In vitro anti-malarial activity of aerial part of Boenninghausenia albiflora

Abstract

Boenninghausenia albiflora belonging to the family Rutaceae is well known for its medicinal properties in traditional system of medicine. The crude ethanolic extracts of aerial part were tested for in-vitro anti-plasmodial activity against two strains of Plasmodium falciparum: MRC-pf-20 (chloroquine resistant strain) and MRC-pf-303 (chloroquine sensitive strain), using the parasite lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) assay. Crude ethanolic extracts showed good anti-plasmodial activity in vitro (IC50 ≤ 50 μgml-1). It showed promising anti-plasmodial activity with an IC50 = 22.18μgml-1 on MRC-pf-20 strain and IC50 = 27.43μgml-1 on MRC-pf-303 strain. Crude ethanolic extracts were be further fractionated by partitioning in water and dichloromethane. The dichloromethane fraction revealed stronger anti-plasmodial activity than crude ethanolic extracts. The dichloromethane extract of B. albiflora showed promising anti-plasmodial activity with an IC50 = 12.32 μgml-1 on MRC-pf-20 strain and IC50 = 17.41 μgml-1 on MRC-pf-303 strain. Therefore, there is need to continue the extensive study including isolation and identification of the active compound and their invitro and invivo activity.