Evaluation of in vivo anti-malarial potential of omidun obtained from fermented maize in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe menace of resistance to anti-malarial drugs is a great challenge to malaria control, necessitating the search for new anti-malarial agents. This search has led to the exploration of natural products for efficacy in malaria therapy.Omidunis the supernatant of fermenting maize (ogi) slurry that has been widely investigated and reported to possess several health benefits and it is used traditionally as solvent for preparing anti-malarial herbs. However, there is no information on the anti-malarial activity ofomidunitself. This study was conducted to investigate the prophylactic, curative and suppressive anti-malarial potential ofomidun.MethodsExperimental mice in the curative group were infected with 1 × 106cells ofPlasmodium bergheistrain ANKA and treated with either 0.2 ml ofomiduncontaining 3 × 109 cfu/ml of viable lactic acid bacteria or 0.2 ml of 5 mg/kg of chloroquine (positive control) or 0.2 ml of saline (negative control) for 4 days from day 3 post infection. The prophylactic group of mice were pre-treated with eitheromidun, chloroquine or saline for 4 days before infection withP. berghei, while the suppressive group was treated withomidunor chloroquine or saline and infected withP. bergheisimultaneously. A group of mice were uninfected but treated (withomidunand control samples), while a final group was uninfected and untreated (controls). Parasitaemia and histopathology analysis were done in all groups.ResultsThe curative and suppressive groups showed a significant difference between theomidun-treated mice (100% parasitaemia reduction) and the untreated mice (54.5% parasitaemia increase). There was no significance difference between theomiduntreatment and chloroquine (positive control) treatment in suppressive group as both treatment had 100% parasitaemia reduction. Theomidunprophylactic treatment however did not show any parasitaemia suppression, but a significant difference was observed between theomiduntreatment (85% increase) and the chloroquine (positive control) treatment (100% reduction) in the group.Omiduntreatment is non-toxic to the kidney.ConclusionThis study provides scientific evidence supportingomidunusage in the treatment of malaria. Consequently, further work may yield the specific component ofomidunresponsible for the anti-malarial activity.