Antimalarial Activity of the n-Butanol Fraction of Uapaca togoensis (Pax) Stem Bark in Mice

Busola A. Olorukooba¹*, Bello B. Maiha¹, Ahmed B. Chindo^{1, 2}, Jane I. Ejiofor¹, Hamza A. Nasir³, Bashir M. Sani¹, Shakir M. Balogun ⁴

¹Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

²Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria.

³Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

⁴Department of Medical Microbiology, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria.

Corresponding Author: [email protected]; Tel: +234 8057665703

Recieved Date: November 28, 2017; Accepted Date: December 27, 2017; Published Date: 07 January 2018

Citation: Olorukooba BA, Maiha BA, Chindo AB, Ejiofor JI, Nasir HA, Sani BM, Balogun SM. Antimalarial Activity of the N-Butanol Fraction of Uapaca togoensis (Pax) Stem Bark in Mice. Trop J Nat Prod Res. 2018; 2(1):29-33.  https://doi.org//10.26538/tjnpr/v2i1.6

Copyright: © 2018 Olorukooba et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

ABSTRACT

The stem bark extract of Uapaca togoensis has been used in traditional medicine for the management of fever, epilepsy, fatigue and rheumatism. This study was aimed at evaluating the in vivo antimalarial activity of the n-butanol fraction of the methanol stem bark extract of the plant. Antimalarial activity was investigated in Plasmodium berghei NK65 infected mice using three experimental animal models including; the Peters 4-day suppressive, Curative and Prophylactic models. Phytochemical screening and acute toxicity tests (using the oral route in mice) were also conducted. The n-butanol fraction at all tested doses (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg) exhibited significant (p < 0.01) and dose-dependent reduction in parasitaemia levels with percentage chemosuppression of 70.4, 80.3 and 90.3% respectively in the Peters 4-day suppressive test. In the curative and prophylactic studies, the fraction exhibited significant (p < 0.01) dose-dependent decrease in parasitaemia levels (9.25 ± 1.37, 6.42 ± 1.84, 3.18 ± 1.79) and (6.47 ± 1.39, 3.27 ± 1.16, 3.18 ± 1.02) at doses of 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg, respectively. The mean survival time of  the mice treated with the fraction was significantly (p < 0.05) prolonged compared to the distilled water treated group. The oral LD50 in mice was estimated to be greater than 5,000 mg/kg. Phytochemical screening of the fraction revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, saponins, steroids, triterpenes and cardiac glycosides. These results suggest that the n-butanol fraction of Uapaca togoensis possesses antimalarial activity that justifies its use in ethnomedicine to treat malaria infection.