Ex vivo Antiplasmodial Activity of Plant Extracts Used in Traditional Medicine in Côte d’ivoire

In view of increased resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to almost all conventional antimalarial drugs, it has become necessary to search for new classes of molecules from traditional medicinal plants. Indeed, the best antimalarial drugs for which there are fewer cases of resistance today are derived from medicinal plants (quinine, artemisinin and its derivatives). In this study we evaluated ex vivo effectiveness of various extracts of Terminalia glaucescens and Erigeron floribundus on the growth of P. falciparum isolates sensitive or resistant to amodiaquine according to the optical version of the WHO microtest. Aqueous extracts activity of various organs of plants was first measured and then three organic extracts of each part of plant.

Leaves and roots aqueous extracts of T. glaucescens were the most active and showed respectively IC50s mean values of 2.69 µg/ml and 0.99 µg/ml on amodiaquine-sensitive isolates (AQ-S) and 2.74 µg/ml and 1.56 µg/ml on amodiaquine-resistant isolate (AQ-R).

Moreover with regards to the organic extracts, methanol extracts of leaves and roots of T. glaucescens showed the best activity with respective IC50s average values of 2.69 µg/ml and 1.39 µg/ml on isolates AQ-S.

The high antiplasmodial activity showed by extracts of T. glaucescens would favor their use as candidates for the development of improved traditional antimalarial drugs.