Antiplasmodial and Acute Toxicity Studies of Fractions and Cassane-Type Diterpenoids from the Stem Bark of Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw.

Osahon K. Ogbeide ¹*, Vincent O. Dickson ¹, Randolph D. Jebba¹, Dennis A. Owhiroro ¹, Marvelous O. Olaoluwa¹, Vincent O. Imieje ², Osayemwenre Erharuyi ², Bodunde J. Owolabi ^1,3, Pius S. Fasinu ⁴, Abiodun Falodun ²

¹Department of Chemistry, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. 

²Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. 

³Department of Chemistry, School of Sciences, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.

⁴Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Campbell University, Buies Cree, NC 27506, USA.

Corresponding Author: [email protected]; Tel: +2348055949282

Recieved Date: March 08, 2018; Accepted Date: April 04, 2018; Published Date: 07 April 2018

Citation: Ogbeide OK, Dickson VO, Jebba RD, Owhiroro DA, Olaoluwa MO, Imieje VO, Erharuyi O, Owolabi BJ, Fasinu P, Falodun A. Antiplasmodial and Acute Toxicity Studies of Fractions and Cassane-Type Diterpenoids from the Stem Bark of Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw. Trop J Nat Prod Res. 2018; 2(4):179-184. https://doi.org//10.26538/tjnpr/v2i4.5

Copyright: © 2018 Ogbeide 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

Malaria is a major public health disease affecting millions of people worldwide especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with annual deaths of over 4 million. The emergence of resistant strains of Plasmodium parasite to currently used drugs necessitates the search for newer and affordable cure for malaria from medicinal plants sources. Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L) Sw. is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases including malaria. Phytochemical, acute toxicity studies and antiplasmodial activity were carried out on the stem-bark extracts of the plant. Fraction (HEEA) was fractionated over silica gel column to obtain pure compounds (characterized by IR, UV, 1D and 2D spectroscopy) which were subjected to antiplasmodial investigations. Phytochemical studies revealed the presence of saponins, flavonoids, phenols, terpenoids, tannins, and alkaloids. The LD50 was established at 5656.85 mg/kg body weight in Swiss albino mice. Of all the fractions, HEEA exhibited the highest antiplasmodial activities against both the D6 and W2 Plasmodium falciparum clones at IC50 3.7 and 5.3µg /mL, respectively. Two known compounds; Pulcherrin J (1) and 6?-cinnamoyloxy-7?-hydroxyvouacapen-5?-ol (2) were isolated from HEEA and investigated for antiplasmodial activities. They showed significant inhibition of parasites growth in the D6 and W2 clones with IC50 values 10.25- ?10.62 µM and 10.25- ?10.62 µM, for compound 1 and 2, respectively, as against those of the standard antimalarial drugs (Chloroquine and Artemisinin) with IC50 values <0.0937 and <0.1062, respectively. These findings revealed that C. pulcherrima stem bark possess significant antiplasmodial activities and could be a promising source of newer antiplasmodial agents.