using curative method

Abstract

Malaria is a disease caused by Plasmodiumparasites that infect about 154 to 289 million people per year, resulting in approximately 660,000 – 2 million deaths worldwide. Infants, children, and pregnant females, along with immune-suppressed patients are at higher risk for worse outcomes when infected with malaria parasites. Malaria is a particular problem and a major one in areas of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. To solve this problem, the natives of Ogidi in Anambra state of Nigeria use herbs to cure malaria and one of such herbs is Nauclea latifolia. With the rising problems of side effects, cost and limited efficacy of anti-malarial drugs, there is an urgent needfor the development of alternative anti-malarial substances and researchers are nowadays turning to natural products from plants, as their main source of bioactive compounds with anti-malarial properties to complement the existing synthetic anti-malarials that are gradually becoming less potent against pathogenic parasites. Hence, there is the need for the phytochemical screening and investigations into the anti-malarial potential of the leaves extracts of Nauclea latifoliaas it is claimed by Ogidi people to have antimalarial activity. The leaves of Nauclea latifoliawere collected and dried at ambient temperature and pulverized. Exactly 500 g of the powdered drug was extracted with 1000 ml of water using the cold maceration technique for 48hours with occasional shaking. This was filtered and the procedure repeated with the marc. The combined filtrates were concentrated under reduced pressure with rotary evaporator. The preliminary phytochemical tests were carried out using standard methods. The anti-malarial screening was conducted using the curative test (established infection) method to assess the efficacy of the extract as therapeutic agent. The following secondary metabolites were present - flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, Carbohydrates, steroids and terpenoids. The aqueous extract exhibited complete elimination of all the parasites present (100% cure) From the research, it is found that the aqueous extract of the Nauclea latifoliais an effective anti-malarial agent as claimed by the natives of Ogidi people.