Antimalaria activity of ethanolic extracts of leaves of Terminalia catappa. L. Combretaceae (indian almond)

Abstract

The leaves of Terminalia catappa were air dried, grounded and soaked with ethanol. The extracts obtained (47.23g, TC1) was fractionated sequentially using aqueous methanol with petroleum ether, chloroform and ethyl acetate respectively. The residue of ethanol extract (marc) was extracted with 5M HCl, basified and extracted with chloroform. These were labeled as TC1-01–TC1-05 for the plant. Each of these fractions was phytochemically screened to detect the class of secondary metabolite present. The fractions obtained from the plant were found to be selectively active against brine shrimp larvae. These fractions were also subjected to antimalaria parasites bioassay. Fractions TC1, TC1-02 and TC1-05 were found to be active against tested organisms, with TC1-02 being the most active. TC1-02 was further subjected to activity guided column chromatography that led to the isolation of two pure compounds TC1-02-1 and TC1-02-64. Compound TC1-02-64 was found to be active against the malaria parasite. This was further purified and subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Key Words: Fractionation, Antimalaria, Ethanol, Column Chromatography,Terminalia catappa.