Evaluation of Antimalarial Activity of the 80% Methanolic Stem Bark Extract of Combretum molle Against Plasmodium berghei in Mice

BACKGROUND. People are dependent on the traditional use of medicinal plants for the treatment of malaria without scientific validations. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the antimalarial activity of methanolic stem bark extract of Combretum molle in mice. METHODS. After being infected with Plasmodium berghei, the mice were randomly divided into 5 groups (n = 5). In all cases, group I mice were treated as negative control and received 3% Tween 80; group II mice were treated with 25 mg/kg chloroquine; and groups III, IV, and V mice were treated with 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, and 400 mg/kg of crude extract, respectively. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s post hoc analysis. RESULTS. In the chemosuppressive test, the parasitic suppression effect of the crude extract was found to be significant (P < 0.05) as compared with the negative control. In the curative experiment, the average parasitic level of those mice treated by the 3 doses of the crude extract was significantly suppressed at days 5, 6, and 7 of treatment (P < 0.001). Besides, the crude extract had been found to have a chemoprophylactic role as it inhibited the parasite level significantly relative to the negative control (P < 0.001). Moreover, the crude extract had preventive effects on packed cell volume reduction in the 3 tests (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS. The findings of the present study has supported the folklore use of the leaves of Combretum molle in the treatment of malaria. Therefore, further fractionation and characterization of the crude extract is necessary to identify the responsible lead compound(s) responsible for antiplasmodial activity.