Background: A great revival of scientific interests in drug discovery has been witnessed in recent years from medicinal plants for health maintenance.
The aim of this work was to investigate three Nigerian medicinal plants collected in Nigeria for their
in vitro antiplasmodial and antimicrobial
activities.
Materials and Methods: Extracts obtained from parts of
Persea americana
,
Jatropha podagrica
and
Picralima nitida and their fractions were
evaluated for
in vitro antiprotozoal and antimicrobial activity.
Result: The methanol extract of
P. nitida demonstrated activity against chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant
P. falciparum clones with IC
50
values of 6.3 and 6.0 μg/mL, respectively. Methanol and chloroform extracts of
P. americana seed showed antifungal activity against
Cryptococcus
neoformans
IC
50 less than 8 and 8.211 μg/mL respectively. Finally, the petroleum ether extract of
P. americana had activity against methicillinresistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) with an IC
50 value of 8.7 μg/mL.
Conclusion: The study revealed the antibacterial and antiplasmodial activities of the plants extracts at the tested concentrations.
