Planta Med 2016; 82 - PC33
DOI: 10.1055/s-0036-1578735

In Vitro Antiprotozoal Activity Of Enantia Chlorantha Oliv Stem Bark Used In Nigeria Ethnomedicine

VO Imieje 1, 2, 3, PS Fasinu 1, S Jain 1, 2, B Tekwani 1, 2, S Khan 1, 2, Z Ali 1, IA Khan 1, 2, A Falodun 3
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • 2Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, 38677, USA
  • 3Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, 300001, Nigeria

Enantia chlorantha Oliv. (Annonaceae) has a long history of traditional medicinal use in West Africa for the treatment of fever and infections [1]. As part of the current global efforts in the search for new anti-infective agents, methanolic extract of the stem bark of E. chlorantha was investigated in vitro against Plasmodium falciparum (chloroquine sensitive and chloroquine resistant strains), Leishmania donovani (promastigotes, axenic amastigotes and intracellular amastigotes in THP1 cells) and Trypanosoma brucei. There was up to 96% inhibition of P. falciparum growth with the extract concentration of 15.867 µg/mL yielding IC50 values of 375 ng/mL and 320 ng/mL against D6 and W2 strains respectively. Further, the extracts exhibited selective antileishmanial activity against intracellular L. donovani amastigotes and T. brucei blood stage trypamastigotes with IC50 values of < 800 ng/mL and < 15230 ng/mL respectively. The findings from this study suggest that E. chlorantha is a potential source of antiprotozoal drug leads and may provide scientific support for traditional uses. Further isolation studies are in progress in our laboratory.

Acknowledgements: This work was in part supported by USAID/HED grant 153 – 6200BF A-15 – 01 to Prof A. Falodun, University of Benin.

References: [1] Adesokan et al. (2007) Afr. J. Biotechnol; Vol. 6 (22) 2502 – 2505.