Asian Journal of Medical Principles and Clinical Practice

Background: Malaria is one of the most several pathogenic diseases in endemic areas of the world, particularly in Africa. The causative parasites have developed resistance to orthodox drugs over the years, thus the need for herbal remedy.

Aim: This study is aimed at assessing the antiplasmodial potential of ethanolic leaf extract of Jatropha curcas against Plasmodium berghei in infected Swiss albino mice.

Methodology: Healthy leaves of J. curcas were harvested, dried and extracted using the soxhlet apparatus and ethanol as the solvent. The toxicity test was carried out the using standard method. Sixty Swiss albino mice obtained from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria were acclimatized for seven days and divided into six groups of ten each. Each mouse in groups 2 to 6 was inoculated intraperitoneally with infected blood suspension containing about 1x10⁷ Plasmodium berghei parasitized red blood cells on day zero while those in group 1 were not infected and this group served as the normal control group. Animals in group 2 were administered 0.2 mL normal saline, those in group 3 were administered Chloroquine diphosphate at 5 mg/kg body weight; those in groups 4, 5 and 6 were administered 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight of J. curcas leaf extract respectively. All treatments were orally done twelve hourly for five consecutive days from when parasites were first seen in the infected animal blood. Parasitaemia count and packed cell volume (PCV) were determined using standard methods.

Results: J. curcas leaf extract was safe in rats at the tested oral doses (500–2000 mg/kg). There was no mortality within the study period. In the in vitro experiment, J. curcas prevented weight loss and reduced parasitaemia count in a dose-dependent manner. Its effect on PCV was only significant at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight of the extract.

Conclusion: The present study revealed that ethanolic leaf extract of J. curcas possesses antiplasmodial potential against P. berghei. Maximum antimalarial efficacy of plant extracts and standard antimalarial drugs can be derived when dosage are completed.