<i>In-vivo</i> anti-plasmodial activity of methanolic leaf extracts of <i>Jatropha curcas</i> on <i>Plasmodium berghei</i> (NK 65) infected mice

Abstract

In vivo anti-plasmodial activity of methanol extracts and solvent fractions of the leaf extract of Jatropha curcas on Plasmodium berghei (NK-65) infected mice was investigated. The plant extract was prepared by cold maceration and crude methanol extract were partitioned using n-hexane, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. Phytochemical test were carried out to identify the secondary metabolites present in the plants extract. The antiplasmodial activity of the extracts and its fractions was evaluated using Peter four (4) days suppressive test. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by least significant difference (LSD) post-hoc test was used to determine statistical significance. Qualitative phytochemical analysis showed the presence of saponin, flavonoid, alkaloids, tannin, triterpene, carbohydrates, steroids, glycosides and cardiac glycosides in methanol extract, ethyl acetate fraction and butanol fraction while hexane fraction shows the presence of steroids, glycoside and cardiac glycosides. At the end of the four (4) days suppressive test, the effect of the methanol extracts and its fractions of Jatropha curcas leaf on parasitaemia suppressive activity were dose-dependent for various extract treated group and crude methanol extract having the highest suppressive activity (67.15%) at 750mg/kg. These findings show Jatropha curcas leaf has antimalarial activity and the extracts is safe for oral use. The study recommends that further research on aqueous and methanol extract and fractions of Jatropha curcas leaf could be carried out to isolate, identify and characterize the active compound from this plant.