Comparative Anti-plasmodial and Cytotoxic Effect of the Methanolic Extracts of Leaves, Stem Bark and Roots of Annickia affinis

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the in vitro anti-plasmodial and cytotoxic effect of the methanolic extracts from leaves, stem bark and roots of Annickia affinis.

Study Design: This is an experimental study.

Place and Duration of Study: The work was conducted at the Pharmacochemistry and Natural Substances Laboratories of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala for the extraction and at the Biomedical Chemistry Research Center of Rhodes University in South Africa for the antimalarial and cytotoxic essay. All the experiments were carried out from the 15th October 2019 to the 31th July 2020.

Methodology: The anti-plasmodial test was performed on Plasmodium falciparum sensitive strains 3D7 while cytotoxicity was evaluated on the HeLa cell line.

Results: The anti-plasmodial tests revealed that the roots and the stem bark exhibited a moderate anti-plasmodial effect with IC50 of 19.7 ± 0.8 and 12.1 ± 0.8 µg/ml respectively. The anti-plasmodial effects of the leaves were classified as low (33.7 ± 1.9 µg/ml). At up to 50 µg/ml, all the extracts showed a high rate of survival among the HeLa cells. No effect was observed with the leaf extracts (100% of survival).

Conclusion: This is the first report on the cytotoxic study and comparative anti-plasmodial effect of Annikia affinis. It highlights the potential of Annickia affinis as an important source of anti-plasmodial drugs with less cytotoxic in vitro. In agreement with the use in traditional medicine, the stem bark was more active than wood, while leaves showed low activity.