Knowledge of traditional medical practitioners in Osun State, Nigeria, about herbal antimalarials: a survey and in vivo evaluation of selected plants in mice
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Abstract
Background: Traditional medical practitioners (TMPs) are persons accepted in a community as capable of providing health care using plants, minerals and animal parts. Knowledge of type of herbs and methods of preparation from TMPs, usually passed verbally from one generation to the next, may become lost if not documented.
Objectives: This study investigated the extent of knowledge of TMPs on the use of antimalarial plants and herbal interactions with a view to documenting and investigating their indigenous knowledge.
Methods: One hundred TMPs from Ilesha and Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria, were interviewed using a 26-item, semistructured questionnaire. Subsequently, leaves of Ficus exasperata, Alstonia boonei, Azadirachta indica and Morinda lucida, with potentials for herbal interactions, were collected. Ficus was macerated in methanol while decoctions of Alstonia, Azadirachta and Morinda were freeze-dried. Anti-malarial evaluation was carried out with the chemosuppressive test model: first, Ficus (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) was orally administered to chloroquine-sensitive Plasmodium berghei-infected mice. Then, evaluation of Ficus combined with each of Alstonia, Azadirachta and Morinda (200 mg/kg each). Chloroquine (10mg/kg) and between 80 (3%) served as positive and negative controls, respectively.
Results: Majority (97%) of the TMPs recommended combination of plants for the treatment of malaria. Many suggested that Ficus should not be used with any antimalarial plant. However, the activities of these antimalarial plants were not significantly (p>0.05) different from when combined with Ficus.
Conclusion: The study concluded that these TMPs had a good knowledge of herb-herb interaction and Ficus had no effect on the antimalarial activities of Alstonia, Azadirachta and Morinda combinations.
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