Abstract

Malaria threatens the lives of more than one third of the world’s population; it is a major cause of human deaths. As a result of the emergence of resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum to common antimalarial drugs, the search for new antimalarial drugs is urgently needed. Hemozoin synthesis is an indispensable process for the parasite survival and is the target of action for several known antimalarial drugs. Sage, Salvia palaestina, is an aromatic Mediterranean plant. Its leaves have been used over centuries in Palestinian traditional medicine and are now being investigated for potential antimalarial activity. This study reveals the antimalarial activity of crude and HPLC separated fractions tested using two methods; the inhibition of ferriprotoporphyrin IX (FP) bio- mineralization: semi-quantitative micro-assay used by Deharo and a previously self-developed quantitative in vitro method. Reversed phase preparative liquid chromatography coupled to Photo Diode Array (PDA) detector was used to isolate and enrich eight fractions. Three fractions showed promising antimalarial activity. The crude alcoholic extract of sage leaves seems to have the potential of an antimalarial drug; it prevents β-hematin formation with an efficiency of about 72% when compared to the standard Chloroquine which gave 93% at comparable concentrations of chloroquine and extract.

Keywords:

Antimalarial drugs, &beta-Hematin, chloroquine, ferriprotoporphyrin (IX), hemozoin, Salvia palaestina,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.