Erythropoietic and Hepatoprotective Potential of Ethanolic Extract of Nauclea latifolia in Mice Infected with Plasmodium berghei berghei

Innocent A. Edagha^1, , Inyang A. Atting², Rosemary B. Bassey¹, Enobong I. Bassey¹ and Sediongde J. Ukpe¹

¹Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria

²Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Uyo, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo, Nigeria

Cite this paper:
Innocent A. Edagha, Inyang A. Atting, Rosemary B. Bassey, Enobong I. Bassey and Sediongde J. Ukpe. Erythropoietic and Hepatoprotective Potential of Ethanolic Extract of Nauclea latifolia in Mice Infected with Plasmodium berghei berghei. American Journal of Medical Sciences and Medicine. 2014; 2(1):7-12. doi: 10.12691/ajmsm-2-1-2

Abstract

Nauclea latifolia (NL) is widely used as decoctions or concoctions by indigenous tribes in Africa, particularly in Nigeria where it has been reported for its antiplasmodial activities among other properties. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of ethanolic extracts of the leaves on the haematological parameters and histomorphology of the liver of male Swiss albino mice infected with Plasmodium berghei berghei (Pbb). Thirty five mice weighing about 28g were divided into seven groups of five mice each. Group 1(control) was given normal saline 0.3 ml, Group 2 was passaged with Pbb, Group 3 was passaged with Pbb and treated with Coartem®, Group 4 was administered NL500mg/kg only, Group 5 was administered NL1000mg/kg only, Group 6 was passaged with Pbb then treated with NL500mg/kg, while Group 7 was passaged with Pbb then treated with NL1000mg/kg. Pbb was passaged intraperitoneally, while the test drug and extracts was given via orogavage once daily. On the 12^th day, animals were humanely sacrificed; whole blood collected for haematological investigation, while the liver was processed for light microscopy. The result revealed that the extract exhibited a hepatoprotective and reversibility effects at a dose dependent level on the histological architecture of treated groups administered compared with the control, and also caused a significant (P < 0.001) reduction in the RBC parameters in a dose dependent manner especially in non-parasitized mice. In conclusion, acute toxicity test of ethanolic extract of Nauclea latifolia up to 5000mg/kg may be considered as relatively safe if mortality alone is the yardstick. However, at a dose of 1000mg/kg, it is severely hepatoxic in non-parasitized mice, yet the extract at 500mg/kg had beneficial effects in both the haematological indices and liver cytoarchitecture of parasitized host via a possible synergistic mechanism of its rich bioactive ingredients comparable with Coartem^®.

Keywords:
malariaNauclea latifolia Plasmodium berghei liver haematology

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