ABSTRACT
Herbs constitute an integral part of
human health therefore; they are used for the treatment of several
diseases. One of such popular herbal plant is Phyllanthus amarus. This
herb has been in traditional medicine for over 3,000 years and has,
thus, served as a lead for several experimental investigations that
explored its phytochemical constituents and pharmalogical uses of herbs.
So, this present study, investigates the correlation between serum
levels of homocysteine and malondialdehyde in malaria infected mice
treated with seed and stem extracts of Phyllanthus amarus. Thirty (30)
adult Swiss albino mice (22-27g) body weight were procured and randomly
divided into six groups (n=5/groups) for the study. Group 1: Positive
Control (given distilled water); Group 2: Negative Control (infected
with Plasmodium Berghei); Group 3: Experimental 1 (administered 150
mg/kg/d of seed and stem extracts); Group 4: Experimental 2
(administered 300 mg/kg/d of seed and stem extracts); Group 5:
Experimental 3 (administered 450 mg/kg/d of seed and stem extracts), and
Group 6: Standard (administered Chloroquine 5 mg/kg/d). Each group was
treated for 7days afterwhich the animals were sacrificed under
chloroform anaesthesia following an overnight fast. Whole blood was
collected into an anticoagulant container and prepared for biochemical
assay of homocysteine and malondialdehyde serum levels using standard
methods. Results show that there was correlation between the serum
levels of homocysteine and malondialdehyde in malaria infected mice
treated with Phyllanthus amarus ethanolic seed and stem extracts, with
the following correlations for seed and stem extract analysis
respectively i.e Group 1 (r= 1.0 and 0.3), Group 2(0.1 and 0.1), Group
3(0.3 and 0.7), Group 4(-0.6 and 0.9), Group 5(-1.0 and 0.6), and Group
6(0.6 and 0.9). Also, there was significant reduction (p<0.05) on the
levels of homocysteine and malondialdehyde when the seed and stem
extracts where administered at 150 mg/kg/d (35.7 ± 2.5 µM, 34.2 ± 2.9
µM; 42 ± 6.5 µM, 25.7 ± 0.9 µM), 300 mg/kg/d (35.8 ± 2.6 µM, 37.6 ± 1.9
µM; 46.3 ± 2.9 µM, 25.3 ± 2.9 µM) and 450 mg/kg/d (35.7 ± 1.7 µM, 37.6 ±
2.1 µM; 46.3 ± 3.1 µM, 26.3 ± 2.9 µM) when compared with the control
mice; positive control (17.4 ± 5.4, 37.5 ± 3.3; 38 ± 2.9, 35.7 ± 4.8
µM) negative control (64.3 ± 4.7; 65.8 ± 11.3 µM), values represented
for homocysteine seed and stem, and malondialdehyde seed and stem
respectively. The active chemicals responsible for this beneficial
observation need to be identified and purified for further study.