Authors

A Atinga¹; S Hickson²; B Philemon³;  ¹ Department of Zoology Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola, Nigeria;  ² Department of Biological Science College of Education Hong, Adamawa State, Nigeria, Nigeria;  ³ Department of Public Health Taraba state University, Taraba, Nigeria, Nigeria

Discussion

ABSTRACT
Background: Current chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of African trypanosomiasis have become largely ineffective, necessitating the search for alternative compounds. The objective of this study was to evaluate in vitro anti-trypanosomal activities of methanol extracts of the leaf of Ficus thonningii against Trypanosoma brucei brucei and establish the in vivo efficacy of the most active extract.

 Materials and methods: Maceration of powdered leaf of the plant in methanol afforded three extracts. In vitro assays were carried out with the extracts on the three trypanosome strains in 96-well microtitre plates at concentration ranges of 4000 - 1000μg/ml. The most active extract was assayed in vivo using Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense infected Swiss albino mice at doses of 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg body weight. Diminazene aceturate served as positive control. The infected untreated group served as the negative control. Parasitaemia levels, packed cell volume, body weight changes and mean survival period of all groups were monitored throughout the experimental period.

Results: In vitro assessment of trypanosomal activity on incubating 100μl of blood containing parasites with 100μl of extract solution (1 to 10mg/ml) to produce an effective test concentration of 10 to 0.265mg/ml serially diluted. It was observed that the extract eliminated the parasites within 5 min post incubation at 20 and 40 minutes there was a statistically significant (p< 0.05) difference in the mean trypanosome count between the control wells and the extract containing wells. It has the capacity to clear the parasites only at60 minutes. The in vivo activity treat mice experimentally infected with T. brucei brucei at concentrations of 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg body weight, beginning 4 days post infection (p.i). At the termination of the experiment on day 7 p.i, the stem bark methanolic extract significantly (P < 0.05) kept the parasitaemia lower than was observed in the untreated infected mice, whereas the parasites were eliminated from the bloodstream of Diminazene aceturate-treated mice at day 7 p.i. All the infected animals developed anaemia whose severity could not be ameliorated by the extract treatment.

Conclusion: It was therefore concluded that the leaf methanolic extract of T. brucei brucei possessed both in-vitro and -vivo anti-T. brucei brucei activity. This study established that leaf of F. thonningii possess antitrypanosomal potential which is dose dependent. It is therefore recommended that more research on ethno-botanic medicine should be encouraged and treatment options employed in the treatment of tropical diseases caused by trypanosomes.

Keywords: Trypanosoma, Ficus thonningii, Diminazene aceturate, Anti-trypanosomal, trypanosomiasis