European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ANTI-PLASMODIAL EFFECT OF LUPEOL ISOLATED FROM THE STEM BARK OF DIOSPYROS MESPILIFORMIS (HOSTCH.)

Nafisatu A. Muhammad, *Oumar A. Adoum, Ado Yusuf and Yusuf Hassan

ABSTRACT

The stem bark of Diospyros mespiliformis was air dried, ground and soaked in ethanol. The ethanol extract was macerated sequentially using n-Hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate, methanol and water. The resulting fractions were assayed against Plasmodium falciparum using thin smear method. All the fractions of D. mespiliformis were found active against the malaria parasite at 5000, 2000, 1000, and 500μg/ml with percentage elimination of 91.7, 84.7, 81.9 and 73.6 respectively. The bioactivity-guided column fractionation of the ethanol extract of stem- bark of Diospyros mespiliformis led to the isolation of compound Dp-01-1A, a white solid with solvent system CHCl3/EtOAC (7:3) and Rf value 0.91. The spectral analyses of IR, 1H, 13C and Dept NMR revealed the compound as Lupeol, a pentacyclic triterpenoid which shows high anti-plasmodial activity (84.4%, 78.1% and 68.8%) at 1000, 100 and 10μg/ml respectively. The results supporting the popular use of the plant in treating malaria fever in Kano State of Nigeria.

Keywords: Anti-plasmodial, Lupeol, Stem-bark, D. mespiliformis.