Antimalarial potential of extracts and isolated compounds from four species of genus Ammannia

• Published in: Medicinal chemistry research Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 870 - 876
• Main Authors: Upadhyay, Harish C., Sisodia, Brijesh S., Agrawal, Jyoti, Pal, Anirban, Darokar, Mahendra P., Srivastava, Santosh K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2014
• Subjects: Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cell Biology; Original Research; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Antiplasmodial; Antimalarial; Lythraceae; Selectivity index
• ISSN: 1054-2523; 1554-8120
• DOI: 10.1007/s00044-013-0682-5

The plants of genus Ammannia (Lythraceae) are being frequently used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine to cure various diseases. The present study was designed to investigate the antimalarial potential of extracts and compounds from four species of genus Ammannia viz., A. multiflora , A. baccifera , A. verticillata , and A. coccinea. Properly dried and milled samples comprising of various plant parts were separately extracted with methanol and the extracts were fractionated with n -hexane, chloroform, and n -butanol. The chloroform (BR2), n -butanol (BR3) fractions of A. baccifera roots and methanol extract of A. coccinea (AC) showed potent in vitro antiplasmodial activity against Plasmodium falciparum NF-54 (IC 50 3.5, 2.7, and 4.5 μg/ml, respectively) with nontoxicity to Vero cells as evident from their high selectivity index (>57.41, >74.07, and >44.44, respectively). Apart from these, 11 extracts/fractions possessed significant (IC 50 14.5–40.2 μg/ml) antiplasmodial potential; most of which were nontoxic to Vero cells. The methanol extracts of A. verticillata aerial parts (VL) and AC, n -butanol fraction of A. multiflora (AM3) were evaluated for in vivo activity against rodent malaria parasite P. berghei , which showed percentage chemosuppression of parasitaemia in mice by 98.99, 63.33, and 60.00 %, respectively. The detailed phytochemical investigation of A. multiflora and A. baccifera afforded a total of 11 compounds; among them 4-hydroxy-α-tetralone, tetralone-4- O -β- d -glucopyranoside, and ammaniol exhibited moderate antiplasmodial activities (IC 50 31.5, 36.1, and 22.6 μg/ml, respectively). Due to high degree of selective antiplasmodial activity, these plants may find their use in antimalarial phytopharmaceuticals as well as in the development and discovery of safer and novel antimalarial leads.