Antimalarial And Antibacterial Activities Of Selected Local Medicinal Plants

Search for natural products that can be developed into drugs for treatment of tropical diseases such as malaria, has been encouraged by the use of medicinal plants. In this study we screened plants collected randomly from different parts of Sudan. A total of 26 plant-extracts belonging to 17 genera and 11 families were screened for their antimalarial activity. They were tested in vitroagainst Plasmodium falciparumstrain F32 (chloroquine-sensitive). Plant material was extracted using solvents of increasing polarity. The extraction was conducted using shaker apparatus. The results of the in vitrotest showed that extracts of 9 different plants had siginficantsantiplasmodial activity against Plasmodium falciparum, while the others didn’t show any activity. Among all extracts, 3 showed an IC50below 10 µg/ml and 3 exhibited an IC50 value of 10 – 35 µg/ml. One of the most active extracts Xanthium brasilicumbelonging to the family Asteraceae, collected from Khartoum state was also tested against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and showed to have an anti-bacterial activity as well. The plants exhibiting high antimalarial activity were phytochemically screened. Different fractions of the crude extract of X. brasilicumwere collected by using different chromatographic technique like, column chromatography, thin layer chromatography and preparative thin layer chromatograph