title: Both plants Sebastiania chamaelea from Niger and Chrozophora senegalensis from Senegal used in African traditional medicine in malaria treatment share a same active principle.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Based on ethnobotanical data obtained from Nigerien and Senegalese traditional healers, two Euphorbiaceae plants, Sebastiania chamaelea and Chrozophora senegalensis, traditionally used to treat malaria, were selected for further investigations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Plant extracts were prepared with different solvents and tested both in vitro on several strains of Plasmodium falciparum, and in vivo to evaluate their antiplasmodial properties and isolate their active principles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With IC50 values around 6.5µg/ml and no significant cytotoxicity (>50µg/ml), the whole plant aqueous extract from S. chamaelea showed the best in vitro results. In vitro potentiation assays showed strong synergistic activity of S. chamaelea extract with the antiplasmodial drug chloroquine on the chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum strain W2-Indochina. In other respects, the aqueous crude extract of C. senegalensis leaves showed the most significant antiplasmodial activity in vitro (IC50 values less than 2µg/ml). We also demonstrated the prophylactic activity of C. senegalensis in vivo in a murine malaria model. Bioassay-guided fractionation of aqueous extracts of these plants enabled the isolation and identification of ellagic acid (EA, 1) as the main compound responsible for their antiplasmodial activity. Together with EA, other derivatives belonging to different chemical groups were isolated but showed moderate antimalarial activity: gallic acid (2), brevifolin carboxylic acid (3), protocatechuic acid (4), corillagin (5), rutin (6) and 3,4,8,9,10-pentahydroxy-dibenzo(b,d)pyran-6-one (7). The structures were determined by the usual spectroscopic methods and by comparison with published data. Furthermore, we report here the quantification of compound 1 (EA) by RP-HPLC in the dried extracts of these plants, reported for the first time in both these species, and possessing the highest in vitro antiplasmodial activity with IC50 values from 180 to 330nm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These in vitro and in vivo results support the traditional use in Africa of crude extracts of both S. chamaelea and C. senegalensis as an antimalarial treatment and prove the significant antiplasmodial property of EA.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France. Electronic address: concepcion.garcia@cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: M-C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Garcia-Alvarez
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moussa
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Njomnang Soh
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nongonierma
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abdoulaye
authors.forename: M-L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Nicolau-Travers
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fabre
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wdzieczak-Bakala
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahond
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poupat
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikhiri
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Benoit-Vical
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004610:Ellagic Acid / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019665:Euphorbiaceae / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D061307:Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000469:parasitology; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000469:parasitology; D016488:Medicine, African Traditional; D051379:Mice; D009548:Niger; D021261:Parasitic Sensitivity Tests; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000187:drug effects*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000187:drug effects; D012675:Senegal
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D010936:Plant Extracts; D004610:Ellagic Acid
keywords: Antimalarial drug; Ellagic acid; Euphorbiaceae; Plasmodium; Traditional medicine