ABSTRACT

Malaria is a major public health problem in the world in general and developing countries in particular, and it is becoming more difficult to manage and with the uprising antimalarial drug resistance, there is an urgent need for the discovery of more effective and inexpensive antimalarial drugs. In this view, traditional medicinal plants- based antimalarial products are more preferable as they are easily accessible and easy to obtain by the people. In this study, the leaves of Moringa oleifera were evaluated for an in-vivo antimalarial activity as compared to Artemef sensitive Plasmodium berghei. To access the antimalarial activity. 30 albino mice of both sexes were used and divided into 6 groups consisting of 5 each. 5 groups were infected by intraperitoneal inoculation of parasitized erythrocytes of Plasmodium berghei and group one was used as the positive control. The animals showed detectable parasitaemia on day four post infection with about 40-60% of parasitaemia before death of animal was recorded. The leaves of Moringa oleifera was extracted with water and its efficacy tested on Plasmodium berghei infected albino mice using the 4-day suppressive test. Giemsa stained thin blood smears from the eye were used to access parasitaemia, and then PCV, Hb, also the weight was included in the parameters. Mice in the untreated control in each group showed a progressive increase in parasitemia (40-60%) leading to death. Treatment of mice with I 00mg/kg, 200mg/kg of the extract showed no improvement in the parameters as compared to higher dose of 400mg/kg which showed little improvement in all the parameters. On the other hand, treatment with the standard drug (Artemef) showed great improvement in the group treated with it.