BERGHEI IN THE LIVER OF INFECTED ALBINO MICE

The effect of di-herbal mixture of Alstonia boonei and Annona Squamosa (two plants traditionally used in the treatment of malaria) on histopathological damages caused by plasmodium berghei on the liver of infected mice was studied. Mice of both sexes (n = 30), weighing between 24 – 36g were inoculated with Chloroquine sensitive Plasmodium berghei infected erythrocytes, each mouse receiving about 1 x 107P. berghei parasites. 72 hours after parasite inoculation, the animals were randomly distributed into five treatment groups, A – E (n = 5 each). Group A – C were treated with the herbal mixture at respective doses of 400mg/kg, 600mg/kg and 800mg/kg while groups D and E received 5mg/kg chloroquine and 5ml/kg normal saline respectively. Treatments lasted for five days. On the sixth day, the mice were sacrificed and liver samples fixed in 4 % formaldehyde for histological study adopting H & E staining procedure. Animals treated with the herbal preparation showed relatively normal liver histological features similar to that of the animals treated with the standard drug (chloroquine). The untreated animals however, showed severe distortion of the hepatocytes with marked necrosis. These findings thus support the combination of the two herbs for higher synergistic antimalarial effect