In vivo Antimalarial Activity of Iranian Flora Artemisia oliveriana J. Gay ex DC. Extract and its Comparison with Other Anti-malarial Drugs Against Plasmodium berghei in Mice Model”

Abstract

The multi drug resistance of Plasmodium falciparum is a major health problem in many countries and the number of drugs available, effective and affordable is very limited. The genus Artemisia has always been of great botanical and pharmaceutical interest and is useful in traditional medicines for a treatment of the variety of diseases and complaints. The purpose of this study was to compare the antimalarial activity of Artemisia oliveriana J. Gay ex DC., extract as Iranian flora with current anti-malarial drugs against Plasmodium berghei in vivo in mice. Air-dried aerial parts of Iranian flora A. oliveriana collected from province Khorasan, North-Eastern Iran, were extracted with Et2O/MeOH/Petrol and defatted. Toxicity of herbal extracts was assessed on male NMRI mice, and its anti-malarial efficacy was compared with current anti-malarial drugs (artemether, chloroquine and fansidar) on infected Plasmodium berghei animals. All groups were investigated for parasitaemia, body weight, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and anemia. The significance of differences was determined by Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) and Student's t-test using Graph Pad Prism Software. The herbal extract was successfully compared in vivo for its anti-plasmodial activity with current anti-malarial drugs. The observations specifically indicated the inhibitory effects of the A. oliveriana extracts on the early developmental stages of P. berghei by decreasing parasitaemia (P<0.01). Crude extract of A. oliveriana represented its anti-symptomatic effects by stabilization of body, liver and spleen weights.

Keywords:

• Plasmodium berghei
• In vivo
• Artemisia oliveriana
• Artemether
• Chloroquine
• Fansidar