Anti-plasmodial activities of combined extracts of Morinda morindiodes, Morinda lucida and Vernonia amygdalina in Plasmodium berghei infected-mice

Abstract

The development of resistance to a number of current drugs by Plasmodium species necessitated the search for herbs which have been traditionally employed in treatment of malaria. In this study, extracts of Morinda morindiodes (Mm) root, Morinda lucida (ML) leaf and Vernonia amygdalina (Va) (leaf) were combined and assessed for anti-malarial activities in Plasmodium berghei infected-mice. Infection of each mouse was initiated with 1 x 10⁴ infected erythrocytes. Plant materials were extracted with water for three days and were dehydrated; 0.1mg/g body weight of the extract was given to each infected mouse in a six-day treatment. At the end the sixth day, Mm root extract, ML and Va leaf extract produced 86.87%, 84.73% and 47.81% suppression of parasitaemia respectively. Combination of M. lucida with V. amygdalina (ML+Va) and Morinda morindiodes (ML+Mm) produced 40.4% and 70% suppression respectively. The combination of M. morindiodes with V. amygdalina (Mm+Va) produced 50.63% suppression on day six of treatment. The combination of the three plants extract produced 53.21% suppression compared to the untreated group which recorded no suppression at the end of the sixth day (p<0.05). These results were significantly different (p<0.05) when compared with the infected non-treated group. The results obtained from this study revealed that though, the extracts of Morinda morindiodes and Morinda lucida, possess antiplasmodial effect when administered singly, the combination of these extracts reduced their chemosupression.

Keywords: malaria, herbal, treatment, parasitaemia, antimalarial, mice.