Antimalarial Activity of Some Plants Used in Traditional Medicine in Uganda

Abstract

This work was done to identify some of the plants used in the treatment of malaria in Uganda and to investigate their efficacy in the in-vitro assays. Plumbago zeylenica and Cryptolepis sanguinolenta showed marked activity on the chloroquine resistant and chloroquine sensitive strains of Plasmodium falciparum. Plumbagin, a quinone, was isolated from Plumbago zeylenica, and found to have antimalarial activity with IC₅₀ of 178 ng/ml on chloroquine sensitive and 188 ng/ml on chloroquine resistant strains. Cytotoxicity assays on KB cell lines indicated that the extract was selective for Plasmodium falciparum. The Selective Index was 5 in both strains of Plasmodium falciparum.


It was concluded that some of the plants used for malaria contain compounds with antimalarial activity, which can be useful leads for the development of new antimalarial drugs.


Key Words: Antimalarial activity, Plumbago zeylenica, Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, plumbagin


East and Central African Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Vol.5(2) 2002: 33-37