Phytochemical analysis and <i>in vivo</i> anti-malarial activities of aqueous extracts of <i>Tithonia diversifolia</i> and <i>Parquetina nigrescens</i> leaves in mice

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the acclaimed anti-malarial potentials of aqueous extracts of leaf of Tithonia diversifolia (TD) and Parquetina nigrecsens (PN) in mice. The phytochemical constituents and in vivo anti-malarial activities of individual and combined of aqueous leaf extracts of Tithonia diversifolia (TD) and Parquetina nigrecsens (PN) were investigated. Fifteen albino mice were infected by intraperitoneal injection of standard inocula (5 × 10⁶) of chloroquine sensitive Plasmodium berghei (NK 65). The animals were randomly divided into 5 groups of 3 mice. Group I served as the control while group II received 5mg/kg body weight per oral of chloroquine diphosphate. Groups III – V were orally treated with 150mg/kg body weight extracts of TD, TD+PN and PN respectively. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of saponins, alkaloids and tannins in the aqueous extracts of TD and PN. There were 100, 90, 86 and 77 percent parasite inhibition in groups treated with Chloroquine, combination of Tithonia diversifolia and Parquetina nigrescens (TD+PN), Parquetina nigrescens (PN) and Tithonia diversifolia (TN) respectively on day 5. The mean survival time (MST) for the control animals was 7 days and chloroquine 25 days, while the TD+PN, PN and TD aqueous extracts recorded 19, 18 and 11 days respectively. The results indicated that the combined aqueous (TD+PN) extracts of Tithonia diversifolia and Parquetina nigrescens produced the best antimalarial activity, which provides a justification for their use in folklore medicine and may be promising alternative anti-malarial drug.

Keywords: Tithonia diversifolia; Parquetina nigrescens, Plasmodium berghei, Anti-malarial, Phytochemical