Journal of Advances in Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Study was carried out to determine the antiplasmodial activity of raw ethanolic seed extract of Tetracarpidium conophorum, in swiss albino mice infected with Plasmodium berghei (NK65). Standard methods were employed to determine the acute toxicity test, antiplasmodial activity and phytochemical screening of the seed extract. The experimental mice were acclimatized for seven days before the commencement of treatment. The mice were treated for four consecutive days with increasing dosages (200, 400, 600 mg/kg body weight) of seed extracts and a standard antimalarial drug (chloroquine as positive control) at a dose of 5 mg/kg body weight. Temperatures and body weights of mice were respectively measured each day. Qualitative phytochemical screening revealed the presence of phytate, oxalate, flavonoid, tannins, saponins, steroids, phenol, and terpenoids while quantitative screening revealed the presence of phytate (28.8 mg/g), oxalate (4.27 mg/100 g), tannins (0.59 mg/100 g), phenols (0.40 mg/100 g), alkaloids (0.31 mg/100 g) and flavonoids (0.21 mg/100 g) as secondary metabolites. The seed extract did not reveal any toxicity at all dosage levels used. The ethanolic seed extract revealed a dose-dependent activity in the chemosuppression of Plasmodium berghei by 2.77%, 30.55% and 47.22% at doses of 200, 400, 600 mg/kg body weight respectively while chloroquine at 5 mg/kg body weight produced 55.5% chemosuppression. Parasitemia in all the infected and treated experimental mice groups was significantly low (P<0.05) compared with the infected but untreated mice. The seed extract revealed a significant increase (P<0.05) in temperature and decrease in body weight of the infected mice. The study revealed that Tetracarpidium conophorum seed extract could be a future antiplasmodial herbal candidate for the treatment of malaria parasite.