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Pharmacognosy 2018
American Journal of Ethnomedicine
ISSN: 2348-9502
Page 65
April 16-17, 2018
Amsterdam, Netherlands
6
th
Edition of International Conference on
Pharmacognosy and
Medicinal Plants
Preliminary phytochemical investigation on Mama powder—an
approved herbal antimalarial in Nigeria
Clement Olusoji Ajayi
1
, Anthony A Elujoba
2
and
Awodayo O Adepiti
2
1
Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda
2
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Statement of theProblem:
Malaria is an endemic disease inAfrica
where one out of four mortalities is reported regularly. Despite
the discovery of artemisinin-combination therapy (ACT), high
mortality rate persists due to chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium
falciparum; hence, there is a need for new antimalarial drugs.
A mixture of powdered Alstonia boonei De Wild (Apocynaceae)
stem-bark (A) and powdered Picralima nitida (Stapf) T. Durand
& H. Durand (Apocynaceae) seed (P), in the ratio 1:2 (Mama
powder), is an FDA-approved herbal antimalarial in Nigeria.
Hitherto, no phytochemical investigation on the mixture has been
reported; hence, a preliminary phytochemical investigation is
hereby communicated for the first time.
Methodology:
The two plant materials were collected from
their locations in Ile Ife, Nigeria, authenticated in IFE Herbarium,
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, oven-dried at 45˚C and
separately pulverized. The two powdered samples were used to
compose Mama powder as above, decocted in distilled water,
concentrated in vacuo at 60˚C and lyophilized. The lyophilized
crude extractive was re-constituted with distilled water and
partitioned with n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and
n-butanol. The resulting fractions were tested for antimalarial
activities orally on chloroquine-sensitive Plasmodium berghei-
infected mice at 13, 26 and 52 mg/kg with chloroquine (5 mg/kg)
as positive control.
Findings:
At 52 mg/kg, the n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl
acetate and n-butanol fractions gave chemosuppressive activities
of 78.8, 47.2, 85.4 and 64.9%, respectively while chloroquine (5
mg/kg) gave 88.5%.
Conclusion & Significance:
The highest activity was obtained
in the ethyl acetate fraction which is being further purified in
our laboratories in order to isolate and characterize the active
constituent(s) of Mama powder.
Figure 1:
Flow chart showing the preparation and antimalarial
evaluation of solvent-partitioned fractions obtained from Mama
powder decoction.
Recent Publications
1. Ajayi C O, Elujoba A A and Adepiti A O (2015)
Antiplasmodial properties of Alstonia boonei stem-bark
and Picralima nitida seed in different combinations.
Nigerian Journal of Natural Products and Medicines
19:71–77.
2. Adepiti A O, Elujoba A A and Bolaji O O (2014)
In
vivo
antimalarial evaluation of mama decoction on
Plasmodium berghei in mice. Parasitol Res. 113:505–
511.
3. Pulcini S, Staines H M, Pittman J K, Slavic K, Doerig C, et
al. (2013) Expression in yeast links field polymorphisms
in PfATP6 to
in vitro
artemisinin resistance and identifies
new inhibitor classes. Journal of Infectious Diseases
208(3):468–478.
4.
Clement Olusoji Ajayi et al., Am J Ethnomed 2018, Volume 5
DOI: 10.21767/2348-9502-C1-006