Comparative Study of Antiplasdodial Activity of Aqueous Leaves Extract of Azadirachta indica (Juss), Senna occidentalis (Linn) and Standard Antimalaria on Multiplication of Plasmodium falciparum (Laveran)

Malaria is a major public health problem in the world, but treatment of malaria is becoming more difficult due to increasing drug resistance and high cost of antimalaria. This study investigated the antiplasmodial effects of leaves extract of Azadirachta indica, Senna occidentalis and standard antimalaria using RPMI 1640 culture media (in vitro). Parasite density was determined by counting the number of Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocyte in 5,000 erythrocytes of the culture, thin blood smear were prepared and stained with Giemsa stain. Varying concentrations of the extracts such as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 mg/mL were prepared, the effect of the leaves extracts against the growth of schizonts were dose dependant. A.indica showed highest growth inhibition (96.92%) at 70m g/mL. However, the schizonts were found to be inhibited by the leaves extract of S. occidetalis at the highest concentration (100 mg/mL) with growth inhibition of 98.46%, there was no significant difference in the anti-malaria efficacy among the leave extracts and standard antimalaria drug (p<0.05) at 100 mg/mL. The results of phytochemical screening indicated A.indica and S. occidentalis contain Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Saponins, Saponins glycocides, Steroids and Terpenoids. The result of acute toxicity tested on rats indicates that the LD50 is greater than 3000 mg/kg body weight. The result of the study showed that Azadirachta indica and Senna occidentalis contain pharmacologically active compounds, hence they are potential antimalaria and safe to use at high dose.