Antihemolytic Properties of Extracts of Six Plants Used in the Traditional Treatment of Sickle Cell Disease in Benin.

This study is focused on the in vitro evaluation of the hemolysis inhibitory activity of aqueous extracts of six plants used in the traditional treatment of sickle cell disease in Benin: Morinda lucida, Uvaria chamae, Lonchocarpus cyanescens, Croton zambesicus, Raphiostylis beninensis and Xylopia aethiopica. AS and SS red blood cells are subjected to hyposmotic impact with decreasing concentrations of NaCl solution. All the aqueous extracts of the six plants showed a better contribution in erythrocyte osmotic resistance from the concentration of 5 mg/mL to 1 mg/mL, except the extract at 5 mg/mL of Raphiostylis beninensis that caused hemolysis of both red blood cells AS and SS. The extract at 1 mg/mL of Raphiostylis beninensis and the extracts at 5mg/mL of Xylopia aethiopica and Croton zambesicus showed a high hemolysis inhibition of red blood cells AS and SS. The extracts of Lonchocarpus cyanescens showed moderate hemolysis inhibition of SS red blood cells while extracts of Uvaria chamae inhibited highly the hemolysis of AS red blood cells. As for the roots of Morinda lucida, only the extract at 5mg/mL highly inhibited the hemolysis of the AS red blood cells. This protocol seems appropriate to work with both AS and SS blood because the comparative effects of each tested extract on hemolysis of AS and SS blood showed a good correlation coefficient of Pearson (1 or -1). All the plants tested in this work showed, at different doses, an in vitro antisickling effect and this explains partially their use in the traditional treatment of sickle cell disease.