G.C – MS ANALYSIS AND IN VIVO ANTIMALARIAL CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC ACTIVITY OF OIL ISOLATED FROM EUPHORBIA HIRTA (CAT’S HAIR)L

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the in vivo antimalarial activity of Euphorbia hirta used by rural dwellers in Edo State, Nigeria. Euphorbia hirta (Cat’s hair) L, Family- Euphorbiaceae, whole  plant were collected, dried, pulverised and extracted with methanol solvent in a soxhlet extractor. The extract was concentrated with rotary evaporator and partitioned with methanol: hexane: water (3:6:1).The hexane fraction was used to isolate the oil with vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC).GC-MS was used to characterised the constituents of the oil, acute toxicity test was determined to estimate the lethal dose (LD50)  value of the extract in  balb/c  albino mice. Chemo suppressive activities were conducted along with quinine to determine the antimalarial potency of the oil in Plasmodium –infected balb/c albino mice. From the GC-MS results 9-hexadecenal was the major constituent indicated, LD50 of 44.67mg/kg/body weight of mice was interpolated from the linear regression graph and the chemo suppressive activities revealed that the isolated oil exhibit significant suppression (P<0.05) of Plasmodium falciparum which was evident by the 39.18% mean chemo suppression of malaria parasite at day 4 of treatment of P. falciparum –infected mice with 40mg/kg/day. This work corroborates the local use of the plant for the treatment of malaria. Keywords: Ephorbia hirta, GC-MS, antimalarial, Plasmodium falciparum, in vivo