Journal of Natural Remedies

Gereziher Geremedhin ¹, Daniel Bisrat ¹, Kaleab Asres ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy Course and Research Unit, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, ET

Abstract

Malaria remains a critical problem in global public health and continues to remain among the top three infectious diseases (along with tuberculosis and HIV) due to resistance of the pathogen to antimalarial drugs. Aloe percrassa Tod is an indigenous species of Ethiopia traditionally used for the treatment of malaria, wounds and gastric problems. The present study focused on isolation and characterization of antiplasmodial constituents from the latex of A. percrassa using Peter’s 4-day suppressive test. After a four day treatment of Plasmodium berghei infected mice with the latex at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg/day, chemosuppression of 45.9%, 56.8% and 73.6% was observed, respectively. Further phytochemical examination of the latex by preparative TLC over silica gel resulted in the isolation of two anthrones, viz. aloin A/B and microdontin A/B, whose structures were determined on the basis of UV, MS, 1H, and 13C NMR spectral data. Antimalarial activities of both aloin A/B and microdontin A/B were lower than that of the latex suggesting that the two compounds may have acted synergistically. No adverse sign of toxicity and mortality was observed in mice within the first 24 h as well as for the following 14 days after the test substances were orally administrated up to a dose of 2 g/kg for the pure compounds and 5 g/kg for the latex. The strong antimalarial activities coupled with a relative safety of the leaf latex and isolated compounds of A. percrassa may confirm the claim by traditional practitioners for the use of the plant against malaria infection.

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Tesfaye Gebreyohannis , Workineh Shibeshi , Kaleab Asres

Abstract

In Ethiopia the leaves of Caylusea abyssinica (Fresen.) Fisch.&Mey. (Family: Resedaceae) are used as a cooked vegetable and also for the management of diabetes mellitus in folk medicine. The present study was carried out to investigate effects of solvent fractions of the leaves of C. abyssinica on Blood Glucose Levels (BGLs) of normoglycemic, glucose loaded and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rodents. Solvent fractions were prepared by successive extraction of the leaves in a soxhlet apparatus with chloroform and methanol, and then further maceration of the marc left with distilled water. Phytochemical analysis indicated presence of alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, tannins, reducing sugars and steroids. Acute toxicity test showed that all the fractions were safe at doses of up to 2 g/kg. Whilst only the methanol fraction at a dose of 300 mg/kg produced significant hypoglycemic effect 4 h after treatment, both the methanol and aqueous fractions significantly decreased BGL of glucose loaded and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rodents. A reduction of 55.37% (p<0.05) and 59.54% (p<0.001) in BGL was observed within 2 h of oral glucose tolerance test by 200 and 300 mg/kg of the methanol fraction, respectively. The same fraction at doses of 200 and 300 mg/kg reduced BGL by 80.24% (p<0.001) and 81.05% (p<0.001), respectively, whereas the aqueous fraction at a dose of 300 mg/kg lowered BGL by 55.33%. It was therefore concluded that the reputed application of C. abyssinica leaves for the management of diabetes in traditional medical practice is well founded.

Keywords

Antidiabetic Activity, Caylusea abyssinica Leaves, Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes, Hypoglycemia, Blood Glucose Level, Rodenta.

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