Sanket Soni, Sarita Gupta
Sep 30, 2009
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0
Influential Citations
23
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
American Journal of Infectious Diseases
Abstract
Problem statement: Malaria is a prevalent disease in India. The proble m of drug resistance is worsening. Hence, new effective and a ffordable antimalarial drugs are very much needed. The long-established use of quinine and the more re cent introduction of artemisinin as highly effectiv e anti malarials demonstrate that plant species are a n important resource for the discovery of new anti malarial agents. Approach: Majority of the plants belonging to Gentianaceae fa mily were proven as good antimalarials containing swertiamarin as a com mon marker. Enicostemma littorale (Gentianaceae) is also known from traditional knowl edge for treatment of visham jwara and is rich in swertiamarin amongst all of the plants belonging to same family. In view of this, initial screening ha d been undertaken. Our laboratory had also been worki ng on the same for its antidiabetic activity. Results: This was first report to demonstrate anti plasmodi al activity of Enicostemma littorale (Gentianaceae) against Plasmodium falciparum . Methanolic extract of plant and swertiamarin isol ated from it showed promising results in vitro in schizont maturation inhibition assay having IC 50 of 529.045 and 12 µg mL -1 respectively. We also reported a simple and rapid method for isolation of swertiamarin which was applicable at commercial scale. Conclusion: The present study represented the potential antimalarial action of plant and its active phytoconstituent, may give new lead to researchers in field of antimalarial drug discovery .