Abstract

A four-day 4 suppressive schizontocidal test for anti malarial activity against Swiss albino mice infected with chloroquine sensitive strain (NK-65) of Plasmodium berghei was used to monitorin vivo response to different modes of preparing herbal remedies using the stem and bark ofAzadarachta indica Juss. Four recognized modes of preparing anti malarial remedies from A. indica were tested against a positive control (chloroquine) and a negative control (phosphate buffer saline). On day zero (0), all the animals received 8 × 10⁶ million P. berghei infected red blood cells corresponding to 0.1 ml of the blood sample. The four herbal recipes (infusion, decoction, tincture and juice (macerate)) were prepared in a 1:1 ratio of stem bark and leaves. After 2 h of plasmodium challenge, the experimental animals received oral doses of 125, 250 and 50 mg/kg in triplicates. The recipes had intrinsic anti malarial activities that were dose dependent. The comparison analysis indicated that 250 and 500 mg/kg body weight of the tincture and decoction in addition to the 500 mg/kg body weight yielded 76.34, 85.08, 71.26, 82.43 and 78.94, respectively when compared with the chloroquine with 70.24% suppression. The result were significant (p < 0.001) at p < 0.05 when compared with a placebo and support the use of a dose not less than 125 mg/kg body weight of the tincture and decoction as effective.

Key words: Plasmodium berghei, schizontocidal, mode of preparations, chloroquine, phosphate buffer saline.