Dawit Zewdu Wondafrash, DayanandaBhoumik, BirhanetensayMasresha Altaye, Helen Bitew Tareke, BrhaneTeklebrhan Assefa
Malaria is a life threatening infectious disease caused by unicellular eukaryotic protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium, which is a member oftheApicomplexaphylum.The disease remains a major worldwide public health problem leading to death of millions of people. Spread and emergence of antimalarial drug resistance is the major challenge in malaria control.Medicinal plants are the key source of new effective antimalarial agents.Cordia africana(Lam.) is widely used for traditional management of malaria by local people in different parts of Ethiopia. The present study aimed to evaluate in vivoantimalarial effects of leaf extract and solvent fractions of Cordiaafricana in Plasmodium berghei infected mice.The leaf of the plant extracts was prepared and tested for oral acute toxicity according to OECD guideline. In vivo antimalarial effects of various doses of Cordia Africana extract and solvent fractions were determined using the four-day suppressive test (both crude and fractions), as well as curative and chemo-prophylactic tests (crude extract). Data were analyzed using one way ANOVA followed by Post-hoc Tukey’s test and the difference between means was considered significant at p<0.05. Acute toxicity test of the plant extract revealed that the medium lethal dose is higher than 2000 mg/kg. The crude extract of the plant exhibited a significant parasitemia suppression in the four-day suppressive (51.19%), curative (57.14%), and prophylactic (46.48%) tests at 600 mg/kg. The n-butanol fraction exhibited the highest chemosuppression (55.62%) at 400 mg/kg followed by the chloroform fraction (45.04%) at the same dose. The results of this study indicated that both the crude leaf extract and fractions of Cordiaafricanapossesses the antimalarial effect which supports the traditional claim of the plant. These findings thus help the scientific community to further investigate on the plant.