Evaluation of Antimalarial Properties of Ficus platyphylla Del Leaf Extract in Mice

Aim: This study was aim at investigating the effect of crude petroleum ether leaf extract of Ficus platyphylla Del on Plasmodium berghei infected mice.

Place and Duration of Study: This research was carried out at the department of biochemistry, Federal university of technology minna, Niger state Nigeria in 2014.

Methodology: The crude plant extract of F. platyphylla was administered 72 hours at different doses post and pre infection for both the curative and prophylactic study respectively against residual infection. Mice were divided into 5 groups of 5 mice each, 3 of the groups where administered crude plants extract of F. platyphaylla at different doses (200, 400 and 600 mg/kg body weight) while the other two serve as negative and positive control group and were administered 0.5 ml and 50 mg/kg body weight respectively.

Results: The extract at all doses produced significant (P<0.05) dose dependent chemo-suppressive activity with % inhibition of 38%, 61%, 74% and 81.8% for curative studies and 36.0%, 38.5%, 49.5% and 63.4% for prophylactic studies against the parasites at doses of 200 mg/kgbw, 400 mg/kgbw, 600 mg/kgbw of the extract and 50 mg/kgbw of Artesunate. All doses of the extract increased the survival time of the infected mice compared to the negative control group that was administered 0.5 ml normal saline. The variation in the values of Packed Cell Volume (PCV) for treated group before and after extract administration was not significant at (P<0.05). The phytochemical screening of the plant extract showed the presence of tannin, saponin, flavonoids, terpenoids, steroids, anthroquinone and phenol.

Conclusion: The result of this study shows that F. Platyphylla leaf extract exhibited some antiplasmodial activity that could be exploited for safe, effective and affordable antimalaria regimen.