Malaria treatment with plants remedies in Kinshasa

Auteur(s): Kayembe Sungula Jean
Nom de la revue/Journal: Congo Sciences
Mois: décembre
Volume: 5
Numéro: 1
Année: 2017
pages: 188 - 195

Résumé

ABSTRACT Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in sub Saharan Africa. In Kinshasa, the capital of D.R. Congo, malaria is more prevalent in peripheral rural poor communes. A survey carried out in eastern peripheral area of Kinshasa on plant remedies used to treat malaria and fever revealed a total of 55 plants species distributed in 36 families; the most represented are Euphorbiaceae and Rubiaceae. Eight plants most used, C. occidentalis, C. papaya, C. citratus, G.kola, L. camara, O. gratissimum, P.niruriand V. amygdalina were submitted to clinical investigations according to the traditional healer’s protocol. The recovery from malaria of voluntary patients range from 97 to 67 %. Biochemical tests on patients under treatment showed no toxicity of the recipes taken according to the dose and the duration proposed by the traditional healer. In vitro antimalarial activity of crude ethanolic extracts of those eight plants showed at 12,5 μg/mL an inhibition of P. falciparum ranging from 100 % for O. gratissimum to 0 % for V. amygdalina.Some secondary metabolites, terpenes, quinones, flavonoids and alkaloids of some of those plants extracts isolated showed an IC50 below 0.5 μg/mL, a clear indication of a significant antimalarial activities of those metabolites.In the butanolic fraction of O. basiculum, 4 phenylpropanoids: basicorhammanoside, basicoglycoside, basidicoglycoside A and basicodiglycoside B were isolated and characterized. They were found to have potent antimalarial activity (IC50 2.36 to 9.50). Traditional plants recipes used to treat malaria are effective under the conditions recommended by the traditional healer and possess potent antimalarial molecules. This study approach is an important pathway to follow in search of for novel antimalarial molecules