Over 160 million people are chronic carriers of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), which is
a major cause of chronic liver diseases1. A few efficient antiviral drugs against HCV are currently available, but they are
expensive and not easily accessible to people in developing countries2. In addition, resistance to these new drugs are already emerging. Therefore new HCV
inhibitors are needed. A major symptom of HCV infection is icterus and could correspond
to the “yellow malaria” known in African traditional medicines. An ethnobotanical
survey and a bibliographic search allowed us to select 16 Ivorian plants, based on
their traditional use against “yellow malaria” and other infectious diseases.
For each plant, 20 g of leaf, root or bark powder were macerated in 100 mL of methanol
(3 × 24h). The resulting extracts were then screened against 36 strains of bacteria
using an agar dilution method with a Steers multipoint inoculator, and against HCV
using an immunofluorescence method with Huh-7 cells (extracts at 10 or 25 µg/mL).
Ten extracts were active on at least one strain of bacteria at 0.6 mg/mL or less,
with one extract (Anogeissus leocarpus) (Combretaceae) being active on 19 strains. The Momordica charantia (Cucurbitaceae) extract was particularly active on 3 Streptococcus strain, with some MIC as low as 40 µg/mL. Carapa procera (Meliaceae) and Pericopsis laxiflora (Fabaceae) showed very interesting activities against HCV. For these 2 plants, leaf
powder (20 g) was successively macerated in 100 mL of dichloromethane, methanol and
ethanol-water (50:50) respectively (3 × 24h extraction per solvent). The resulting
6 dried extracts were then dissolved in methanol and screened against HCV. Amongst
them, the dichloromethane were not active, the hydro-alcoholic extracts were mildly
active (> 50% infected cells), but the methanolic extracts (10 µl/mL) prevented over
80% of Huh-7 cells from being infected. Bio-guided fractionations of several plant
extracts are in progress.
Keywords: Ivorian pharmacopeia, ethnobotanical survey, bio-guided fractionation, antibacterial,
antiviral, HCV.
References:
[1] Dhingra A., Kapoor S, Alqahtani SA. Recent advances in the treatment of hepatitis C. Discov Med 2014; 18: 203 – 208
[2] Calland N, Dubuisson J, Rouillé Y, Séron K. Hepatitis C virus and natural compounds: a new antiviral approach? Viruses 2012;
10: 2197 – 2217
