Voravuth Somsak, Jariya Noilod, Sukanya Chachiyo, and Sawanee Kraithep
The emerging resistance of Plasmodium species to currently available antimalarial drugs remains a public health problem, hence the need for new effective, safe and affordable drugs. Plant extracts remain a reliable source of drugs. Bauhinia strychnifolia (Yha-nang dang) is widely distributed and has been traditionally used in Thailand to treat fever, alcoholic toxication and allergy. The leaf extract of B. strychnifolia had potent antioxidant, anti-cancer and anti-microbial activities. The aim of the study was at investigating antimalarial activities of B. strychnifolia in malaria infected rodent models. Acute toxicity of ethanolic crude extract of B. strychnifolia leaves was assessed in mice up to a dose of 6,000 mg/kg. ICR mice were inoculated with Plasmodium berghei ANKA and treated with the extracts (500, 1500 and 3000 mg/kg) orally by gavage. Four day suppressive and curative effect against established infection and prophylactic models of antimalarial studies were carried out. The extract did not show any toxic effect because doses up to 3,000 mg/kg caused no death or alter the behavior of the tested normal mice. For antimalarial studies, the extract (3,000 mg/kg) exerted significant (P < 0.01) effects of prophylactic, suppressive, and curative with percent inhibition of 59%, 84%, and 68%, respectively. However, antimalarial effect of chloroquine at 5 mg/kg was higher than the extract in all test models. These results indicate that ethanolic crude extract of B. strychnifolia leaves has excellent in vivo antimalarial activities against P. berghei ANKA. Hence, this plant extract represents a promising source of new antimalarial agents.
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