ANTIPLASMODIAL ACTIVITY OF Cleome viscosa (L.) AGAINST CHLOROQUINE SENSITIVE Plasmodium falciparum (3D7 STRAIN) AND CHLOROQUINE SENSITIVE Plasmodium berghei (ANKA)

Background: Malaria is a deadly parasitic disease, caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. An estimated 228 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide. Most malaria cases in 2018 were in African Region (93%), followed by South-East Asia Region with 3.4% of the cases and the Eastern Mediterranean Region with 2.1%. The spreading and development of resistance is a great problem to malaria treatment and control. So the plant based formulations are an alternative source for development of new drugs for the treatment of malaria. Hence, the present study was aimed to evaluate the antiplasmodial activity of the plant Cleome viscosa.

Methods: The collected plant parts were washed with tap water and dried in shade under laboratory condition. The crude extracts were extracted through soxhlet apparatus, the residues were concentrated in rotary vacuum evaporator. The parasites were cultured in RPMI medium supplemented with O+ serum in 96-well plate. The THP-1 cell lines were also cultured in RPMI medium in 96-well plate. In vivo studies were conducted in BALB/c albino mice.

Results: Of all the extracts, the ethyl acetate extract of leaves of C. viscosa had excellent antimalarial activity with IC50 value of 7 µg/ml. During cytotoxicity evaluation of crude extracts, none of the extracts had shown cytotoxicity on THP-1 cell line. The in vivo study has revealed that the ethyl acetate leaf extract of C. viscosa displayed a very good activity against Plasmodium berghei.

Conclusion: The ethyl acetate leaf extract of C. viscosa was found to be a good source for the development of new medicine or drug for the treatment of drug resistant malaria. Thus, further research is needed to characterize the bioactive molecules of the extracts of C. viscosa that are responsible for inhibition of malaria parasite.