title: In vitro antiplasmodial activity and cytotoxicity of ethnobotanically selected South African plants.
abstract: The resistance of Plasmodium spp. to currently used drugs has become a serious problem and efforts are being directed in obtaining new drugs with different structural features. One option favoured is the search for new plant derived antimalarial drugs. Bark and leaves of 20 extracts from 14 South African plant species were tested for in vitro antiplasmodial activity by means of the flow cytometric test. The most active extract of each species giving more than 70% inhibition at 50 microg/ml was selected for determination of IC(50) values. Two extracts had IC(50) values below 2 microg/ml, another seven had IC(50) values between 2 and 5 microg/ml while one had an IC(50) of 10.1 microg/ml. Chloroquine had an IC(50) of 0.043 microg/ml. Cytotoxicities of the five most active extracts at 50 microg/ml were determined with the monkey kidney cell toxicity test and the ID(50) values ranged between 35 and 100 microg/ml.
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 2002, South Africa.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Prozesky
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Louw
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D003603:Cytotoxins / Q000633:toxicity; D019448:Ethnobotany; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D000882:Haplorhini; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D007668:Kidney / Q000187:drug effects*; D016488:Medicine, African Traditional; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D018514:Plant Structures / Q000633:toxicity; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000187:drug effects*; D013019:South Africa
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D003603:Cytotoxins; D010936:Plant Extracts