Assessment Of Antiplasmodial Activities Of Selected Herbal Products Used For The Treatment Of Malaria In Ghana
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Date
2022-12
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Publisher
University Of Ghana
Abstract
Malaria continues to be a menace in many parts of the world and remains a global public health problem, contributing to high morbidity and mortality especially in developing countries including Ghana. Even though Artermisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) still remain efficacious in the treatment of malaria, most of the populace in Ghana rely heavily on medicinal plants and herbal preparations for the treatment of malaria and other infectious diseases. The seven herbal products were selected based on a preliminary survey conducted on knowledge, perception and consumption of herbal products in Greater Accra Region. The most commonly used Antimalarial herbal medications selected were Away, Givers, Osompa, Typhofa, Malatyphs, Aseda and Geo Manuel Herbal drugs. These herbal drugs were therefore assessed for their antiplasmodial activities using in vitro and ex vivo sensitivity testing on chloroquine (CQ)-sensitive (3D7), CQ-resistant (Dd2) strains of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei. The SYBR-Green 1 fluorescence-based method was used for the analysis. The results showed IC50 values ranging from 1.16μg/ml to 56 μg/ml for all the Plasmodium strains. However, there was a significant difference between the IC50 values of the standard control drugs (p<0.05) for both 3D7 and Dd2 strains. For the mechanism of action, a simple colorimetric inhibition of heme crystallization method was used and the IC50 were determined which ranged from 1.86μg/ml to 122.2μg/ml for the herbal drugs. Cytotoxicity of the herbal drugs were assessed with MTT assay using human red cells and selectivity index ranged from 4.42 to 405.60 with cell viabilities above 60% indicating no in vitro cytotoxic effects to the human red cells. To determine the heavy metal and electrolyte contents of the herbal drugs, atomic spectrometry method was used and the results ranged from 0.1mg/Kg to 12.8mg/kg of the heavy metals with significant differences (p<0.05) among all the seven herbal products. For the electrolytes, results ranged from 1.1mg/kg to 1400mg/Kg with no significant difference (p>0.05) among the herbal drugs. The pH of the selected herbal drugs determined were below 5 (3.56-4.61) indicating acidic nature of the herbal products. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine the fingerprint of the seven herbal products and the result indicated the presence of varying active compounds from 9 to 16 with no similarities in retention times (min) as compared to other standard drugs used. In conclusion, these results show that the selected herbal drugs have antiplasmodial activities with no cytotoxic effect to human red cells but slightly acidic in nature
Description
MPhil. Applied Parasitology
Keywords
Herbal Products, Malaria, Antiplasmodial, Ghana