Antiplasmodial potential of Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh

Abstract

Mangroves are enriched with various bioactive compounds is an inevitable fact. Almost all the mangroves exhibited good biological activities against human, animal and plant pathogens. In this study, the mangrove plant Avicennia marina is screened against Plasmodium falciparum. Avicennia marina (Forsk)Vierh. is an evergreen mangrove tree found along tropical and subtropical coastlines. It is well known for being antibacterial, anticancer, antioxidant, antidiabetic and antiviral also. Leaves collected from this plant are subjected to hot continuous extraction by soxhlet type of extraction. Nine types of solvents were chosen from polar to non-polar for crude extraction. Plasmodium falciparum (3D7) strain is cultured according to Trager and Jensen method (1976). Among the nine solvents, a polar solvent Ethyl acetate shows 50% inhibition towards Plasmodium falciparum at IC50 Value- 50.82 µg/ml. From this study, it is observed that ethyl acetate extract of the plant Avicennia marina has antiplasmodial action against Plasmodium falciparum, which led to the development of a new antiplasmodial medication.