Evaluation of the inhibitory activities of the extracts of Indonesian traditional medicinal plants against Plasmodium falciparum and Babesia gibsoni

Twenty-four kinds of water extracts derived from 22 plants that are traditionally used for the treatment of malaria on Java Island, Indonesia, were screened for their antibabesial and antimalarial activities. Among the extracts, 8 extracts displayed strong antimalarial activity, with an inhibition range from 89.6 to 100%, and 15 showed strong antibabesial activity, with an inhibition range from 84.2 to 98.1%. The extracts of Achillea millefolium, Baeckea frutenscens, Brucea javanica, Curcuma xanthorrhiza, Strychnos lucida and Swietenia macrophylla showed both strong antibabesial and antimalarial activities. The antimalarial activities paralleled the antibabesial activities, but the converse was not true.     

Antibabesial activity of protoberberine alkaloids and 20-hydroxyecdysone from Arcangelisia flava against Babesia gibsoni in culture

Bioassay-guided fractionation of the boiled extract from the stems of Arcangelisia flava led to the isolation of palmatine (1), berberine (2), jatrorrhizine (3), dihydroberberine (4) and 20-hydroxyecdysone (5). The chemical structures of these compounds were elucidated on the basis of their chemical and spectral evidence. The isolated compounds were evaluated for their growth inhibiting effects on Babesia gibsoni in culture for a week. Compounds (1-4) showed significant inhibitions at concentrations from 100 to 1.0 microg/ml, while compound 5 at a concentration of 100 microg/ml, only.     

Effects of Central Kalimantan plant extracts on intraerythrocytic Babesia gibsoni in culture

The inhibitory effects of 45 plant extracts selected from Central Kalimantan, Indonesia on Babesia gibsoni in vitro and their acute toxicity to mice were evaluated. Of these plant extracts studied, Arcangelisia flava, Curcuma zedoaria, Garcinia benthamiana, Lansium domesticum and Peronema canescens were found to have appreciable antibabesial activity with IC50 values from 5.3 to 49.3 microg/ml without acute toxicity in mice at the intraperitoneal dose of 0.7 g/kg of body weight.