Evaluation of the Antimalarial Activity of Garcinia kola Ethanolic Extracts in the Prevention and Treatment of Plasmodium berghei-infected Mice

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate of the anti-malarial activity of Garcinia kola (bitter kola) nut and leaf ethanolic extracts in Treatment of Plasmodium berghei-infected Mice. The two plant parts were collected from its natural breeding site and were processed in the laboratory, the phytochemical quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted. The experiment was designed to access the curative and prophylactic antimalarial activity of the plant extracts. P. berghei was obtained from a donor mouse. The blood from the donor mouse was collected and diluted with 0.8% normal saline which was used to infect the test-groups used in this experiment. For prophylactic group, the mice were given extracts prior to the infection but for the curative, the mice were infected with the parasite before the administration of the plant extracts. In all cases, the plant extract administration was done by compulsory oral intubations with the aid of cannula and syringe. The curative test results for the nut extract showed dose-dependent parasitemia reduction and suppression, with the highest dose (600 mg/kg) exhibiting 61.82% suppression and a mean survival time (MST) of 17.20±0.23 days. Similarly, the leaf extract at 600 mg/kg demonstrated 39.94% suppression and an MST of 16.28±0.37 days. In the prophylactic test, the nut and leaf extracts exhibited significant parasitemia suppression, with the nut extract at 200 mg/kg achieving 92.36% suppression and an MST of 30.00±0.00 days. These findings suggest that both Garcinia kola nut and leaf ethanolic extracts contain bioactive compounds with notable antimalarial properties.