ANTIMALARIAL ACTIVITIES OF DIPLAZIUM ESCULENTUM (RETZ.) SW. AQUEOUS EXTRACT IN PLASMODIUM BERGHEI-INFECTED MICE

Abstract

Antimalarial drugs resistance has become a threat to worldwide effort to control and eliminate malaria disease. This shows the needs to discover new drugs for malarial infection. This study was done to evaluate antimalarial activities of Diplazium esculentum aqueous extract in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice. Forty-two mice were divided into 7 groups and the extract was given orally to each treatment groups. Preventive treatment was done where G1 and G2 of preventive groups were given the same dosage, 100 mg/kg on 19 days and 8 days before infection respectively. Meanwhile, G4 and G5 of curative groups were given on the same day, 4 days after infection with different doses, 100 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg respectively. G3 and G5 were the positive control group for each of the treatment that were given primaquine and chloroquine respectively. All mice were observed for parasitemia level, mortality and body weight changes. For preventive treatment, the plant extract that was given 19 days before infection was found to reduce the parasitemia by 2.67%. Curative treatment showed that the effective dose was found to be 100 mg/kg which reduced parasitemia by 1.83%. It can be concluded that D. esculentum extract showed preventive properties but no curative properties. This shows that D. esculentum could not be compared with commercial antimalarial drugs.